CM needs another FTP server down to distract everyone for the rest of the day. LET THE SPECULATION CONTINUE!

This will pass, it's already irrevelent, some new item will pop up and grab the spotlight!

One significant piece of new information is that two sites have chosen to pay up on back taxes. That means they don't think, and that their lawyers don't think, Spain's claims to back taxes are meritless. If they thought they could fight these in court and win they would. That means the likelihood that PS will be paying something substantial is very high. Failure to pay could jeopardize PS ability to do business anywhere in the EU (which is most their market). This is an important fact in the global solution of PS problems.

another fly in the ointment? Pretty soon, no more ointment

Any article that uses G Poker as a source should be excluded from this thread, they are completely worthless.

The "Spain backtaxes jeopardize the Stars/FTP deal" would make sense if, say, PokerStars was an eight-yearold child who had been saving up all his pocket money to buy this really cool LEGO set but then his Tricycle broke at the last minute so now he can't afford the lego this week.

The main issue is PokerStars is not an eight-yearold child but huge international company with billions in their coffers. That is not to say both aren't significant deals but the idea that one would then affect the other because "well we only have so much cash we have to pick one!" is laughable. It was laughable the first time someone 'analyzed' this in that stupid G-poker.ca PR article last week, it's even more laughable now it's been regurgitated this week

Absolutely, it would be interesting to know if they have settled with France, Belgium and Italy or if they are waiting for those shoes to drop.

joey plz stfu u tilt the **** out of most ppl here. At least Chinadude is giving " info" of what he thinks is correct

Some good points, and the profitability and management of the corporation are important, but to be fair and view the whole picture, most of PS's accounts and funds remain frozen by the US government, the US government has a claim for over $3 billion against it and its owner faces the possibility of a very long prison term.

If the DOJ/FTP deal is a good deal (+EV if we must), it's a good deal. If paying the demands of the Spanish tax man is a good deal, it's a good deal. Of course they have limited funds but it's just crazy to me one would jeopardize the other. The original article was just a content-free spam piece and a regurgitating of that--now the Spanish tax story has progressed, is just hilariously bad poker "journalism."

(p.s. the claims against PS are for $1.5bn not over 3, the majority of PS funds are not frozen by the US government.. and Scheinberg+Tate aren't exactly facing prison terms in the near future)

if the deal with FTP goes thru, will this help stars' chances at coming to USA again :-)?

Your comments make sense enough, but my simple point was that this is just "one more thing" and eventully too many "one more things" could be a negative tipping point for FTP player recovery. Hopes it ends well soon for USA and ROW

Assuming the 1099 thing is true, it's going to be so annoying. I've already paid taxes on the majority of what my FTP balance was/is, assuming the DOJ sends out 1099's with the full amount on it, it will be just another tax time pain to have to prove that one has paid what they are supposed to.

Also it would prolly take longer if the DOJ handles the payouts, so obv rooting for PS to do what they did with their players, and to pay out FTP's/iron man plz.

I was thinking this exact same thing too. I didnt actually play in 2011, and paid everything for 2010. So Im concerned about double taxing.

Would not the DOJ simply appoint a trustee to do this for a fee? The DOJ does not generally do this themselves right? Do they even have the legal right to do it? Looks like letting PS handle this would be a no brainer. I guess I just don't get this part of Chinamaniac's story, but anythings possible I suppose!

If China is right (that FT would be US facing) it would make sense for FT to handle the payouts. Would be a lot if interest by US players to keep there money on the site. That would reduce FTs obligation.

how can the spanish situation not be negative for usa players? i suppose you can debate how negative

DOJ has said US players would be repaid through its remission process. Of course, it could change but remission probably always meant "along with a 1099."

Show me where the doj said any such thing.

Highly doubt DOJ would issue 1099 forms with refunds. They didn't do it for Partypoker when they withdrew from US market. They didn't do it for Pokerstars. They didn't do it for Neteller. Don't know why all sudden they began to do it for FTP.

This site is like most tournaments. Most of the field are donkeys that have no idea what's going on. I would expect talking sense and facts would upset these donkeys. Same logic obviously applies here.

you make a convincing argument and I can find no flaw in your logic. I agree completely that good things are good.

doj didn't handle payouts for partypoker or pokerstars. (not familiar with netteller)

The more someone says the Department of Justice will issue IRS Forms 1099, the more I'm convinced that someone doesn't know wtf they are talking about, in the first instance, because they've revealed how colossally ignorant that person is about both the Department of Justice, and the Internal Revenue Service, and thus have revealed they don't know the first thing about U.S. law and it's application to any prospective PS buyout of FTP.

Could someone fix the formatting in this thread?

Thanks,
Cro

thanks