Full Tilt Poker released a statement in reaction to their agreement with the Justice Department. It mostly says that they are pleased that they can give players their money back but the DoJ won’t give them the money that was seized. That money represented a significant portion of player funds, and they are working to find some system to get money to players as their whole structure for payouts has been destroyed. The bottom line for players is you still must wait. Also, any pressure on DoJ in the form of comments on their Facebook page or to local law makers should be continued. The negative press and anger from consumers is the only reason that we can see for the swift press release from Justice. Continued pressure is the best way for players to facilitate the return of their funds.
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Full Tilt Poker Statement:
Full Tilt Poker™ is pleased to announce that it has reached an agreement with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York to regain the use of its worldwide domain name, www.fulltiltpoker.com.
Although players in the United States will not be permitted to engage in real-money play, the agreement expressly allows for real-money play outside of the United States.
In addition, the agreement represents an important first step towards returning funds to U.S. players because it allows Full Tilt Poker to utilize its domain to facilitate the withdrawal of player funds. But, unfortunately, there remain significant practical and legal impediments to returning funds to players in the immediate future. As a result of the recent enforcement action, there exists no authorized U.S. payment channel through which to make refunds; Full Tilt Poker has no accounting of the millions of dollars of player funds that were seized by the government; and the government has not agreed to permit any of the seized player funds to be returned to the players.
Finally, there are numerous legal and jurisdictional issues that must be considered before poker winnings can be paid out to players throughout the United States. While Full Tilt Poker continues to believe that online poker is not illegal under federal law or in 49 states, the indictment and civil forfeiture action filed last Friday require Full Tilt Poker to proceed with caution in this area.
Notwithstanding these issues, Full Tilt Poker is ready to work diligently with the United States Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York to try and resolve these issues and to get players their money back as soon as possible.