According to a Press Release from the US Attorney General (pdf) For the Southern District Of New York, the Government has reached an Agreement which will Restore the Use of Domain Names PokerStars.com and FullTiltPoker.com to Facilitate Return of U.S. Player Funds.
“Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that the United States entered into domain-name use agreements with PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, two of three online poker companies named as defendants in an April 15th, civil money laundering and forfeiture Complaint (the “Civil Complaint”), alleging bank fraud, wire fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling offenses.”
“The Complaint, a related Indictment, and a related Restraining Order issued against multiple bank accounts utilized by the companies and their payment processors do not prohibit the companies from refunding players’ money.”
“Nevertheless, this agreement will facilitate the return of money so that players can register their refund requests directly with Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker.”
“The deposit of funds by U.S. players is expressly prohibited. In addition, the agreements do not prohibit, and, in fact, expressly allow for, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker to provide for, and facilitate, players outside of the United States to engage in playing online poker for real money.”
“The agreements also require the appointment of an independent Monitor to verify PokerStars’ and Full Tilt Poker’s compliance with the agreements.”
“The Government stands to enter the same agreement with Absolute Poker if it so chooses.
When the news first broke about the domain name seizures one of the points I raised was what was going to happen to the funds the players had on account, since playing online poker is not illegal in the USGood news for the players of the 2 sites.
However, the fact that Absolute Poker refused to enter into a similar agreement with the US, may mean bad news for players with money with them.
Interesting, then they can monitor all US users who withdrawal funds and arrest them for illegally playing online poker.
Playing poker online is NOT illegal in the U.S.
Sorry; except Washington State and Utah.
Donna is correct and I said so in both this post and my previous post cited above that Playing online poker is not illegal in the US.
From the US Attorney Above:
“”“The Complaint, a related Indictment, and a related Restraining Order issued against multiple bank accounts utilized by the companies and their payment processors do not prohibit the companies from refunding players’ money.”
I want to keep informed as I have an a/c with them.
The AG blinked on this one. Reading between the lines, it is striking how they go out of their way to note that the substantial non-US trade is not at issue. That suggests there was an imminent and strong response in the pipeline to hold the US accountable for the loss of non-US business.
As Mike notes, the primary issue here is not about playing poker, but about dodgy financial transactions essentially designed to route around US laws related to funding the online gambling accounts.
So when is Full Tilt going to return our money? It’s June already
Jerry Wheeler
I want MY money back,thats right MY MONEY not yours.Its august already.Why can’t I get onto full tilts site?
I want my money back. Its august already.
Full Tilt is working on a deal with European Investors that will hopefully provide the means to refund U.S. poker players.
All this is a result of the ‘Party of Freedom’ attack against individual choice through a midnight hour attachment to a piece of must pass legislation.
Thousands of jobs, billions of dollars in revenue are available for the U.S. if the gov can see their way to permit freedom of choice to engage in a game of skill.
See if it can get past the religious righty tighties, though, who would legislate their morality upon the rest of us.