Confusion surrounds US player funds return
Conflicting reports from Pokerstars and Full Tilt following the US Department of Justice's decision to return their dot.com domain names.
The United States Department of Justice will return the dot.com domain names which it seized from Pokerstars and Full Tilt last Friday.
According to a release sent out this afternoon, the return is part of a domain-name use agreement designed “to facilitate [the] return of US player funds.”
The DoJ adds in today’s statement that it “will work with the poker companies to facilitate the return of funds to players.”
However a statement issued by Full Tilt Poker this afternoon appears to contradict that of the DoJ, or at the very least suggests a resolution is far from imminent, particularly given the assertion that “the government has not agreed to permit any of the seized player funds to be returned to the players.”
Also, whether or not they are allowed to withdraw funds, players in the United States will still be unable to play real-money poker on the sites concerned.
Preet Bharara, U.S Attorney for the Southern District of New York, confirmed that “No individual player accounts were ever frozen or restrained, and each implicated poker company has at all times been free to reimburse any player’s deposited funds.”
The statement also mentions that “The Government stands to enter the same agreement with Absolute Poker if it so chooses.”
Full Tilt’s statement also explains that “there remain significant practical and legal impediments to returning funds to players in the immediate future,” adding that “as a result of the recent enforcement action, there exists no authorized US channel through which to make refunds.”
Pokerstars, meanwhile, has issued a statement reassuring players that “[all their] deposits are completely safe,” and the company also insists that “money is readily available to meet withdrawal demands .”
It goes on to say that “The Isle of Man’s strict licensing laws…require all funds to be held in accounts that are segregated from company assets. Pokerstars has always complied with this requirement and continues to do so.”
The Poker Players Alliance (PPA) has looked upon the latest development with cautious optimism, and director John Pappas issued a statement this afternoon suggesting that the job is far from done.
He said: “The poker players have spoken, and it seems that the US government has heard their cries…[but]…this is just a small victory in the ongoing fight to protect Americans’ rights to play poker online.”