A Judge in the Southern District of NY ruled today in favor of the request made by the online poker community (in the form of Costigan Media which owns, among other relevant properties, Gambling 911) that all of the warrants and related affidavits regarding the recent seizure of over $30 million in Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars player funds from bank accounts in that district may no longer be kept secret but must be unsealed so that all parties involved can become fully abreast of all the details of the case and the investigation leading up to it.

Judge Laura Swain determined that the Government (in the form of the FBI) did not produce enough evidence to merit her allowing those records to remain sealed. This is a big courtroom victory for online poker in a time when it is direly needed. And it bodes well for the affected players receiving back all of the money wrongfully taken from them.