Black Friday
Black Friday is April 15, 2011, when US authorities charged the largest online poker companies serving American players.
The simple explanation
Black Friday is the name for April 15, 2011, the day American prosecutors charged the owners of the biggest online poker sites that served US players. The sites' web addresses were seized, and players in the United States lost access to real-money games. It changed online poker in the US for years.
A closer look
The charges included bank fraud, money laundering and running illegal gambling businesses, and they named leaders of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker. PokerStars and Full Tilt blocked American players within hours. Later settlements dealt with returning player funds, and Full Tilt was eventually taken over. The event is the main reason that online poker in the United States is now regulated state by state.
A practical example
A player who had deposited on a poker site in April 2011 found that he could no longer play for real money there after Black Friday.
Full explanation
Black Friday is April 15, 2011, when US authorities charged the largest online poker companies serving American players.
Black Friday is the poker community’s name for April 15, 2011, when the US Department of Justice unsealed an indictment against the founders of three major online poker companies. They were accused of bank fraud, money laundering and breaking gambling laws.
The domains of the sites were seized, and American players who tried to log in saw a notice from the FBI. PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker stopped real-money play for US players.
In the weeks and years that followed, the companies reached settlements and player balances were handled in different ways. The case reshaped the industry and ended the period in which a few big sites served the American market.
Today online poker in the United States is regulated on a state-by-state basis.