Full Tilt Poker Says No Authorized Payment Channel for U.S. Cashouts
On Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced an agreement with PokerStarsand Full Tilt Poker that would return each site’s dot-com domain name in order to process cashouts for players from the United States. While the news may seem rosy on the surface, a press release distributed by Full Tilt Poker on Wednesday revealed that processing player refunds is far from a simple process, even with the Department of Justice’s involvement. Read more about the U.S. Department of Justice deal.
The statement from Full Tilt read in part, “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.”
Therefore, while the Department of Justice has given each site the green light to start collecting cashout requests, processing them might take a while. The online poker site summarized, “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.”
In the comments section of an article posted on Wednesday on our site, one PocketFiver said what many in the poker community were thinking following the Department of Justice returning PokerStars’ and Full Tilt Poker’s domain names: “I am glad people will have access to their funds that they earned, but I am disappointed that our government continues to block people from making a legitimate living or playing a game during leisure!”
PokerStars has also commented on the Department of Justice’s press release and set up an FAQ for U.S. players. The document gave a timeline for when PokerStars players can expect to receive their frozen funds: “PokerStars has reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice that will allow players to cash out as soon as a suitable processor is found. This publicly available agreement includes assurances from the DOJ that player cashouts can be processed safely. Cashouts for U.S. residents are expected to be available within several weeks.”
PokerStars plans to convert Tournament Tickets and T$ into “an appropriate cash value.” It is also deciding what to do about the piles of Frequent Player Points that its U.S. users have accumulated. To that end, the PokerStars FAQ explains, “PokerStars is currently reviewing options for redemption of FPPs by U.S. residents. More information will be available in the coming days and weeks.”
Separately on Thursday, several members of PocketFives.com are reporting that they can access UB.com and AbsolutePoker.com, which were also seized by the U.S. Government last week. At the time of writing, there has been no official comment from either CEREUS Network site. When PocketFives.com tried to access PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com, UB.com, and AbsolutePoker.com from a computer in the United States, the FBI warning was still present on each site.
Wednesday’s announcement by the U.S. Department of Justice revealed that a similar agreement as the one struck with PokerStars and Full Tilt could be in the works for Absolute Poker. None of the three sites accepts new U.S. players.
We’ll keep you posted right here on PocketFives.com.
