After the Groupe Bernard Tapie signed an exclusive agreement to make a final purchase of Full Tilt Poker and all of its assets, it seems that the group has decided to make a few big potential moves down the road. While one of their biggest situations that they will have to face is paying back their players; the French investment group is debating offering an equity stake to players on the site.
This equity stake would not be offered to everyone, but it would mainly be offered to players who are owed the most money out of the incredible $300 million that is owed world wide. While around half of that money is owed to players in the United States; the group would offer the high stakes players a chance to have a stake in the company, rather than paying them back their money directly.
While this is an interesting situation, it may be one that might not even see the light of day. The reason for this is that the purchase of Full Tilt Poker won’t move forward at all unless everything is settled with the United States Department of Justice before hand. The Tapie Groupe themselves have stated that they will not be finalizing the purchase unless the situation with the DOJ is handled.
Another interesting situation that is ongoing with the group, is that they are also hoping to get financial support from both the Department of Justice, as well as other investors. This means that they plan to have others (specifically the DOJ with the money that they are holding), pay back a percentage of the $300 million that is owed to players around the world.
It seems that there are still many things that need to be sorted out before the purchase is finalized. One other thing that is fairly recent to the Full Tilt Poker news, is the fact that the Alderney Gambling Control Commission has actually revoked Full Tilt Poker’s gaming license around a week ago. This means that the AGCC can no longer do anything for players about the money that is owed to them, and that they have to go directly through Full Tilt or the police.