Stars to Acquire Full Tilt

[lwestatbus]

I received two eMails from the PPA (Poker Players' Alliance) yesterday and today. Both pertained to agreements reached between Poker Stars and and the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and reimbursement procedures being developed for players who were "fraud victims". This DOJ quote was included in this morning's message:

Under the terms of the settlement with PokerStars, the company agreed to forfeit $547 million to the U.S. and to reimburse the approximately $184 million owed by Full Tilt to foreign players, in order to fully resolve the allegations in the complaint. The settlement further provides that PokerStars will acquire the Forfeited Full Tilt Assets from the Government. Full Tilt’s U.S. fraud victims will be able to seek compensation for their losses from the Department of Justice from the $547 million forfeited by PokerStars.

PS voluntarily took on FT obligations (no mention of how many assets they also acquired with the deal) which increases Stars' market share in online poker. One or both of two reasons would account for this:

1. There is enough non-US market for online poker to make this worth while

2. Stars anticipates a return to the US market

I'm not sure what "fraud" against players Stars might have perpetrated but I got my money back in a very few days from the release of funds by DOJ. It seems to me that Stars has been positioning itself to be the quality and ethical online venue and I can't help but feel that #2 above has quite a bit of explanatory power.

[golddog]

Yep, I think you're right, Larry.

They want to be the place that's ready to go when (if) our legisators ever get their heads out of their asses. Unfortunately, one scenario I can see happening is lobbying from B & M casinos gets a moratorium on sites which were in operation on Black Friday, so they can get the jump on the market.

[lwestatbus]

Unfortunately, one scenario I can see happening is lobbying from B & M casinos gets a moratorium on sites which were in operation on Black Friday, so they can get the jump on the market.

This is a really interesting point and definitely a possibility. An interesting development may be whether online poker makes its comeback on the national level or the state level. If individual states start authorizing legal online poker and set up their own licensing arrangements (the way states outsource lottery operations) then it might be an even playing field for anyone where the B&Ms don't have existing influence. Other options are a strategic partnership with a major B&M company such as Caesar's partnering and rebranding a large online site with existing software/servers/etc.

I keep rooting for Poker Stars because they were fast with the payouts when they were able to and I miss my friends. Not sure if I'll ever reconnect with them.

[HalfSugar]

You will have to pardon my ignorance on this but if laws were passed at a state level, how would they go about enforcing them? Would it be because they can track IP addresses perhaps (seems very beatable), or because banks in certain states will not accept wires to/from a poker site or is there some other way?

I appreciate that if someone declares their winnings for tax that would flag it but presumably the sort of people who might sit and play online in a state where it is not legal are not the sort of people who file tax returns.

[lwestatbus]

The IP addresses are definitely trackable. There are ways to spoof these but I think that most spoofing set ups are designed to disguise where someone is, not to attempt to show they are somewhere.

I've also thought that if a state-level system were in place that initial funding could piggyback on financial services, including lottery networks, provided by grocery and convenience stores. I.e., make someone fund their account in person and prove their identity.

Speaking of spoofing. I've been wondering whether we could start placing phony orders through the spam drug links in the site.