On Tuesday the poker world received the news it had been patiently awaiting when PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and the US Department of Justice announced they had come to terms on a deal that would see Full Tilt Poker forfeit its assets to the DOJ who in turn sold them to PokerStars, at the same time dismissing the civil forfeiture claims and money laundering claims filed against both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. What wasn’t quite as clear was how this settlement would affect non-US players, which we intend to cover in this article.

Unlike US players (who will be paid by the US Department of Justice) non-US poker players whose funds have been locked-up on Full Tilt Poker will be repaid by PokerStars within 90 days of the agreement going into effect –which will happen sometime in the next six days.

In a press release issued on Tuesday PokerStars explained the repayment of Full Tilt funds to non-US players in the following way:

“PokerStars will also make available in a segregated bank account, all outstanding balances owing to all non-U.S. customers of Full Tilt Poker (an amount totaling USD$184 million), with no restrictions on withdrawals, within 90 days of completing this transaction. PokerStars has remained open for non-U.S. players, with all its licenses in good standing, without interruptions.”

According to the PokerStars Blog:

“It’s too early to begin disclosing many details about our strategic plans for Full Tilt, but our first order of business is to re-open the site, pay back all of the players and begin rebuilding Full Tilt’s reputation. Going forward, we will operate Full Tilt as a separate brand, giving players another leading and trusted platform to enjoy the game. The re-launched Full Tilt site will bring back the innovative features, the authentic poker and the cutting-edge software that made it so popular with millions of players worldwide.”

Can You Play at Full Tilt Poker?

According to a thread on 2+2 started by PokerStars Lee Jones, players will not only be able to play at both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker where permitted by law, but may actually have the capability of transferring between the two sites in the future.

Where has Full Tilt Poker applied for licenses?

Jones stated that PokerStars has already started the licensing process for Full Tilt Poker in France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Belgium and Estonia.

Will I be compensated for my FTP’s?

According to poker blogger Diamond Flush a source at PokerStars has confirmed that they will compensate non-US players for the FTP’s and other rewards in their accounts.

Who is considered US and non-US players?

According to Lee Jones the cutoff date for residency will be June 29, 2011. All players with a US address after this date will be considered US players, while anyone showing a non-US residence prior to this dated will be considered a non-US player.

Tags: Assets, Civil Forfeiture, Cutting Edge Software, Department Of Justice, doj, Full tilt Poker, Game Full, Interruptions, Money Laundering, Order Of Business, poker players, Poker Software, Poker World, Pokerstars Blog, Press Release, Reputation, Six Days, Strategic Plans, Us Department Of Justice, Withdrawals

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 1st, 2012 at 8:07 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.