The long arm of the US law reached the long arm of the law in a poker raid on Thursday. The FBI busted a poker ring that was running in New York for some time, and found that some of those involved were police officers and fire fighters from the city. All in all, fifteen people were arraigned on federal gambling charges, including a New York City Police Department detective assigned to Brooklyn, a retired NYPD Sergeant and two active Brooklyn firefighters.

Between February 2010 and up until recent weeks, the 15 are suspected of sending text messages to gamblers and inviting them to four gambling parlor which they ran in Staten Island. They netted at least $2K a day in their activities. Some of the defendants acted as dealers, while others recruited players.

Action has been taken against the active policemen and firefighters. “We suspended the two members pending charges and it’s under investigation,” said police commissioner Ray Kelly and fire commissioner, Salvatore Cassano. “And as we get more information, as things work out, we’ll look at further disciplinary action if it’s warranted.” The active members were suspended without pay for 30 days.

The case has become particularly high profile because it deals with law enforcement officers and city employees. The FBI will want to make an example of these men and show that even policemen are not above the law. However, lawyers for the defendants argue that “it’s all allegations of playing poker, or playing cards.”

“That’s the bottom line,” noted one layer. “Nothing else.”

Another lawyer said: “I don’t understand the expenditure of resources just for a card game.”

Full Tilt Poker has been slow in making any statements to its players regarding the status of refunds ever since poker sites closed were on April 15, 2011. This last Friday, however, Full Tilt Poker contacted its American players to update them on the status of their refunds. It also updated its FAQ section on the website with more information relating to its US players.

While others sites that were involved in Black Friday, such as Poker Stars have already begun to issue refunds to their former players, Full Tilt Poker has remained largely quiet.

The email sent by Full Tilt Poker to its US players stated that Full Tilt Poker has experienced many challenges in the effort to ensure that its players would be able to receive the refunds owing to them as smoothly as possible. The administrators of the site now plan to direct their efforts into issuing the refunds.

Part of the statement read: “We apologize for the delay and the fact that we underestimated the time it would take to work through these issues.” Full Tilt Poker will begin its refund process by converting tournament tickets or tournament dollars into cash and crediting them to the player’s account.

According to the FAQ section of the website they also plan to refund all withdrawals that were never received or checks that were received, but could not be deposited. Ring game tickets will be converted to real money and all items not shipped from the Full Tilt Store will be refunded.

Dubbed Black Friday, April 15, 2011 was the day that the online poker world was thrown into turmoil. The US Southern District of New York issued indictments against three of the largest online poker rooms – Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars and Absolute Poker. Charges were brought against the three sites in the areas of violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, the operation of an illegal gambling business, money laundering and bank fraud. The US Department of Justice seized the domain names of the companies, but returned them to PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker when they guaranteed not to serve the US market any longer. Players are now waiting for full refunds to be completed.

The American Gaming Association reiterated its call to have the US government regulate and tax online gambling in the country. In a white paper released last week, entitled Online Gambling Five Years after UIGEA, the AGA said that events in the past month, beginning with Black Friday, could have a dangerous affect on the country’s billion dollar gambling industry and the government needs to step in to fill the void created.

“Americans like to gamble online. Millions of Americans bet billions of dollars a year at offshore foreign websites and have demonstrated that they will do so even if their government tells them not to,” said AGA President and Chief Executive Officer, Frank J. Fahrenkopf. “This report illustrates that the United States can and should establish a safe and regulated us poker website experience.”

The report shows that while online gambling numbers dipped in the United States after the introduction of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, US gamblers soon began online gambling in earnest and 15 million residents spent an eye-watering $4 billion last year. The report predicts that just as US gamblers recovered quickly from the UIGEA, so do will they bounce back after Black Friday.

The report shows that 10,000 new jobs could be created in the United States if current gambling laws change. In addition, $2 billion in annual taxes could be generated. “It is time that the U.S. government clarifies its laws on Internet gambling in the United States once and for all,” Fahrenkopf said. “Licensing and regulation of online poker in the U.S. would ensure American consumers are protected and that the jobs and revenues associated with this billion-dollar industry are realized here in the United States.”

The AGA also suggests an improvement of the UIGEA with the reinforcement of law enforcement tools and a state focused program to have US based operators licensed.