Yesterday the department of Justice charged the owners of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker with bank fraud, illegal gambling offenses and money laundering. If you’re at all into gambling online, I don’t need to tell you how big this story is. Millions and millions of American dollars are currently frozen in bank accounts across the world.

“These defendants, knowing full well that their business with U.S. customers and U.S. banks was illegal, tried to stack the deck,” said Janice Fedarcyk, FBI assistant director-in-charge. “They lied to banks about the true nature of their business. Then, some of the defendants found banks willing to flout the law for a fee. The defendants bet the house that they could continue their scheme, and they lost.”

Love it when officials use puns to rub it in.

The story of how the people in charge got caught is a revenge tale. The future of online poker is in jeopardy. Or, maybe this is the government’s way of gently saying “we want our piece of the pie.” Or we’re just done with poker online forever in the USA.

[ESPN, Business Insider, LA Times]