Home / Poker News March 2012 / The Poker Grapevine – Full Tilt Poker Takeover on the Right Track
The Poker Grapevine – Full Tilt Poker Takeover on the Right Track
Posted by: James Carter. - Fri, 2012-03-16 16:50
Online poker players world over were greeted with great news on Tuesday, regarding the Groupe Bernard Tapie – Full Tilt Poker deal. It now appears that after countless weeks of negotiations and limbo marred by all sorts of rumors and pessimistic assessments on the part of various insiders, the deal has reached the home stretch. According to several sources, the takeover may be completed within 2 weeks if not sooner. Full Tilt Poker may therefore be back online as early as next month if everything goes well.
Sources close to GBT lawyer Behnam Dayanim said the legal representative of the French conglomerate was “reasonably confident” that the deal would be finalized soon. The takeover, long awaited by pretty much the entire online poker community, has dragged on for quite a while now. The last favorable news in the matter came last November, when GBT struck a deal with the US DoJ to pick up Full Tilt Poker’s forfeited assets from the DoJ for $80 million. US authorities would then use that money to repay US players. According to some estimates, the amount of money owed by Full Tilt to US players is around $150 million. The DoJ would cover that from the above said $80 million plus money previously seized from various FTP bank accounts. Upon takeover, GBT would repay non-US players, owed a total of about $150 million, settling the issue for good.
GBT are apparently fully intent on repaying all slighted parties, because word has it that Laurent Tapie is already busy collecting the licenses necessary for the reopening of the operation, a move which would only be possible once all players are indeed repaid.
Dayanim didn’t officially confirm anything yet. He only said the negotiations were still ongoing.
In other news: the Iowa Senate has approved an
online poker bill giving permission to casinos and racetracks to start offering online poker within the state.
