Wow, thanks for the update. Really sad.

+1, thanks PPA. Dont listen to people blaming you for this. I appreciate you getting this for us.

The "help wanted ad" the DOJ put out in August was a request for Information (RFI). It's purpose was to solicit firms potentially interested in bidding on a contract as claims administrator for the DOJ in the FTP case. After the 30 day window for that passed the DOJ would have issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) to the interested companies. The request for proposal would have included specifics of the job being bid. Note; in a previous post I included a sample of an actual request for proposal for a DOJ remissions contract. It was 122 pages long. If you are interested you can find it in post #2150.

The RFP process can take basically as long as it takes. I have seen cases where the contract is awarded in 3-4 months after the RFI period closes, as well as cases where it took 2 years. I do not know why the vast disparity in the time taken to award the contract.

So, my informed "guess" is that the DOJ is still in the RFP stage of the contract award. Thus, there really is no new news to report, except to say "we are working on it", which would be pointless because that type of statement offers zero real information. We already know they are working on it.

There will not be any remission fee for you to pay. The DOJ will take the costs of remissions directly out of the total of the money available for remission. As of today it appears the DOJ has about $165M immediately available and reserved for remission ($225 paid by PStars minus reserves for the Kentucky lawsuit $30M and the Cardroom America lawsuit $30M). The holding of reserves for these cases comes from the settlement agreement, the case dockets and from published information attributed to DOJ sources. This number also presupposes the DOJ is not collecting money for the costs of prosecuting this case from the forfeited funds.

In this case I believe the DOJ will eventually make enough money available to cover all costs and to pay out 100% balances (whatever that term may ultimately be determined to mean. I'm not weighing in on that cluster). Considering the above, it may be that the amount of money on hand as of now is not sufficient to cover payouts of 100% and the costs of remission. Then again, they may have enough. It is really dependent on the dollar amount in petitions received from victims.

In looking at previous contract awards and in the RFP I reference above, it looks the cost per claim to the government is anywhere from $55 to $100 per claim. If this turns out to be true and the current fund is short, then it is possible remissions will be made on an interim pro-rata basis. This would mean FTP victims would get a percentage of their loss in the first distribution. As other PStars payments are received then more interim distributions would be made until all victims have been paid in full or the money runs out.

This is not a sure thing by any means, but is a likely outcome considering the way the DOJ has handled other cases.

I was working on this when Rich was posting. I think it certainly confirms my thoughts as to where the process is currently at, that being the RFP stage. I would suspect we will not hear any other information from The DOJ on this matter until the notification letters are actually sent to victims. This is the norm in every remissions case I have looked at. I have previously posted enough links to real cases that members here can read and decide for themselves a likely time frame for that stage of the process.

Hopefully, the PPA may be able to use their position as an advocates and lobbyists for Poker Players and FTP Victims to develop sources for some interim information to the extent that any interim information actually exists. I think it is telling of their growing influence in Washington and impressive the PPA was able to secure a meeting with the DOJ to even discuss this case.

if there is a number or email that we could call to put some pressure on these guys please list it.

I know it's unlikely to mean much to them, but a lot of people had life changing sums of money on there. And while no one should have allowed their whole life to crumble waiting on this cash, some people might be considering using that money as a down payment on a house. Or maybe investing in a small business that could create jobs. Or whatever.

The point is, this is not just a bunch of lottery winners that unfortunately are having to wait for their prize. This was people's cash, much of it earned, some of it just deposited, and people expected to have this money to live their lives with. I understand that the main fault is with FTP in this case, but the DOJ certainly doesn't seem to be in any rush to try and right this situation.

They have the means to do that, and if possible I'd like to impress upon them our need to see this process expedited in some way.

Frankly considering how much trouble it is for the PPA to influence legislation (you guys just don't have the money or resources that many others do) I think the poker community would consider this a huge goal to help get this remission problem straightened out. I feel like this needs a daily action plan. I know a lot of people missing large sums of money feel more invested in the solution of this issue than we do in legalization (which seems like it's just going to happen when it happens regardless of what we do).

thanks for your time and effort to try and advocate for players. I'd love to see you guys take it a step further and maybe we can start mobilizing player support to encourage the DOJ to try and move this process forward at a more reasonable pace.

yup every worst case scenario since the stars deal completed i've expected in every timeline has occured so far.
[x] - row players were paid before US
[x] - US players would log into the FTP relaunch to see a balance of $0.0
[x] - if you emailed them about anything concerning your balance, they sent you some generic "please direct all balance inquiries to the DOJ" copy paste
[x] - nothing resulted from the DOJ PPA meeting

my next prediction is that we'll get get paid back in deposits instead of balances, but only on positive balances.

