Quelle: thedigeratilife.com
Das Department of Justice hat am Mittwoch eine Pressemitteilung herausgegeben, in welcher es die Rückgabe der beiden Domains an die entsprechenden Seiten ankündigte. Dies dient vorerst nur der Auszahlung von Spielergeldern in naher Zukunft.
Manhattan Staatsanwalt Preet Bharara sagte dazu: "Keinerlei Spielergelder wurden jemals beschlagnahmt oder einbehalten und jede der angeklagten Firmen hatte zu jedem Zeitpunkt freie Hand, den Spielern ihr Geld zurück zu erstatten. Unser Büro geht sogar sicher davon aus, dass die Firmen sämtliche Gelder an U.S.-Spieler zurückzahlen werden, und wir werden mit ihnen zusammenarbeiten, um die Rückzahlungen durchzuführen, wie das heutige Abkommen deutlich zeigt," was wiederum klar macht, dass die Untersuchungen nicht gegen die Spieler selbst gehen und eine Beschlagnahme irgendwelcher Bankrolls nie Teil der Anklage war.
Kurz nach dieser erfreulichen Nachricht, meldete sich Full Tilt mit folgender Pressemitteilung zu Wort: "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.
PokerStars ließ nicht lange auf sich warten und teilte mit: "The company categorically denies the allegations brought by the US Department of Justice on 15th April 2011 and is taking all steps necessary to robustly defend itself, and the two named individuals. Meanwhile, the company has stopped offering real money poker services in the United States.
Returning US players’ funds is a top priority for PokerStars and the company can now start the process of returning money to its former US customers. All PokerStars player deposits are completely safe. The Isle of Man’s strict licensing laws (similar to other jurisdictions where PokerStars holds licenses) require all funds to be held in accounts that are segregated from company assets. PokerStars has always complied with this requirement and continues to do so. This money is readily available to meet withdrawal demands, indeed the company continues to comply with withdrawal requests from players based outside the US as normal. Outside the U.S., PokerStars continues to operate business as usual.
Zusätzlich zu diesem Statement hat PokerStars eine FAQ-Seite auf ihrer .com Domain geöffnet, welche alle relevanten Fragen bezüglich der Rückzahlungen für U.S.-Spieler beantwortet.
