Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

PokerStars issued an official statement just before its tenth birthday, revealing details of how it manages its accounts. According to PokerStars, it separates players’ funds from operational funds and maintains the two as separate accounts. The objective of releasing this statement was to make the system more transparent and assure customers that their funds are truly secure. But the statement also served the purpose of bringing to light the poor way in which Full Tilt Poker managed its funds, leaving it with nothing to pay back its US poker players after the US federal government crackdown.

The PokerStars statement reveals that its fund management system is in accordance with the rules of Isle of Man, the body that has issued it a gaming license. According to this law, “any player owned funds (deposits and winnings) are ring-fenced from the operating funds of the company and held securely in segregated bank accounts.” Since PokerStars followed this rule to the letter, it could emerge from the horrors of April 15 with its reputation unscathed.

On the contrary, Full Tilt Poker still owes around $330 million to its ex players, who are now beginning to hope that they might be refunded if Groupe Bernarde Tapie, the French investment company that wants to acquire Full Tilt Poker, finalizes its acquisition deal.

PokerStars clearly explained each and every detail of its fund management system and the way in which player funds and operational funds are separated and maintained in its official statement, which can be accessed on its corporate blog.

According to the statement, “any risk associated with a disruption to the player fund system – caused by a delinquent payment processor, or a bankrupt bank, or a government action – is borne by PokerStars, because funds to cover such disruption would come out of our operating income, not player funds.”

Bodog Poker has announced that it has re-branded itself as Bovada Poker for the benefit of its US online poker customers. This new online poker brand will be run by Morris Gaming Group (MMGG) and will be part of the Bodog Poker Network.

Since Bovada Poker is meant exclusively for US poker players, non US players will not be able to register an account at this site. But non US players can continue playing against their US opponents at Bodog Poker since both sites will be on the same network. However, the US player database at Bodog Poker and US players’ online poker accounts will be moved to Bovada Poker. US poker players will not face any inconvenience since they can log into their Bovada Poker accounts using the same passwords and usernames. In other words, there is no need to register a fresh account.

The shift is not expected to affect player traffic on the network. Bovada Poker was not available for a brief period today when the database and other player details were being moved, but now it is available as usual.

The rebranding is expected to be very advantageous for the Bodog Poker Network as a large number of players are expected to be attracted to the exclusive US poker site. The poker player traffic at Bodog Poker shot up following the events of Black Friday or April 15 this year when the US federal government cracked down on Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, and Absolute Poker. However, when Merge announced its intention of accepting US poker players once again, player volume at Bodog Poker fell.

Meanwhile, existing poker players at Bodog are having a great time at the micro-stakes and low-stakes poker tables because they are full of fish and hope that the situation will continue for a longer time.

The Southern District of New York Court announced on Nov 30 that the three major US online poker rooms, on which the federal government of USA cracked down in mid-April this year, have been granted an extension to file their responses to the amendments made to the federal complaint against them and filed on September 21.

According to the amended complaint, Full Tilt Poker’s board of directors, sponsored players, and executive officers are guilty of running a Ponzi scheme of global proportions, through which they cheated Full Tilt Poker’s loyal players of millions of dollars. . Preet Bharara, the US federal attorney, has especially accused the operators of Full Tilt Poker of filling their pockets with players’ money. Before the amendments were made, the complaint just stated that Full Tilt Poker’s executive officers were involved in illegal gambling, money laundering, and bank fraud

The court has issued 3 Stipulation and Orders, one for each online poker company. Accordingly, each company has been given an extension till Jan 2, 2012 to file their responses to the complaints against them. The companies had to actually file their responses by November 30, but could not do so because of certain claims filed by Rafe Hurst and Howard Lederer.

The Stipulation and Orders can be accessed and read at Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, and Absolute Poker. According to the Stipulation and Orders at Full Tilt Poker, “Full Tilt is in settlement discussions with the United States and has requested additional time to answer or otherwise respond to the Amended Complaint; NOW, THEREFORE, IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED AND AGREED by and between the United State of America, by its attorney Preet Bharara, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Jason H. Cowley, Assistant United States Attorney, of counsel, and Full Tilt, by they attorney, Barry Boss, Esq., of Cozen O’Connor.”

Per Hildebrand, the vice president and chairman (sales) of InstaDeal Poker Network, has voiced his opinion that US  online poker site Full Tilt Poker’s Rush Poker is neither patentable nor exclusive. Rush Poker is a form of speed poker that is available only at Full Tilt Poker.