1)if you deposited $500 in jan 2010 and lost it all and haven't touched online poker since. you're not getting anything back.

2) you deposited $500 in jan 010. lost it all. deposited $300 again in april 010 and somehow ran it up to $8000 when black friday hit. they can just decide to pay you $300 and pocket that $7700 themselves.

we're screwed yall. so everyone that kept saying "deposits will cost them more than balances" need to shove it up their ass

Before everyone starts railing against the PPA, let's remember who the real villains are, FTP and its BOD. Unfortunately, I fear there is nothing that can be done other than what the PPA is doing: cordially urging the DOJ directly to move swiftly, helping them navigate the complexities involved, and uniting players to mobilize our elected leaders to act on our behalf. On that last point, PPA, I think you have an opportunity to turn this negative into a positive and get all of us to re-engage in this and the greater fight, but you need to act swiftly and communicate a strategy.

http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pres...ettlement.html

“We are pleased to announce these settlements by Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, which allow us to quickly get significant compensation into the victim players’ hands."

What exactly did Preet mean by "quickly"? Less than four years?

Or perhaps he should have changed his statement to read "non-American victims".

Absolute ****ing travesty of justice and the American People. Plain and simple.

They havnt even gotten around to taking bids to hire a claims adjuster!!!? I would be surprised if we even get our money in 2013....if at all.

Im sure when the DoJ told the PPA body all of this injustice and rape they just smiled and said "Thats sounds great! Thanks guys! Anyway we can help!"

The PPA has done absolutely nothing. Hey Rich, how was your free steak?

See you guys in 6 months....

This is absurd. DOJ couldve let PStars pay US players out no problem. They still haven't agreed on how much they are going to pay players? that is incredible. They had no problem letting them pay us out a few days after Black Friday.

This.

ive been checking 2p2 for the majority of the past 19 months wondering what was going to happen. Is this seriously going to continue for another 12-24 months?

How can the PPA stay sane when talking to them. I'd lose my f-ing mind.

Ummm....getting what exactly? Nothing.

THIS.

What a ****ing joke

PPA had excellent legal representation and pushed back hard in favor of moving this forward. I think the tone of the letter indicates our displeasure at the (lack of) process.

If you feel PPA is not providing you with adequate legal representation, I encourage you to consider obtaining legal representation of your own. I don't mean that sarcastically, either. It's your money on the line and you need to make your decisions on how to proceed.

None for me. I wasn't there, but thanks for asking. I work out of my home in northern Kentucky, making significantly less than I did either as an engineer or as a professional poker player because I'm passionate about our right to play.

this. ****ing travesty

False. There is definitely value in knowing that we won't be paid for a long time. Information we would not have definitively had absent the PPA/DOJ meeting.

It's also a disgusting development considering Preet's statement, and the DOJ press release, saying that information would be posted in the coming weeks.

So disappointed in our government.

Did you have any inclination to ask them WHY the delay considering they already have the money and all the records of what people are owed are simple to get!?

Can I revise my "known pessimistic/Debbie Downer" prediction to end of 2013/early 2014?

I still think we will get 100% of balances.

PPA is going to catch an undeserved ration of **** for this, and like most of us they've been too optimistic, but from the sounds of it we really need someone on our side helping clarify things for the DOJ so I'm glad they are laying out the issues.

They explained exactly why. They plan to develop a process, sort through all the third-party payment processor applicants, cross every t, dot every i, and pay us back once done.

First of all, thanks to TheEngineer and the PPA, they're doing more than anyone else for our cause.

Secondly, holy ****ing Jesus Christ on a pogo stick, this update literally pisses the **** out of me. We've all been so patient, and now this.

I'm embarrassed for our country that its reputation for endless beaurocracy is once again reaffirmed by idiot politicians who highly likely have zero clue about what this whole ordeal has meant to us.

Disgusting, Sofa King disgusting.

What did they get for us? NOTHING!

They told them how we feel and were ignored. They weren't given any information whatsoever.

This is a ****ing joke.

Seriously, what information do we have now that we didn't have yesterday?

They've been getting plenty of angry calls already. IMO they're probably doing more harm than good at this point. After all, we're not dealing with elected officials.

I believe the best place to apply pressure is by us pressing for our rights as players overall. The more convinced elected lawmakers are of our organization as a community, the more likely they are to listen to our lobbyists when it comes to this (and we saw a few ask Eric Holder about Black Friday during an unrelated hearing). We all have to do the Daily Action Plan, and we all have to send the PPA prewritten letters every six weeks (Eric Holder is one of the recipients). If we players don't do our part, we simply don't exist in the minds of lawmakers.

....**** it

Back to my other less loved passions.

Peace out.

/Me

On the bright side, I can at least stop checking this thread every day.