If anyone followed the fall of the very trusted online poker site "Full Tilt Poker" you would see the similarities.
The US government seizing a large amount of $ (as happened in both cases) would force most companies to run a fractional reserve to stay open - after that it is a slippery slope.
Players from Full Tilt Poker get their money back this week. This money was seized by the DOJ. Mt Gox simply lost their user's balances by being negligent. The DOJ doesnt have this money to pay back user's as they did with Full Tilt. Very different situations here.
That is not correct. When the DOJ seized full tilt they didn't have the players money. The only reason people are getting their money back is because PokerStars signed a deal with the DOJ bailing FullTilt out and restoring user balances. It would be the equivalent of Bitstamp buying out Gox now and returning peoples money. Full tilt was an empty shell like Gox is now.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2012/07/31/pokerstars-will-pay-547-million-to-settle-u-s-government-charges-and-buy-full-tilt-poker/
The two situations are almost identical: http://www.coindesk.com/mt-gox-may-headed-bankruptcy/