If you are flying from out of country back into the United States after a poker series, you should definitely take this story into account before making any final decisions about what to do with your winnings.
This story relates to three poker players who were playing in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) in the Bahamas, and were headed back after the tournament series had ended. They were going through customs in order to get back to the United States, and had their winnings carried on with them. Now, between the three of them there was $26k, but the law states that players cannot travel with more than $10k in cash. The three players thought that they were in the clear, as they split the $26k between the three of them, which meant that all of them were under $10k each. The only problem with this though, is that the law actually says that the $10k limit is for entire families.
The three players who were involved are all related as well, and it included 18 year old Sean Ruane, 23 year old Michael Ruane (his brother), and their cousin, 18 year old Thomas Freeman Jr. They headed through customs, and the youngest brother became nervous and started sweating, which led to the officials at customs looking more in-depth at the situation. When all was said and done, the three were detained for falsely declaring the amount of money that they were carrying with them.
Fortunately for the three of them, the Deputy Chief Magistrate Carolita Bethell who handled the case, wasn’t incredibly hard on them. She did make them sweat a bit before laying down their final sentence though. In the end, while the three players’ defense attorney was asking for the judge to waive the custodial sentence, the players decided to plead guilty to the charged that was given to them. What this meant was that the players were forced to give up the money that they attempted to bring back to the United States. The reason for this was because of their clean records, and the fact that they did not “waste the courts time” since they pleaded guilty.
Currently in the Bahamas, the popular talks around town are about the current PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Whether it is the $100k entry High Roller event that drew in a first place prize of over $1 million, or the PCA Main Event which is nearly its way down to the final table, people are talking about this incredibly popular tournament series which has started 2012 off with a bang. What many people aren’t talking about though is the fact that we have now seen two former World Series of Poker Main Event winners take down side events at the PCA this year as well!