Bryan Micon, chairman of the now-defunct Seals with Clubs bitcoin poker website, reports that his home was raided by the Nevada Gaming Commission.
In a video he recently posted to YouTube, Micon reported that he was “let out half-naked into [his] front lawn in handcuffs in [his] underwear” by “10 men with guns” who were “serving a warrant from the Nevada Gaming commisson regarding Seals with Clubs and bitcoin poker.”
He says that he was not charged with any crime.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaD8ion8iGI
He said, “[During the] next 8 hours, they stole most of my electronics. As a blogger, this is, of course, seriously hindering to my output.”
He added that the men were “very familiar” with his activities on social networks and his work as a journalist.
“Math does not bow to guns”
Micon also reported that there was an problem with one of the poker site’s servers on the same day.
Micon describes the event in detail:
“There was an irregularity on one of the Seals with Clubs servers hosted by Voxility in Romania and it’s unclear what happened. The system is, of course, very secure and has thwarted hacking attempts in the past, so it is unclear to me from a technical perspective what went down. The rest of the Seals with Clubs management team quit. They do not want to continue after this and I do, so Seals with Clubs will continue to wind down and cashouts will continue to be processed.”
He said that “math does not bow to guns” and “all [of Seals with Club’s] bitcoins were saved.”
A screen shot of a table on Seals with Clubs (previously the largest bitcoin poker website by player count)
“I don’t think I was doing anything unethical”
He said that the event was “very traumatizing” to him, his wife, and his two-year-old daughter.
Micon said, “It was pretty clear that it was proper to leave [the United States] sooner rather than later.”
“I didn’t really want my 2-year-old daughter, who I love very much, to grow up in a police state where creativity is often met with guns,” said Micon. “That’s not the environment I think is proper for my daugheter. It’s not what I want to teach her is proper.
Micon described the event as “a symptom of a police state”. He called it “unfortunate” that “they knew about a 2 year child and yet still felt necessary to bring many men with guns.”
He says in the video, “I don’t think I was doing anything unethical.”
He said that he asked the government agents why they did not call him instead of raiding his home. He claims that they had “very weak answers” to his question.
The Nevada Gaming Commision raid on Bryan Micon’s home coincides with Seals with Club’s recent decision to shut down.
