DOJ to Allow Players to Access Funds

[TeflonDawg]

Who cares what the DOJ "allows?" They're the cause of my money being locked up...Nothing they say or do means jack **** until the equity of my rolls on FT & PS show up in my bank account.

[Pauky]

PPA members sent more than 65,000 emails and letters.

That's 5% of the 1.2Million members. Just imagine: We might even get regulation passed if we had 50% of memebers emailing their representatives.

[PokerXanadu]

Originally Posted by YoureToast

Everyone, Full Tilt is now saying they can't refund the money because all of the the money is tied up in the seized bank accounts.

Reference?

[LetsGambool]

I personally would have waited for money to return to players before declaring victory. Hopefully it all works out, I'll live if I dont get the money back from FT and Stars but would obviously rather have it

[DonkeyQuixote]

Originally Posted by repulse

Any speculation as to how much of an effect our calls and emails may have helped this agreement come about so quickly? I'd be curious.

I was sent a copy of the PPA's fundraising email that has already gone out touting the DOJ - Stars agreement re player funds as their doing .....

I suspect the deal was much less a result of the PPA, than sharp negotiating between the parties, and pressure from the B&Ms not to fork manure down everyone's well.

[duh]

ya wtf, we all knew we were going to get our $$ back. I can't see the emails making a difference. I don't recall a mass email campaign for neteller, but I could be wrong.

[Jah Onion]

“Over the past few days, PPA members sent more than 65,000 emails and letters, and made thousands of phone calls

the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), the leading poker grassroots advocacy group with more than one million members nationwide

[Skallagrim]

Effects can have multiple causes. It is unfortunate that many people seem incapable of understanding this and want to say "the emails made them do it" or "the emails had nothing to do with it at all."

My original post said there were two things that made this happen and made it happen fast: the effort of the sites, and the noise made by players.

The DOJ had no incentive to cut the deal really. In the agreement they basically get nothing they didn't already have. And it is hard for me to imagine that the lawyers at SDNY all of a sudden got concerned about poker players and their money.

So something made the DOJ move. I believe what made them move was pressure form DC. I suspect that pressure came first from Congresspersons who contacted DOJ and/or Holder and said "whats up with all these constituents saying you are holding their money?" That was our emails, letters, calls and other efforts at work.

After that the DOJ folks in DC probably said to the DOJ folks in SDNY "this is bad publicity, fix this."

And so SDNY cut the deal sooner rather than later and probably after getting less than they otherwise might have held out for.

So our efforts helped. A deal to release player funds would have happened eventually, true. But that it happened as fast as it did and that it happened without a bunch of other agreements is something players who voiced their opinion can take at least some credit for.

That's my best guess anyway.

Skallagrim