Bluff Magazine reports (archive) that Bryan Micon of the defunct poker website Seals with Clubs was charged Monday with operating an unlicensed interactive gaming system for his part in the operation of SwC. The charge comes two months after operational security concerns forced the original SwC poker site offline citing operation security concerns by way of the Nevada Gaming Commission and their thugs who took a sledge hammer to Micon's front door.
Understandably shaken up by the ordeal and with concerns for the safety of his family, Micon told Poker News (archive) back in February that he and his family fled to Antigua. It's unknown at this time if that locality remains his current whereabouts and if the new charges were brought in his absence.
Despite Micon's claims that he was served a warrant from gaming commission agents back in February, the Bluff Magazine article reports a warrant for his arrest has now also been issued.
For now, it would appear that Micon remains undeterred in his attempts to make a success of the second iteration of his Bitcoin based poker site.
A press statement (archive) by Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt is available as well as the criminal complaint against Micon in PDF format.
This will be an interesting test case if it gets to trial, because either bitcoin is not "real-money" as defined in the statutes (which means it's open season for all bitcoin gaming operations) OR bitcoin is "real-money" in which case it sits alongside other recognized mainstream forms of sovereign currency in the law.
"Money laundering" is not restricted to money, but includes the trading valuable items (boats, cars, gold, etc.) for the same purpose. In the same way, I would think that the classification of bitcoin as money instead of commodity would not be relevant to gambling laws. A casino would have to comply with the relevant casino regulations, even if clients had to pay in gold or beaver furs. No?
For that matter, Obamatax is not a tax that's a tax. The US* space is interesting primarily to psychiatrists.