Mens pokerverdenen som helhed stadig kæmper med, at stoppe de værste blødninger efter 'Black Friday', så har det amerikanske justitsministerium netop udsendt en pressemeddelels som fortæller, at det amerikanske justitsministerium har indgået et forlig med Full Tilt Poker og PokerStars. Et forlig som tillader PokerStars og Full Tilt Poker at åbne deres .com adresser igen. Et første skridt mod, at amerikanske spillere kan få udbetalt deres indestående hos verdens to største pokersites. Forbuddet mod spil og alle sigtelser mod folkene bag de største pokersites står dog fortsat ved magt.
Der bliver dog en del praktiske vanskeligheder, da en del af forbuddet indført i 2006, indbefatter et forbud mod, at overføre penge mellem fra banker og andre i den amerikanske finansielle sektor og så pokersiderne.
I forbindelse med forliget, har Full Tilt Poker for kort tid siden udsendt 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.