It was recently announced that Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars would be joining forces via a multi-million dollar deal that would see ‘Stars acquire its former competitor. Now, the deal has been finalized as PokerStars has paid the American Department of Justice an instalment of $225 million.
It is just one of many payments that will be made to the DoJ over the course of the next three years. In the meantime, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker can carry on with their new partnership.
”We’re delighted to announce that we have officially closed our deal with the U.S. DoJ as of today”, said Lee Jones, a representative for PokerStars representative Lee Jones.
$184 million has been allocated for the refunds of international online poker players outside of the United States. In America, players will have to file with the Department of Justice to receive their money. While this is great news for former Full Tilt players, speculation has been raised over whether or not players will be able to receive their winnings in addition to their deposits. Since the American federal government still views online poker as illegal, it is likely that the DoJ will not pay out their winnings.
Players around the rest of the world can look forward to the reopening of Full Tilt Poker. According to the company’s executives, the site will be up by at least November 6. While the site will be owned by PokerStars, it still presents players with an alternative to the current leader of the online poker world. Full Tilt offers players unique software and tournament structures, so we anticipate many players will migrate back to the site.
