Bryan Micon, the man behind the bitcoin poker site SealsWithClubs (SWC) that Nevada's authorities closed in February, has agreed to plead guilty for running an unlicensed online poker room from Las Vegas.
As announced here on PokerNews on June 22, Micon decided to end his self-inflicted exile to Antigua and head back to the U.S. to participate in a hearing set for Thursday, June 25. During the hearing, Micon agreed to plead guilty - as this should allow him to avoid the risk of spending up to 10 years in prison, the Las Vegas Review Journal reports.
Feb 26, 2015 Like Micon, we’re not lawyers. But until some sort of precedent comes along in a court case regarding bitcoin gaming or poker, no one knows for sure how legal it really is. Seals with Clubs was operating as an unlicensed online poker site in the United States. Running an online poker site that operates in the United States is a risky proposition.
Micon's defines attorney Richard Schonfeld, from Las Vegas' popular law firm Chesnoff & Schonfeld, said that the deal is an 'appropriate resolution.' Schonfeld added that his client may see the charge of 'operating an unlicensed interactive gaming system' reduced to a 'gross misdemeanor' once Micon completes probation for time yet to be defined and paid a $25,000 fine. This represents a significant reduction compared to the $50,000 fine and up to 10 years of prison time that Micon risked until his appearance in court.
Schonfeld also explained that the deal with Nevada's authorities will require his client to give up computers, $900 in cash, and a number of bitcoins that were confiscated during a police raid conducted back on Feb. 11.
According to a Criminal Complaint submitted by Nevada's Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt and Nevada's Senior Deputy Attorney General Samuel R. Kern on April 25, Micon has been accused of running an unlicensed poker site from Nevada 'between March 1, 2014, and February 9, 2015.'
'Micon willfully operated, carried on, conducted, maintained and/or exposed for play in the State of Nevada an Internet gaming poker site under the name 'Seals With Clubs,' without first procuring and thereafter maintaining in effect the required licenses,' the Criminal Complaint stated.
'These actions constitute the crime of Operating an Unlicensed Interactive Gaming System, a category ‘B' felony in violation of NRS 463.160(1)(f) and 463.360(3), and are a technological crime as defined by NRS 205A.030.'
SWC Reported by a Belgian National
The operation that led to the closure of SWC and convinced Micon to relocate to Antigua with his family started after a Belgian national reported the site to the authorities.
As Attorney General Laxal explained in April, the investigation on SWC — the first of its kind to ever be conducted at a state-level-- started after a Belgian national brought the poker room to the attention of the Gaming Control Board and noted that it may be operating in conflict with the State's regulation on online gaming.
Right after that, an agent named Ricardo Lopez was asked to investigate the room's operation. During a press conference, Lopez explained that he opened an account at Seals With Clubs in Feb. 2014 to understand more about the functioning of the poker room.
'I placed bets using my chips, and won some hands while losing others,' Lopez said. 'I had successfully purchased Bitcoin using U.S. currency and then gambled the Bitcoin on the website sealswithclubs.eu on two separate dates for a total of 30 hands of poker.'
The investigation continued with the examination of a number of Skype's conversation between Micon and other individuals where Micon admitted SWC was generating profits for $10,000 to $12,000 on a monthly basis.
Once it became apparent that Micon was one of the key figures in the ownership and functioning of the site, the authorities decided to launch a police operation that led to a raid of Micon's home in Las Vegas.
'It has been a big violation of my personal freedom,' Micon told PokerNewsin a phone interview right after the raid. 'Even if the State wanted to take action against me, even if they wanted to take all my electronics as they did, a raid like that one was completely unnecessary. It's easy to tell that I am not the kind of person that you need a raid like that for, and it's pretty well known that I am non-violent man.'
During the months that separated the raid from Thursday's hearing, Micon has repeatedly said that he was sure about the legitimacy of SWC operations and claimed that he did not commit any wrongdoing.
To support his fight in Court, he also launched a crowdfunding campaign on GoFundMe.com, even though he only managed to raise $4,055 of the $100,000 he sought. Among the sixty contributors to Micon's campaign are known names as Dutch Boyd and CalvinAyre's editor Lee Davy.
Seals With Clubs Bitcoin Poker Online
Seals With Clubs 2.0 Launched on March 1
Despite the legal battle that followed February's raid, Micon chose not to drop his idea of a bitcoin-only poker room and launched a renewed version of its site, available at swcpoker.eu. The new site launched once his former partners at SWC chose to end their involvement in the original venture.
