PokerStars finalizes deal with DOJ

Posted by Steve Ruddock on Aug 10, 2012 Posted in Poker News | No Comments »

PokerStars versus Full TiltOn Thursday PokerStars sent the US Department of Justice (DOJ) the first payment of their $547 million settlement agreement that saw the civil charges dismissed against the site and also lead to PokerStars acquiring the assets of Full Tilt poker, allowing them to repay non-US players while the DOJ uses some of the money gained from the forfeiture to repay US players from Full Tilt Poker.

According to the terms of the agreement reached between the three parties last week (PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and the DOJ) in order for the deal to be finalized PokerStars had to make a $225 million payment to the DOJ within six days of the deal being announced, which they did on Thursday.

Now that the deal is officially official, PokerStars can begin repaying non-US Players from Full Tilt Poker some $184 million, while at the same time prepping the site for a relaunch. The agreement calls for PokerStars to have all players from Full Tilt poker repaid within 90 days, which would place the relaunch of Full Tilt Poker no later than early November.

The $225 million payment also allows the DOJ to begin the remission process for US players although no official word has been given as to when players will be able to start filing claims for their Full Tilt Poker money.

In a thread on 2+2 started by Shyam Markus, the Cardroom Manager at Full Tilt Poker, Us players will be allowed to participate on Full Tilt poker at the site’s play money tables immediately, which means US players will have access to their accounts to determine precisely what they are owed by Full Tilt Poker.

Markus made several revelations in the thread (which you can read at 2+2) most notably was him outing himself as the mysterious FTPDoug on the forums, a spokesperson for Full Tilt poker who many believed was PR maven Michelle Claiborne. As it turns out the FTPDoug account was created by someone at Full Tilt Poker, and along with Markus this person also posted on the account before leaving FTP in 2008, at which point Markus took over the FTP persona entirely.

Markus answered 16 “FAQ’s” in his initial post and will field questions from 2+2’ers in the thread, many of which are still unknown at this point (like how FTP points will be valued and so on) but there is some very valuable and interesting information as well –such as US players being able to participate in Play Money games and keep all of their account details at the site, which suggests a potential reentry into the US market down the road.

As far as the FTPDoug revelation; whether this is a sign of the new Full Tilt Poker’s transparency, or an omen that one of the people that the poker world feels was part of the cover-up post-Black Friday is still in a very significant position with the company is up for debate.

 

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