Home / Poker News September 2012 / PokerStars Draws Up Plans to Repay Non-US Full Tilt Players
PokerStars Draws Up Plans to Repay Non-US Full Tilt Players
Posted by: Mark Baldwing - Tue, 2012-09-25 05:20
Monday was a big day for ex-Full Tilt players living outside the US and for the Full Tilt brand in general. PokerStars, the new owner of its one-time rival, announced plans to repay around $184 million to Full Tilt Poker players residing outside the US. It has also been announced that Full Tilt Poker would be re-launched in the first week of November.
The announcement was obviously one long-awaited by players who have monies stuck at the site, many of whom had probably given up on ever seeing their funds returned at one point or another during the post-Black Friday ordeal. At the beginning of August, PokerStars acquired Full Tilt Poker for $731 million, striking a deal with the US DoJ which included provisions regarding the full repayment of all Full Tilt Poker players who had monies in their accounts at the time the site was shut down. The total owed to non-US customers is estimated to be around $184 million.
Since the deal was signed,
PokerStars have been working with various regulators in order to determine a refunding process which would follow the regulatory requirements of the various jurisdictions. Indeed, the repayment solution with which PokerStars has come up varies from one jurisdiction to another. Those who reside in countries with newly regulated
online poker markets like Belgium, Estonia, France, Spain and Denmark, will be repaid directly through their accounts via the local PokerStars platforms. The system will allow PokerStars players to link their accounts to their Full Tilt accounts, from where they’ll be able to make withdrawals.
In Italy, the situation is quite unclear currently as PokerStars haven’t finalized the negotiations with local regulators yet.
All other non-US markets will gain unrestricted access to Full Tilt accounts once the site is re-launched.
US Customers will be paid out directly by the US government, which picked up $547 million for this purpose from PokerStars as part of the takeover deal.
