Lots of legal matters snagged the cords of the Weekly Poker Net this week.  From the personal travails of Jamie Gold to the ongoing battles over the fate of the internet -- with online gambling at the focal point of the battle -- the newswires stayed busy.  Read on, because if you need to know poker, than you need to know this:

Paradise Poker to Abandon ‘Stand-Alone’ Online Site --  The lengthy run of Paradise Poker, at one time the world’s largest online poker site, will come to an end in the near future... at least in its current form.  Paradise, which was crippled by the October 2006 signing of the United States’ UIGEA, announced that it will take a £55 million (US $107 million) write-off and abandon its own long-nurtured software platform, to move instead to Boss Media’s International Poker Network.  Paradise and Boss Media already had a working relationship, and the two firms signed a three-year deal, which may represent Paradise’s last, best chance at staying afloat.

Jamie Gold Settles WSOP Winner’s Purse Lawsuit --  Faced with the high likelihood of losing the case brought against him by plaintiff Bruce Crispin Leyser, Jamie Gold finally settled the matter over the disputed $6 million share of Gold’s $12 million purse, his winner’s share of the 2006 WSOP Main Event.  Exact terms of the settlement remain undisclosed.  Gold and Leyser had reached an oral agreement to split any of Gold’s winnings, in exchange for Leyser’s assistance in securing a couple of B-list Hollywood types to play under the Bodog banner.  Gold didn’t keep his end of the bargain, and court documents showed that he even tried to slide the entire $12 million into a corporate structure that would have made it hard for Leyser to wrest the disputed money free, had that effort been allowed to go forward.  Gold is likely to set a new record at the 2007 WSOP for the highest ratio of photos snapped to actual interview requests.  We’ll let you think about that one....

Tony G Poker Exits U.S. Market --  Last week it was Mansion Poker; this week’s Stars ‘N’ Stripes sayonara came from Tony G.  On his poker blog at Pokrworks, Tony posted a more complete version of the tale than that which was sent out via email to all U.S. Tony G customers.  Wrote Tony: “It’s a very, very sad day for Tony G. There are no options for me to keep the room open to USA players.”  He continued: “I feel very sad for all of you good folks in the USA but your government is very aggressive right now and is running loose.  NETeller money has been seized from people that have done nothing wrong.  Who knows if and when it will be returned to the people it belongs to.  And where will the government stop in its quest to wipe out internet poker?”

NETeller Admits Funds Seized by U.S. Feds --  NETeller’s woes continued when it confirmed that the U.S. FBI had intercepted funds in transit both to and from U.S. customers, in conjunction with the federal case filed against NETeller founders in a New York District court.  The total amount seized was a bit under $55 million.  NETeller continues to indicate both its willingness to comply with the ongoing investigation, and to perhaps open its books to U.S. investigators, all while it negotiates a way to repatriate frozen funds to U.S. customers currently in limbo.

Full Tilt’s 3rd FTOPS Series Kicks Off --  It wasn’t all doom-and-gloom for online poker.  The third edition of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series got under way on Friday, and if early events are any indication, the series will set new participation records.  Full Tilt was also in the news in another way.  With the departure of NETeller from the U.S.-facing online gaming market, alternate deposit/withdrawal methods are hastily being brought into place.  Full Tilt announced the introduction of MyWebATM, one of several new funding options appearing at poker sites catering to the U.S.