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Update on Schuett Charges

Michael Olaf Schuett may be one of the first victims of the UIGEA if the case progresses far enough and authorities are able gather all of the charges against him for the illegal processing of gambling transactions between US players and offshore online casinos. The case first broke last month and the industry was put on edge as it seems that the US Department of Justice is really getting aggressive with its efforts to cut back on illegal processing – the more that the DoJ actively pursues prosecuting US facing companies, the less likely these same companies are to want to continue jumping through the hoops it takes to offer gambling to US players. In the Schuett case though, initial reactions may have been overblown and Schuett could face lesser charges than initially thought.

The key to the situation will be the interpretation of how the UIGEA interacts with state gambling laws. The saving grace for Schuett could be the fact that he only processed internet poker transactions rather than working with offshore online casinos. Internet poker is in a gray zone right now of legality, and since the activity is not expressly illegal in Florida laws, Schuett might be in the clear for some of the money laundering and other types of charges that he was initially facing. That being said, the authorities are not going to let this case rest that easily and Schuett is looking at a felony offense for not properly registering his business with the Florida Bureau of Financial Investigations.

Federal laws do not exist against internet poker, just the online casinos, so the weight of the case is now going to lie within the state charges implicated from failing to register his business correctly as well as any other charges that the investigators could possibly stir up.