No Active Investigation Into Merge Poker Network by Baltimore

The Baltimore US Attorney’s Office is not actively pursuing the Merge Poker Network contrary to reports that surfaced on Thursday.  Merge Gaming has temporarily stopped accepting new US customers and is expected to re-enter the US market shortly.  They will not be accepting new customers from the state of Maryland upon resuming business in the US. 

The Baltimore Office was responsible for the seizure of several domain names belonging to online gambling websites back in May.  They also orchestrated an elaborate sting operation over a two year time frame by setting up their own payment solutions company, Linwood, which Gambling911.com has since learned was set up by one of the first individuals (a payment processor) named in the early stages of the Baltimore investigation nearly four years ago (see report here)

The May action also resulted in the shutdown of BetED.com while other businesses including two online poker sites continued to operate without skipping a beat.

The state of Maryland has a history of aggressively going after online gambling establishments, particularly those that process funds.  Popular payment solutions company Neteller was forced to shut down all Maryland accounts in 2004 after that state threatened legal action against them. 

The Baltimore US Attorney’s Office recently filed a civil forfeiture complaint for the forfeiture of the value of all e-metal accounts recorded and maintained by e-gold, Ltd (EGL ), which at one time conducted business with some Internet gambling establishments. 

- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher