Bitcoin Poker Website SealsWithClubs Shuts Down After Police Raid

[Jackie Moon]

Bryan Micon, professional poker player and chairman of the Bitcoin poker website “Seals with Clubs” had his Las Vegas home raided on February 11th, 2015. According to Bryan, in the video below, ‘several men’ with guns came into his home with full knowledge that he’s a peaceful, nonviolent family man and that his 2 year old child was in the house.

Ladies and gentleman, this is what a police state looks like. Here Micon’s version of the story:

It was the Nevada gaming commission, the gambling police, that terrorized the Micon family last week. Yes, this was terrorism, because not only was Micon not harming anyone by being the Chairman of Seals with Clubs but he wasn’t even charged with a crime. Now, thanks to these jack boot thugs, the Micon family has decided to leave the country, taking their productive family and business with them.

http://www.copblock.org/112490/seals...d-at-gunpoint/



I've been playing on SealsWithClubs daily for over two years, definitely sad to see it go. And I feel for Micon and his family, he is a good guy.

Part of statement from Seals management:

On approximately February 11th, 2015, several events occurred related to operational security that we consider to indicate SealsWithClubs now operates in a perpetual state of jeopardy.

All player funds and data remain intact and the issue was not software related. We do not believe any of our Bitcoin wallets used in operations to be compromised or lost. However, this event has made the majority vote of the ownership and team agree that shutting down operations is the best move for safety and security purposes.

Cliffnotes of story:

SealsWithClubs was the largest Bitcoin poker site. Micon was the site pro and lead marketer for the site. The actual owners were never publicly known.

On Feb 11th there was an unknown failure with the site's server in Romania and the site went down. The same day, Micon's house in Las Vegas was raided by the Nevada gaming commission. They seize all of his electronics, but let him go without charges.

The rest of the Seals management team decides that they don't want to continue.

For months they have been developing new software that was almost ready to launch. Micon decides to move to Antigua and relaunch "SwC Poker" using the new software.

And most important of all... none of the players bitcoins were in jeopardy and they are still processing withdrawals to players within hours.

On the one hand it's terrible that the casino's are able to send the NGC to swat their competition.

But on the other hand it's an example of what makes Bitcoin so amazing. You're able to store and transact money without using a bank account that can be seized. And when stored properly, the government isn't able to take your bitcoin even if they wanted to.

[muh_roads]

Bryon Micon is a nice guy. A smart guy. He exposed a lot of shady stuff related to BFL I believe. I'm sure the BTC is safe. A lot of these guys are prepared with remote wipe setups so the jackboots have very little to go on.

Sheldon Adelson is a piece of $#@! who I am sure was involved. His Vegas gaming commission he lobbied for is a legal mafia.

[Jackie Moon]

Yeah, he was one of the first to warn about and expose BFL and Josh Zerlan for what they were. Here's the video from a couple years ago when he went to the BFL booth at CES... Josh acts like a tool and Micon warns BitPay that they shouldn't share a booth with BFL.



For SealsWithClubs, I agree - I'm totally confident that they knew what they were doing regarding bitcoin and security. They were the longest running Bitcoin business to not lose their customer's bitcoin. They were around in the early days of Bitcoin and on BitcoinTalk you can see the founder "FreeMoney" in threads talking with Satoshi.

Also agree about Sheldon Adelson. Micon was pretty vocal about Adelson and about poker players boycotting his casinos. It seems like over and over again, on different issues that are important, Adelson is on the other side using his money and influence to fight against liberty.

[Crashland]

I had an account at SwC -- I didn't have any problems withdrawing my BTC after they shut down, it got processed in less than 24 hours.

[Jackie Moon]

Nice, I had wondered if/how many people here played there. I actually found out about them from a post here years ago.

My name there is EndTheFed, so I regularly got "Yeah, Ron Paul!" in chat. Was able to refer a lot of people back here too.

[patrioticpokerplayer]

Fwiw Seals has relaunched now (March 5) as 'SwCPoker'. Good news

My name there is EndTheFed, so I regularly got "Yeah, Ron Paul!" in chat. Was able to refer a lot of people back here too.

Haha nice sn, also seen you on 2+2 and believe I'm following you on twitter

[Working Poor]

I did not know there was bit coin poker....

[kpitcher]

I did not know there was bit coin poker....

I like cryptobetfair.com for the wheel spin and coin tumbler. Along with BTC and LTC they have a variety of alt coins. A fun way to use near worthless ones

[Jackie Moon]

I did not know there was bit coin poker....

Online poker is a great use case for bitcoin right now and both will help each other grow.

Currently sites have to spend a lot of money trying to get their transactions through banks without being labeled as "gambling". Deposits and withdrawals are slow, expensive, and risky.

With bitcoin they can accept money directly from players, without having to pay a credit card processor and without risk of chargebacks. And players get their withdrawals quickly, for free, and without risk of being denied by their bank.

Plus bitcoin only sites like SwC don't have to worry about governments being able to seize their bank accounts. As evidenced by what happened with SealsWithClubs - all of the player deposits were safe and returned in full.

Fwiw Seals has relaunched now (March 5) as 'SwCPoker'. Good news

Haha nice sn, also seen you on 2+2 and believe I'm following you on twitter

Oh cool, say hi some time if you see me at the tables... just don't take all of my money.

Yeah, SwCpoker is still up and running and it's actually a lot better than the original site. If anyone wants to try it out and has questions let me know. I was thinking of trying to set up a RPF freeroll or something in the future.

Unfortunately since last posted Micon has been charged by Nevada.

Bryan Micon was charged Monday with operating an unlicensed interactive gaming system by the State of Nevada, a Class B felony. The charge relates to his role with Seals With Clubs, an online poker site which used bitcoin for all financial transactions.

The complaint, filed in Clark County, alleges that between March 1, 2014 and February 15, 2015 Micon operated the site in violation of Nevada state law. Nevada is one of three U.S. states to offer regulated online poker. A warrant for Micon’s arrest was also issued.

If convicted Micon faces up to 10 years in prison and a $50,000 fine.

http://www.bluff.com/news/bryan-mico...-issued-65333/


The Nevada AG even had a whole press conference and made a big deal about it.



I think a lot of the reason behind it is politically motivated by guys like Sheldon Adelson, who owns casinos himself but is spending millions to fight online poker, and the other casino's in Vegas wanting to scare anyone who might be a potential competitor in the future.

Thankfully Micon is at least currently safe because he is not in Nevada anymore, but he has hired a good lawyer and said that he plans to fight it.

Whether you care about online poker or not... Micon is a good guy, a supporter of bitcoin and liberty, and there were no victims in this case.