InstaDeal has created its own variant of Rush Poker for both online poker players as well as mobile poker players. After consulting its legal counsel, the company has concluded that Rush Poker does not have the criteria necessary for getting a patent.

Full Tilt Poker had tried patenting its Rush Poker concept in a number of global markets such as Europe, US, Canada, and Australia. The online poker site, which is quite possessive about its invention, said: “Full Tilt Poker, its affiliates, and/or its parent company will take vigorous legal action against any infringement of their patent rights.”

Hildebrand says that his lawyers have informed him that Rush Poker has almost no chance of getting a patent because, of the three criteria required to obtain a patent, Full Tilt Poker has satisfied only one. He said, “From that time on we were confident that they were never going to get a patent for it and so we felt that it was safe to start moving forward with InstaDeal.”

Stating that the 10-year application procedure for getting a patent is “ridiculous considering how quickly today’s market is moving,” Hildebrand expressed his satisfaction that Full Tilt Poker’s attempts to get a patent discouraged competitors, leaving InstaDeal free to offer a Rush Poker product before any other online poker operator got the idea.

He stated: “We are a small company that has developed a great product so we’re happy with others thinking that FTP patent applied for so long.” The rival he is referring to is PokerStars, which was planning to launch something similar to Rush Poker.

Since the US Department of Justice (DoJ) has so far made no announcement regarding either its oral agreement with the French investment company Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT) or the refunding of ex Full Tilt Poker players, the US online poker gaming community is getting more anxious than ever.

Behnam Dayanim, the legal representative of GBT, however, is as optimistic as he was when he first announced the agreement between GBT and DoJ ten days back. He says: “We are waiting to hear back from the DoJ and still hoping to finalize an agreement. It takes time. We have an oral understanding with the DoJ that we’re trying to reduce to writing.”

Ex Full Tilt Poker players, however, are skeptical. The GBT has to first get the DoJ’s nod and then wait for the approval of FTP’s shareholder’s before the acquisition deal can get finalized. According to an email sent by Ray Bitar, the CEO of Full Tilt Poker, to the company’s board of directors, the DoJ would refund US players while GBT would refund players from the rest of the world (ROW).

Regarding this arrangement, Dayanim says: “There are two big differences between US and ROW players. One difference is that DoJ views the activity of Full Tilt in offering wagers to US players as being unlawful. It doesn’t take that view with ROW players. From Tapie’s perspective, there’s a difference in that the ROW players will continue to be players with a re-launched site. Contrastingly, Tapie will have no further interaction with US players.”

Players also want to know when Full Tilt will become functional again. Dayanim says that the DoJ has to first give its approval, after which Full Tilt Poker and GBT have to sign an acquisition deal. The online poker room will get functional as soon as this happens, he says.

Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT), a French investment company, is close to getting the US Department of Justice (DoJ) nod to acquire the US poker site Full Tilt Poker (FTP) and re-launch it in the European market.

Behnam Dayanim, lawyer of GBT’s Laurent Tapie, said that the deal depends on DoJ’s settlement of a civil case filed against FTP. The lawyer told reporters on Thursday, “We have an oral agreement that is in the process of being reduced to writing and expect to resolve all outstanding issues.” The DoJ, in the meanwhile, has not made any comments, but FTP attorney Barry Boss said that certain issues need to be cleared before FTP can be acquired by GBT.

If the acquisition goes through, it would conclude the legal battle between FTP and the US federal government. It may be recalled that the US government had cracked down on major online poker rooms, including FTP, on April 15 this year, seized their domain names, and booked their executive managers on multiple counts of bank fraud, illegal gambling, and money laundering. As a result, thousands of US poker players lost access to money deposited in FTP accounts and are still waiting for a refund.

FTP found itself broke when the federal government cracked down on it and could not return the $150 million it owed its US players. Shortly thereafter, the government made amendments to the civil suit it had filed against FTP, accusing the company of being a massive Ponzi scheme guilty of cheating players of $444 million. While the company’s legal representatives have rubbished these allegations, they have admitted to gross mismanagement of funds on the part of the company executives.

If the acquisition deal works out, GBT would refund FTP’s international players while the DoJ would refund its US players. But first, the DoJ and FTP’s shareholders have to approve the deal.