If Micon does attempt to defend this (it will be interesting if he decides to return to Nevada to attempt to beat it), he can offer up two defenses:

1) Users were only gambling for bitcoin, not cash. There are no laws on the books specifically banning gambling for bitcoin, much as there are no laws banning gambling for play chips on sites like Zynga Poker.

2) He did not have the servers in his house, did not do any technical work for the site, and had no actual ownership of Seals. He was just a paid spokesman while the actual owners hid in the shadows.

However, the prosecution could counter with:

1) The three elements of gambling are Consideration, Prize and Chance. Consideration means players must pay something of value to be eligible to participate. Bitcoin definitely counts as "something of value", and Micon clearly knew this, as did all of Seals customers. Prize includes not only money, but anything of value. There was definitely a prize for winning pots, and they definitely had value. Chance means the outcome is not determined by skill. There can be arguments that poker is a skill game and "chance" isn't involved, but Nevada accepts poker to still be gambling, so this argument doesn't really apply.

2) Micon represented himself as "Chairman" of the site, not a paid promoter. He clearly took on a role similar to ownership and/or upper management. I imagine that the computers seized from Micon will provide ample evidence that he wasn't just a paid spokesman.

Perhaps a good attorney can cast enough doubt on the part of the prosecution where a deal can be struck, but I have to think it will involve at least some prison time, and likely a hefty fine. It would also likely involve a stipulation that swcpoker.eu is shut down and that Micon cannot run any further online poker sites serving Americans -- something I doubt he would be willing to concede at this point.

His case is also probably hurt by the fact that he left for Antigua to continue committing the same crime, rather than ceasing such activity and claiming that he didn't know it was illegal at the time he was committing it. Now he can't make such a claim anymore, yet he's still running basically the same site.

My opinion is that he's fucked. I also think the Attorney General wants to make an example out of him here, as this isn't just the run-of-the-mill illegal casino run out of someone's office building. This is the first-ever bitcoin gambling site prosecuted in the US, and I have to think that this Attorney General wants to make a name for himself getting the first conviction of its kind.