Mens pokerverdenen som helhet kjemper med å stoppe de værste blødningene etter 'Black Friday', så har det amerikanske justisministerium nettopp sendt ut en pressemelding som forteller at det amerikanske justisministerium har inngått forlik med Full Tilt Poker og PokerStars. 

Et forlik som tillater PokerStars og Full Tilt Poker å åpne sine .com adresser igjen. Et første skritt mot at amerikanske spillere kan få utbetalt sine innestående penger hos verdens to største pokersites. Forbudet mot spill og alle siktelser mot folkene bak de største pokersidene står fortsatt ved lag.

Det blir dog en del praktiske vanskeligheter da en del av  forbudet som ble innført i 2006, innbefatter et forbud mot å overføre penger mellom banker og andre i den amerikanske finansielle sektor og også pokersidene.

I forbindelse med forliket har Full Tilt Poker for kort tid siden sendt ut følgende meddelelse:


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.