'I am not mad at them,' Micon added shortly before the launch of the so-called 2.0 version of the software. 'Everybody assesses risks differently and they are willing to do different things. Perhaps, I am the one who is willing to give up the most right now, and that's why I will continue to work on Seals With Clubs.'
'There are only very few things in this world that motivate me, and these are Golden Tee, poker, my wife, my daughter, and Bitcoin,' Micon went on to explain. 'If you realize this, you can see why I don't even need to make a choice here.'
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Bitcoin-based online poker site Seals with Clubs has completed its move to a new software platform and a new brand name, relaunching on Friday as SwCPoker. The move to the new platform was formerly planned, as a version 2.0 of the old Seals With Clubs offering, but was hastened and reworked under a new brand name following a Nevada Gaming Commission raid against former Seals With Clubs chairman Bryan Micon.
Micon, a former Las Vegas resident, quickly announced his relocation to the online-gambling friendly Caribbean island of Antigua and Barbuda following the raid. Micon noted that while numerous electronic devices were seized, he was not arrested, and he was allowed to leave the US, whereupon he quickly announced his expatriation to Antigua and the imminent launch of the new SwCPoker site.
The new site, with its Internet home now found at swcpoker.eu, offers a far more attractive user interface than the original Seals With Clubs site’s rudimentary graphics. The new site also has rolled out additional poker variants, including open-faced Chinese, pineapple, badeucey, badacey, 12 game, dealer’s choice and others, though the site does not as yet have a comprehensive listing of exactly what games are available.
SwCPoker head Micon published a self-congratulatory text following the new offering’s rollout, which saw a hundred or so players join in. According to the text:
What a brilliant few days for Bitcoin poker. The successful launch of SwC Poker has been met with worldwide cheer. New games and features are online, such as OFC pineapple, badeucey, badacey, 12 game, dealer’s choice, and many more, available in Cash, SnG, or MTT format. OFC/p MTTs have quickly become a crowd favorite. Look for cash game stakes to slowly increase as confidence in the new system builds. Thanks for the outpouring of support for SwC. We are happy to be back and serving the btc poker public.
The site continues to bill itself as a nontraditional offering, choosing to remain independent of online-gambling regulatory oversight and the long reach of major governments. SwCPoker requires only an e-mail address and access to an individual bitcoin (BTC) wallet to play on the site, with users able to deposit and withdrawal BTC balances from SwCPoker at any time. The site is open to residents of all global jurisdictions, including the US, due to the bitcoin currency’s own presumed anonymity.
Global Poker Bitcoin
The anonymity of bitcoin users in general is part of the attraction of sites that use the virtual currency, though their use and popularity remains tiny compared to mainstream online poker sites. A March 1st check of SwCPoker’s site showed only about 20 tables in use, with perhaps 150 total players participating.
Indeed, the new SwCPoker continues to promote itself as the “wild, wild west of online poker rooms,” though Micon, as the ongoing public face of the site, maintains that SwCPoker continues to battle any form of player collusion or other online game manipulation. The site also maintains a “no bots” policy, though given its tiny size, it’s unclear that SwCPoker would even have the tools to detect a high-level bot or network of bots, if one was ever placed in use on the site.
It’s also that despite the rapid relaunch of the site under its new SwCPoker brand name, the nontraditional and poorly promoted aspects of the offering give the site the feel of an online popcorn stand. Former Seals With Club adherents and bitcoin-poker enthusiasts have already reacted warmly to the new site’s rollout, but it’s not at all clear that the site or its management is capable of pitching the site’s expanded offerings outside of its already existing hardcore audience. SwCPoker and other Bitcoin-only online poker sites appear destined to remain a tiny niche offering, and nothing about the new software seems likely to change that.
SwCPoker’s continuing driving force, Micon wasn’t available to provide more details on the site’s relaunching when we asked, citing ongoing technical and marketing needs needing immediate attention while offering just a few brief replies via Skype. But that doesn’t mean others aren’t watching the debut of the “new” SwCPoker with interest, including other bitcoin-based gambling and e-commerce operations. As Jay Purcell, CEO of the popular bitcoin gambling site BitcoinCasinos.com, offered, “It’s important to see sites like this remain viable in the face of certain types of pressure, though SwCPoker’s move to Antigua was likely a wise decision for all involved.”
Added Purcell, “Bitcoins remain an independent, virtual currency tied to mathematics and user demand. The resumption of SwCPoker services and quick return of many of its players gives evidence that Bitcoins’ popularity remains constant, whether individual sites come and go. Those looking to play poker have few viable options as a result of small player pools. As such the swift return of SWCPoker is a big win for the industry and gives poker players with an interest in cryptocurrencies a quick route back to tables.”