Thanks for being blunt about an unconformable situation.

Would still hope that you will use your influence over the other players that owe much more and convince them to do the right thing and pay their debts for the good of all FTP players.

Or Tapie's lawyer was simply offering a discount as a reassurance. E.g. "You want to make sure players are repaid. I think that's gonna happen. You only have to pay the full debt if that happens."

I don't know if that's what he meant, and I'm sure that he was intentionally ambiguous because he's a lawyer and he knows to avoid talking about future events that he can't control. But it seems perfectly plausible that that's his/Tapie's logic.

But was the request to pay GBT conditional upon closing of the acquisition? I would guess that it was. I assume their lawyers didn't ask you to pay GBT free-and-clear, with no recourse if the deal didn't go through. I would be happy to repay a debt to Madoff or Enron, once the malfeasors who ran the company were gone, and the entities were acquired by reputable people.

What you must understand Barry is we were never given the luxury of being allowed to borrow money from the poker sites unlike you and the rest of the FTP pros. We have to deposit and grind our way to a profit without the use of a loan. To ask us to understand where you are coming from or have sympathy for you is rather foolish when 1000's of online poker players may never see their money, which you and others borrowed freely at your convenience without ever paying back, ever again.

I still <3 you but I had a thought.

Don't know if this is possible or not. I'm not a lawyer or accountant.

Can you put the money in a sort of trust/escrow where the money would be paid to the eventual owners of FTP or the DOJ or something with the aim of repaying players?

If you do that, do you think that might encourage others who have a public image to protect to do the same? Meaning you create the trust not just for your funds but for others to pay back as well and information could be made public.

That way people that may be reluctant to give money to FTP (for obvious reasons) have a safe place to give it besides GBT who isn't entitled to it yet and GBT can see how much is likely to be collected.

Lol at so much being made of Barrys piddling 400k amount that he is being upfront about, and Im sure he will pay

I want to hear from the silent ones who owe the other 20 odd mill, or the guys who received many more millions in fraudulent dividends

Will these others pay up or keep quiet n **** up the Tapie deal by not paying, thus giving the ultimate **** you to the players

I really feel for u guys with life changing money locked up on there, rollercoasterish stuff

Barry,

Thank you for being so forthright about answering questions & being able to respond in a respectable time frame. I truly believe that you do have the players best interests at heart. I'm glad you knew if you paid it back earlier it would as you put it been flushed down the drain with FTP, rather you decided to wait it off and take a possible beating from the community to have the players best interests at heart so I'm glad you had some more sense than people on 2+2 give you credit for So I for one thank you for that.
Keep doing what your doing Barry & again thanks for answering questions in a prompt manner.
-Cheers!

lol of course he shouldn't pay ft now. What so RB can string this **** along another 2 months eating lobster with player's money. **** that. The solution is obv. The money goes in escrow. If all players are paid, the money goes to GBT. If not, the money goes to the players.

As someone with a significant sum on FTP, I appreciate Barry's sentiment but--given the available evidence--would prefer if he paid the money back and stopped with the moral crusading. Fact is that the $400k is not his money to decide what to do with, it is FTP's $, and if GBT buys FTP, then it will be GBT's $.

also why are some livid over barry not paying his ftp debt and not others? back when dwan was talking about his ftp debt nobody was telling him to pay it back now...he was basically claiming he wanted to wait just like barry is claiming...and iirc, he owes ftp more than barry

Can't believe I'm quoting MicroBaller here () but, EXACTLY!

Set up a tiny interest-bearing account and give all the interest to charity so at least something good can come from this giant cluster ****.

Seems like Barry is doing the right thing. If GBT wants players from RoW to play on FTP2 they will need to pay them in full or people are just going to take their bankrolls off the site. Sounds like GBT is trying to cheap out and work out just a percentage deal for US players which is why it would make more sense for Barry to put the 400k towards US players to help them get a higher percentage of their funds recovered because GBT is going to need to pay RoW players in full as they will be there customers right away. Just my opinion, could be a little off base but seems to make the most sense from what I have read.

Do people see a significant difference between those that owe FTP money from a loan and say, Jennifer Harman who wasn't loaned money but was paid with player funds via dividends? Shouldn't we be asking for her (and obviously all the others in the same boat) money back? This, of course, does not extend to FTP staff or random sponsored red pro's but only to those who had ownership stake.

You all so want to believe that this man is the honest face of poker but you are missing the evidence that he is a number 1 hustler and con-artist. Times is the only current honest face of poker that I am aware of though I am sure there Re many others. Unfortunately the game does tend to attract scum

+1.

this removes every negative stipulation you even said about yourself bg

There's a significant difference. The owners are much worse then a guy like barry. They could have fixed this mess at any time and have continually looked to screw the players for as much as possible.

Did ferguson really keep $40 million ?

80 at least

Here's the thing Barry,

Right now, anything that improves the financial condition of FTP is good for players/poker community, increasing the likelihood that players will be paid back.

For *years*, you have apparently been damaging FTP's financial condition (albeit in a limited way). Now you've been asked to pay your loan back and you refuse, claiming that you're angling to get U.S. players a better deal. But you swear you'll pay it back in full.

Time will tell, but your comments seem a lot more like a guy who just doesn't want to pay back your debts.

However, your reputation and disclosure do "earn" you the benefit of the doubt. We'll see.

In b4 Ivey shows up saying "Hi NVG. I owe 4 million."

what a stand up guy admitting that he owes ftp money after being outed for owing ftp money. i wish these other bums would get busy and tell me something i already know.

fyp

Pretty surprised to hear you(BarryG) borrowed 400k a "few years ago" and never paid back a dime of it since.

Always been a fan of you and think you're a class act....but come on. Especially after your step son worked with the devil himself.

yes definitely start an escrow and start getting these players with large debts involved.

Why was Pokerstars able to refund players funds within a couple of months and not FTP ?