This story is sponsored by PokerStarsPokerStars has refused to comment on speculation that it is in negotiations with the US Department of Justice to buy Full Tilt as part of a US$750m settlement deal after French investors’ bid to acquire the assets failed yesterday.
As reported yesterday, Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT) declared that seven-month-long negotiations with the US DoJ to acquire Full Tilt’s assets for US$80m failed because of “a surprise demand made in the 11th hour” by the DoJ for GBT to allow non-US players to withdraw all funds within 90 days.
PokerStars yesterday confirmed it remained in settlement negotiations with the DoJ over the indictment of the company and associated individuals on charges of money laundering, bank fraud and illegal gambling last April. However, it refused to comment on rumours that it had agreed to meet the DoJ’s player-repayment demands as part of an improved offer, effectively trumping the GBT bid.
Head of corporate communications Eric Hollreiser (pictured) said: “We’ve had a lot of enquiries and there’s lots of speculation on the forums, so I wanted to address the PokerStars chatter. As you know, PokerStars is in settlement discussions with the U.S. Department of Justice. As such settlement discussions are always confidential, we are unable to comment on rumours. As soon as we have information to share publicly we will do so.”
The rumoured deal coming to fruition, that Alex Dreyfus of French operator of Chiligaming stated on Twitter would see PokerStars pay US$750m to acquire Full Tilt – including liability for non-US player balances – and settle all indictment charges against the company and possibly its founder Isai Scheinberg, would see PokerStars cement its already unassailble position in the non-US online poker market.
GBT argued in its statement yesterday that this outcome “in the long run, is probably not good for players and for the whole online poker industry.”
Full Tilt’s owners were seeking US$150m from investors to cover its obligations to players at the time the poker room’s operating licences were suspended by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) in June last year. The AGCC revealed at the time of formally revoking the licences in September that Full Tilt’s owners had concealed US$331m of FTP-related fund seizures by US authorities between 2007 and 2011 prior to being shutdown in the US by US federal prosecutors last April, continuing to mispresent this to the AGCC as available cash and to credit player deposits when it was no longer able to pull this money from players’ bank accounts.
PokerStars was the only one of the three US-facing poker rooms named in the indictment to broker a deal with the US DoJ to pay back its US players to the tune of US$125 and regain use of its dot.com domain in non-US markets.
