i predict a rigtard revolution on 2p2 after this case finishes

I actually had to go through the document myself because I simply could not believe the number $2,500,000,000. Amazing that they have to forfeit at least $2.5bn and only $390m is owed to players.

If they had anywhere near that sum of money combined why couldn't they just pay for that out of their own pocket and make this whole thing go away?

Just because you want something doesn't mean that it exists.

Not yet. Hopefully soon.

LoL,

noone who's capable of playing poker with a 20k roll is going to release it for a mere $500.

That's like someone with a $100 roll stuck on FT saying they will release it for like $2 or $3. I'd rather just ride it out and wait for such a small percentage.

Stop talking crap.

Care to venture an educated guess as to what that script may say?

I agree. The 17k give or take that they owe me now I feel should be in the neighborhood of 30+. Not gonna happen though that's how the real world works

The obvious guess is Bitar takes the fall for everyone does a couple of years in jail,Stars pays the DOJ loads of money to be clear of legal problems and pay off FT players and Preet Bharara gives a big press conference lauding how he took down those evil illegal gambling companies and hopes noone notices that most of the major players walked.

So does this mean PS and full tilt are coming back to the US anytime soon?

check the probability forum for a thread titled

52 factorial and action community cards/whole cards

kind of an eye opener on the possibilities of a 52 card deck^ try out the various examples

cheers,
Feel

So in 2010-11 the US Govt was clamping downheavily on payment processors, making it increasingly problematic for FTP & PokerStars players in the US players to fund their accounts.

However, PokerStars seemed to be able to function pretty adequately prior to Black Friday, whereas FTP instead chose to resort to fraud.

Which begs the question, how was PokerStars able to get round those same payment processor problems?

If the numbers are correct and the top brass at FTP pocketed hundreds of millions each, it may be that PokerStars simply didn't pay themselves as handsomely.

the events that are unfolding as of lately are laying the foundation for the possible re-entry of PS/FT into US soil. imho

it's only a matter of time and i do not know the exact date bud.

Apologies for not posting ITT yesterday, but I made conscious decisions how best to spend my time, which made it less possible to be here. I think most questions have already been answered, will try to catch up

Well, we all know they were robbing the players like that. But they were apparently also finding it almost impossible simply to get US player's deposits into their FTP accounts. Weren't PS in the exact same boat in that regard?

Pokerstars stopped floating echecks, FTP was willing to float the bad deposits to try and gain market share I guess.

OK thx. So how were US PokerStars players actually funding their accounts in early 2011?

is a deal between stars and doj will be announce in the next 7 days?

Just to be clear, I am pretty sure that if Kaplan must recuse himself as I suggested, he would only be doing so as it relates to Bitar, and there is no reason to believe he wouldn't continue to be the one on the bench for any other defendants (assuming the same conflict didn't exist for them). As to this being the only motive for Bitar to hire Baughman, keep in mind that there is no way of knowing who he might draw from the pool for a new judge. He could conceivably do worse.

As to the DOJ/FBI's handling of "putting on the show", I couldn't agree more. Bitar obviously agreed to be taken in voluntarily already, with or without new charges.

As to the aforementioned "free pass" there is no reason to suspect that is anything more than a rumor at vthis point.

Once they stopped taking echecks, there were a few prepaid cards that still worked. I remember reloading once near the end and it was hard, I had to try 2 or 3 cards before I got one that worked.

possibly. let's just have a little more patience during this time.

we've all shown patience and been through tough times as online poker players this past year.

i pray that everything get's turned in the right direction sooner or later regarding the current status of online poker.

DF, I'm curious to know what you think PS motivation is in buying FT?

No.

The $2.5B number everyone is jumping on is just the combination of the DOJ estimates for FTP ($1B) and PS ($1.5B) gross US revenues, with no allowance for expenses.

The actual interesting thing in the indictment is that SDNY is now laying the $1.5B for PokerStars on Butnick, for his role from 2006-2007, likely to make it easier (politically) for them to give PS a walk.

While we do not know what plans DOJ ever had/has for extradition in this case, I'll take issue with Devlin-Brown not really saying what this says. What he did say to the judge, was that there are problems with extradition laws in some countries(presumably including ireland) because of the issues relating to the requisite dual criminality features of some extradition treaties, (which we, as mere laypersons, have discussed for a year on this forum). I never heard him say "we were going after him anyway" or anything similar (I would be happy to change my opinion on this when someone gets the transcript).

What he did say was with regard to his request for denial of bond, as they (USAO) foresee those same potential issues with extradition in other places if Bitar were to flee. I thought it was pretty odd that a prosecutor would say on the record in court, that they have problems bringing these ppl in via extradition. Not that it matters is someone were to flee, but this bordereed on saying "well done guys, now we can't get you"?

Money