PokerStars Settles with U.S. Government, Purchasing Full Tilt Poker

PokerStars Settles with U.S. Government, Purchasing Full Tilt Poker
8/01/2012
http://rakeback.diguk.com


In case you missed the big news yesterday, we wanted to inform all rakeback.diguk.com players of the huge developments of the day. After many months of intense negotiations, PokerStars and the United States Department of Justice announced that that they had entered into an agreement that would allow PokerStars to acquire Full Tilt Poker and pay non-US players. US players, on the other hand, will need to go through the DOJ to receive their compensation.


Summary of PokerStars/U.S. Department of Justice deal


The following is a summary of notable points of Tuesday's agreement.


PokerStars will transfer $731 million to meet the penalties of the U.S. Civil Charges
From the $731 million that will be paid, $547 million will be transferred to the U.S. government and $184 million will be paid to non-US players within 3 or 4 months
PokerStars will not directly pay U.S. players. Any sort of compensation will have to go through the U.S. government. This is expected to be announced in the coming weeks. At this time, it is not known if all U.S. players will be paid in full.
The Full Tilt Poker client will be reopened by PokerStars as a separate brand within 90 days.
Players located in the regulated markets of Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France, Italy and Spain will not be able to access Full Tilt Poker.
Isai Scheinberg, founder of PokerStars, will step down from his executive position at PokerStars
As part of the agreement, PokerStars has not admitted any wrongdoing and is able to apply for licenses in the United States on a federal and state level, if they wish (they almost certainly will). Note that this does not mean that they are guaranteed to receive a license, just that they not be denied the option of applying by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The criminal charges related to Poker Stars and Full Tilt are not impacted by this deal
We will be sure to update players with any relevant news related to this developing story.