(Unfortunate thanks to Falstaff for bringing this issue to my attention first over at his blog.)

Neteller, we have a problem. And I'm not talking about the "I saw an ant on the kitchen floor" kind of problem, but rather more like the "I just saw every wall in the house fall in from termite destruction" kind of problem. Well, maybe it's not quite that serious. Yet. But it's damn close. And getting closer.

After reading all of Iggy's recent posts rehashing the whole Pokerspot debacle (fabulous reads btw, especially in light of what Neteller is now telling us), I cannot help but feel a strong (too strong) sense of deja vu as I read over the latest and greatest news from Neteller regarding how U.S. online gamblers can all get their deposits out of their now-useless Neteller accounts. Is it me, or do the following statements -- taken directly from Neteller's newly-updated homepage statement for U.S. poker players -- sound an awful lot like the statements made by one Russ "Dutch" Boyd a few years ago as the Pokerspot shizz was about to really hit the proverbial fan? Here is what Neteller has to say as of this weekend:

"How can I withdraw funds from my NETELLER account?

At this time, our ability to provide US members with withdrawals is significantly reduced. As a top priority, we are working to resolve all withdrawal issues, but in the meantime we continue to maintain these funds in trust on your behalf. Please check this page regularly for more updates.

Just a quick update here from the trenches, on D-Day minus one after President Bush signed the port security bill with the anti-gaming legislation tacked on into law in the United States. In case anyone is curious, I can confirm that it is business as usual this weekend for the major poker sites serving U.S. customers following the passage of the anti-gaming provisions. Of course partypoker and a few of the other smaller U.S. sites are going through with their promises to block all players from U.S.-based IP addresses on their sites as of the signing of the bill by President Bush. But otherwise the online poker landscape in fact looks very similar this weekend to how it looked just before the transfer of funds between U.S. players and online gaming sites became illegal on Friday morning at 10am local time in Washington, DC.

For example, pokerstars on Friday night was running its normal operations, including for U.S. players, and things seemed to be going off without a hitch. The main lobby on pokerstars reported approximately 91,000 players online at around 10pm ET on Friday night, exactly 12 hours after the signature of the port security bill, and that 91,000 figure is more or less right around where that number has been for many months, so no dropoff in action has even been observed on pokerstars since the bill went into law.

And a similar story at full tilt, where Friday night's $20,000 guaranteed tournament at 10pm ET boasted more than 1200 players, if anything a bit larger than the recent roll call for this event for a Friday evening. But again the traffic numbers for full tilt are generally in-line this weekend with recent usage levels for he site that was the first to stand up to the U.S. government and announce its commitment to continue to serve the U.S. market, where it maintains its innocence and its right to offer an online poker platform to everyone around the world.

Lastly, I purposefully went ahead and made some transfers with my Neteller account last night and this morning, and again can confirm that it is business as usual for the leading e-wallet application used to transfer funds to and from online poker sites by U.S. players. Again there appears to be no degradation in service, no new terms and conditions or special announcements being made by Neteller, nothing out of the ordinary at all. So for now, U.S. players have the means to get money into and out of and to play at most of their favorite poker sites in just the same way and to just the same extent that this was possible 24 hours ago, which is I'm sure a welcome sign to us all, not only as poker lovers but as lovers of personal freedoms for everyone.

I thought the police were supposed to prevent that kind of abuse, not perpetrate it, and then have the nerve to brag about it.

I don't know how tall [SAPD Spokesman] Joe Rios is, or whether his nose looks like a nipple, but he came off sounding like a gigantic boob. "Now that we have the evidence, we can move forward."

Don't you need evidence before you move forward? Especially when you are going to steamroll into someone's house at night and steal their property. It sounds like the search was a fishing expedition to build a case.

In another life, Michael was a lawyer, so I'm inclined to give his legal opinions a bit more weight than, say, my commentary about the wisdom of jamming with pocket jacks against the one guy who can bust you at the final table. He goes into much greater depth in his own blog, which I encourage everyone to immediately go read, before doing anything else today. I'm serious. Get out of here.

All of 'em.

The legality of the games have been challenged, but since the Royal Crown club is neither a bingo hall nor a bar it doesn't have a charity gaming permit or liquor license at risk. Boy, I tell you what: as we face bills in Congress which would turn online poker players into criminals, and read story after story about small homegames or low-stakes tourneys getting busted, I have to wonder: when is law enforcement going to catch up with the rest of America? Poker is our generation's bridge. It is wildly popular, and it's not going anywhere. It is fantastically hypocritical for states to have legalized lotteries while criminalizing poker.