GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 32 - June 2015

Nevada issues warrant for arrest of former Seals With Clubs chairman By Aaron Todd B ryanMicon, formerly the chairman of Seals With Clubs, was issued an arrest warrant for his involvement with the Bitcoin-based online poker site by the Nevada Attorney General's office in late April. He is charged with operating an unlicensed interactive gaming system, which carries a pen- alty of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000. "The industry must be licensed and controlled," said Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt at a news con- ference. "Defending Nevada’s world- wide reputation as the gold standard of gaming integrity is a paramount concern to tens of thousands of Neva- dans employed by the industry and the 41 million tourists who visit the state each year." Micon left the country and moved to Antigua with his wife and two-year- old daughter shortly after his home was raided by Nevada Gaming Con- trol agents on Feb. 11. Seals With Clubs suspended operations in response to the raid and a suspected security breach and was relaunched as SwC Poker a few weeks later. "We (had previously planned) a family vacation (to Antigua) for an extended period of time," said Micon in a You- Tube video released shortly after Seals With Clubs shut down operations. "Af- ter I was led out (of my house) in hand- cuffs in my underwear, it was pretty clear that it was proper to leave sooner rather than later." Seals With Clubs had been the world's most popular Bitcoin-based online poker room. Micon encouraged all players to withdraw existing balances to their Bitcoin wallets. "All the bitcoins were safe," Micon said in his video. "Math does not bow to guns." "This is how it's done right," he told the GPWA from Antigua in late February. "This is how you should wind it down; this is how you should spin it up. And of course, you're solvent because you haven't raped the player fund pool as we've seen so many times from so many other sites." Micon started a GoFundMe campaign in response to the charges, hoping to raise $100,000 to help pay for legal fees. Traffic at Seals With Clubs grew ex- ponentially as the value of Bitcoin skyrocketed to over $1,000 in the fall of 2013. The ease with which players could deposit and withdraw funds, once they became comfortable using Bitcoin, made it popular with Ameri- can players, whose online poker op- tions shrank dramatically after Black Friday on April 15, 2011. As of early May, SwC Poker is the world's largest Bitcoin-based online poker room, according to PokerScout, but it is still minuscule in comparison to other real-money poker rooms, av- eraging just 32 players online over a seven-day period. "Well there is a difference, though, to be fair. If you smoke too much pot, no one comes to break your f***ing knees." – The Daily Show host Jon Stewart after calling New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie a "total narc" for supporting online gaming in his state while swearing to crack down on states that have legalized marijuana if he were elected president.* "We now offer an online poker option that is more competitive and more enjoyable for its users, thanks to this collaborative effort." – Delaware Gov. Jack Markel after his state launched its shared online poker network with Nevada in March. *Photo by Flickr user cliff1066, used by permission via Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. 7 Webmaster News & Quotables