Home / Poker News January 2013 / The Best Poker Stories of 2012 – PokerStars Acquires Full Tilt Poker
The Best Poker Stories of 2012 – PokerStars Acquires Full Tilt Poker
Posted by: James Carter. - Thu, 2013-01-03 06:07
Some
online poker players spent most of 2011 and 2012 worrying about their poker bankrolls locked up at Full Tilt Poker, the company the fraudulent ways of which were uncovered through the Black Friday indictments by the DoJ’s Southern District of New York. Even as it seemed like Full Tilt Poker would go under for good, leaving its players high and dry, French Group Bernard Tapie stepped up to the plate announcing its intention to bail out the online poker operator and to repay players. Although there was a great deal of optimism regarding the Bernard Tapie deal in the beginning, it soon became obvious that he French weren’t all that keen on making the acquisition. Several of the conditions they had set for the deal to go ahead remained unfulfilled.
Just as hope was beginning to slip away again (GBT stepped aside), PokerStars came out of the blue and made the save yet again, stepping up for players. The world’s largest
online poker operation has since re-launched the Full Tilt brand, having wiped it clean and it even refunded non-US players. According to the DoJ-PokerStars deal, US players will be refunded from the funds seized by the US government from Full Tilt Poker, including the monies recovered from some of the top Full Tilt executives who have since struck settlement deals with the DoJ.
PokerStars have since begun eyeing the US market again, contemplating the idea of purchasing a land-based Atlantic City casino to secure a much-needed foothold.
According to the above said agreement with the DoJ, PokerStars would be allowed to offer real money online poker services in the US through both brands as soon as the activity becomes legalized and regulated. Being the top poker moment of 2012, the PokerStars-Full Tilt deal wraps up our 2012 retrospective.
