I seriously would like to know the ONE ONE ONE ONE TIME that a poker player said that we will hear something promising "the next day or next week" and has it ever panned out? NOOOO, I think taht we need to stop giving poker players any attention and believing them. Look at durr and galfond, where is that 2 mil they promised? Why would Elky know before say DN? DN said that he had not heard anything and then Elky is promising an announcement tomorrow. But like I said I seriously do not think that anytime a poker player has promised an announcement it has ever came through. Elky would pry be the last guy I would trust. Yes he is connected to stars but why would the leak info to him about an annoucement?

PS will keep both brands

Now I finally get my $423,909.23

WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Or a Million Euro Buy-in Tournament!!!

i am a huge fan of the theorie a thing is always worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it in that moment...

(your points are valid)

3, i have a guess: GBT was getting ready to relaunch, PS went out and did their own research... either they saw tremendous value in running a two brand strategy or (i think more likely) this is slightly less then the chunk FTP2 would bite out of the PS Poker pie if relaunched by someone else...

it is hard to find arguments that people working at PS are NOT the foremost experts on the poker market... so one of the above should be true

(oh! and way to screw STT players AGAIN stars...)

I wonder if they will still give 27% rb. I hope they do

Why would a business want to compete against itself and obtain an entire different set of licenses, operate an entire different set of servers?

Other people with "sources" are often garbage. Think logically.

What? I haven't been around much in the last few weeks, did I miss something? I thought Nevada had ruled out ROW

OK, this should probably clear up a lot of issues and should make a decent addition to OP if someone knowledgeable can answer it (paging NoahSD/ZBTHorton/Diamond_Flush etc!)

From a post Noah made back in Nov:

Could one of you briefly address each of these steps wrt Stars instead of GBT now/speculate on whether or not each one could be completed more quickly this time? i.e. does another shareholder vote need to take place? could Stars operate FTP under their existing license? etc.

Thanks!

You are being an ignorant embarrassment as a representative for the rest of the world.

What is your government doing to get anyone their money back ?

[x] PS would be happy to just settle all it's DOJ indictments for $750M.

[x] PS would be happy to settle all it's DOJ indictments for $750M plus pay back all FTP players as part of the $750M.

[x] PS would be happy to settle all it's DOJ indictments for $750M plus pay back all FTP players as part of the $750M plus gain ownership of all FTP assets even if it also had to take on the potential FTP liabilities to suppliers.

[x] PS would be happy to settle all it's DOJ indictments for $750M plus pay back all FTP players as part of the $750M plus gain ownership of all FTP assets even if it also had to take on the potential FTP liabilities to suppliers plus be allowed to return to the US market for one or other of the brands where it can get a license even if it is only a service provider license.

[x] PS would be happy to settle all it's DOJ indictments for $750M plus pay back all FTP players as part of the $750M plus gain ownership of all FTP assets even if it also had to take on the potential FTP liabilities to suppliers plus be allowed to return to the US market for both brands where it can get a license even if it is only a service provider license.

[x] PS would be happy to settle all it's DOJ indictments for $750M plus pay back all FTP players as part of the $750M plus gain ownership of all FTP assets even if it also had to take on the potential FTP liabilities to suppliers plus be allowed to return to the US market for both brands where it can get a license either as a site or as a service provider.

...IMHO, of course.

Sweet deal for PS, whatever the terms.

Why wouldn't they want to own another business that makes money? People have brand preferences and not everyone prefers Pokerstars.

Heineken International sells over 170 beers. Should they stop competing against themselves?

Im glad agcc won't be getting a dime from stars.

Your missing the whole point. When poker is legalized in the USA they now will have 2 sites in each state (or federally if it goes that way) instead of just one. You must see why it is better to have wynn/stars and (pick a casino)/ftp competing against whoever party and 888 partner with instead of having only stars (if ftp didnt exist) against the next 5 biggest casino and online partnerships.

They are going to absolutely crush this way. This 750mill will end up being a great investment for them in the long run.

PokerXanadu

Well hell yes to this. How can others be so damn uninformed as to the value to PS to do this IF DOJ agrees. Thank you sir Hope some of the others reads it too!

This is a misinterpretation. Stars has been in settlement discussions with the DOJ for a year now.

DOJ asked for 1 billion at first. PS got a discount plus the 2nd biggest poker site. Not a bad deal for them.

So your point is that you can't believe anyone? This "goes to show" me nothing and you've proved no point.

You should just be happy that people such as Diamond Flush are out there trying to root out the truth. This whole thing has been a moving target since Day One and Noah and D_F have been pretty much the only posts reading in any of these threads.

Totally agree.

Because they know there were/are a lot of players who liked playing on Full Tilt and if they don't resurrect it, someone else will. The lack of a clear #2 competitor since BF has perhaps convinced Stars that the only site they really need to worry about from a consumer preference standpoint is Full Tilt Poker (888, party, ipoker had their chance to gain market share and couldn't do it). With that in mind, if FTP is deemed your only legit competition threat, you might as well own it yourself.

Economies of scale and an absence of ridiculous spending and horrible management will allow them to run FTP much more affordably than in the past and a possible merged player pool in the future would further that even more. None of the above even mentions the massive potential to sell the FTP software to a brick and mortar or other online company entering the US market in the next couple of years(where FTP software is already extremely popular)

Exactly. People keep ignoring the fact that the idea of Pokerstars buying FTP exists only in the context of their settlement with the DOJ.

They can, just not on PokerStars because PokerStars willingly removed themselves from that market because of the ongoing case against them.

Because PokerStars (and Full Tilt and AP/UB) broke several other laws in order to circumnavigate the law that, at the time, applied to them (the UIEGA). The case against them is about those other laws they broke, not about breaking the UIEGA.

They aren't. Several other sites are still up and running in the US and the DOJ has not brought charges against them.

They went after "the big three" because they committed massive bank fraud. (Also there are probably some politically motivated reasons for clearing PokerStars and Full Tilt out of the market, but that's another thread.)

PokerStars (and Full Tilt, before they lost their license) chose to willingly remove themselves from the US market in compliance with the DOJ so as not to create more headaches for themselves pending legal proceedings. They were not "shut down" for operating an "illegal" gambling site because poker isn't illegal in the US, as the DOJ themselves admitted.

Because FTP2 will be allowed in the US market. Stars signed a clause to get their domain back forbidding them from doing so. I'm sure in time both will be allowed back in, but FTP2 will apparently be as soon as the ink dries on legislation.

There are many ways this all goes down, all of them being pretty much the nuts for us players.

No.. the DOJ sued for $1 billion. There is not a single person who is involved in this that ever thought PS would pay a $1 billion settlement.

Of course, the $750 million that people are quoting is not just for a settlement but also for the purchase of a giant, valuable poker network.

The government went after them because the rat fell into their lap and sold them out. If that doesn't happen, everything is still the same with assorted small(er) seizures littered about.

Actually no. They said that about the Wire Act, a law that was not involved at all in BF, not the UIGEA.



No. The DOJ has not changed its position on any of the laws that it invoked in its BF indictments/civil suit.

Gosh this reminds me of my ex wife and her argument when splitting things up..."I think I should get this because we used my paycheck to pay for it".

....we had a joint account.

bjsmith22 you understand that it wasn't US law that shut down FTP for ROW world players, it was FTP. US law shut down PS, FTP, AP/UB for US players. Period. Just so sick/tilted with all of the anti-American comments ITT. Yes, our Government pretty much sucks, but to blame FTP's situation on the US government is plain stupid.