Home / Poker News August 2012 / FTP to be Re-launched on November 6 – Pokerstars/DoJ Deal Closed
FTP to be Re-launched on November 6 – Pokerstars/DoJ Deal Closed
Posted by: James Carter. - Fri, 2012-08-10 09:17
After months of rumors, good intentions and failed plans, the Full Tilt Poker ordeal is finally officially over. PokerStars have just confirmed that the $731 million deal with the US DoJ has been closed and that the Full Tilt Poker brand would be re-launched on November 6. According to the terms of the settlement, PokerStars will allow all non-US players to withdraw their monies from their Full Tilt accounts within 90 days.
The deal also stipulated that PokerStars would forfeit $547 million to the US DoJ. The first payment of $225 million now complete, the next step for PokerStars is to make the $187 million available to non-US players for withdrawal. Per the initial agreement, PokerStars had 6 days to complete the above said first payment, which they have now indeed done.
This doesn’t mean of course that PokerStars are off the hook as far as money owed to the US government goes. They will have to forfeit the rest of the above said $547 million over the next 3 years.
In order to address some of the most burning questions regarding FTP’s takeover by PokerStars, a Full Tilt employee who has been posting at some of the popular
online poker forums went online again. He did indeed address questions like FTP rakeback accounts (players who have signed up expecting to get rake rebate), VIP Point balances and funds remission to US players. The truth however is that most of those questions are still debated by management, so there’s nothing certain about them for the time being. About the monies that US players have locked up in their FTP accounts, the poster confirmed that the DoJ would act as an intermediary in the remission process. Players will basically be required to go through the DoJ to get their monies back. Exactly when and how the remission process starts for US players is still something of a mystery.
