150,000 Euro

FTP active in US, I wonder how.

It would be awesome considering I am semi-retired now and desperately in need of something to do, something preferably more productive than DIablo 3.

Ouch. Sick sweat. Still a nice payday though. Gratz.

If the DOJ does ever decide to go after the new FTP, that's likely something that would take years to come to fruition. Without an informer like Tzetkoff they might never be successful. Think of all the money that can be made in the meantime. The deal might be as simple as pay the DOJ X and all current charges are dropped and the whole Black Friday case will be closed. Then it's just back to business as usual for the next few years until online poker is either legalized or the DOJ is able to get a whole new set of indictments.

I really don't think lee jones aspires to follow Howard lederer out of poker.

The whole problem with FTP was the financial mismanagement not the indictment. If player accounts were handled properly, I'm sure they would be doing the same as Stars right now. They seemed to have landed on their feet just fine after the indictments even though they are facing all the same charges as FTP.

I understand all that. But how does buying FTP help PS settle with DOJ?

Unless DOJ asked them to, presumably so DOJ could keep the 100+ million seized? (their claim to that money is dubious at best)

Presumably, the 750m includes a settlement of all charges with the DOJ.

not sure if this has been discussed in nvg, but what do you guys think the chances are that stars was somehow behind bf?

ok.

inbefore somebody thinks its a jewish conspiracy.

stars were behind bf in the sense that they used illegal banking channels (afaik) and they would have avoided all that fuss if they'd done everything above board.

but that's on the same level as supposing us jews were behind the holocaust

Mother of god

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL2sCAvM29A

It's just highly irregular.

I mean if we go back 5 or 6 years or however long it has been since UIGEA, Party paid out $300-$400 million right?

Pokerstars is still under litigation so why not kill 2 birds with one stone and end the civil suit and be the white knight with the same $$? This way they would actually get something out of their $$.

The thing I don't understand is why people think Stars would keep FTP open. That doesn't make sense to me from a branding point of view. I think they would just swallow them up, take any good ideas they had, and find a way to consolidate the player base. Having a "monopoly" would make it very easy to consolidate data which improves the efficiency of advertising, making changes to the games, promotions, etc.

For example, once they have all the FTP player information and process payouts, they start a mass email campaign telling people who have FTP accounts but not PS accounts what has happened and that their money is always safe on Pokerstars blah blah blah.

The whole FTP opening in the USA makes no sense to me. Not only does the DoJ not make law, but they would need some sort of committee to oversee/audit Pokerstars/FTP wouldn't they? There is no way after all of the post-Black Friday discovery that they would just say "ok, you can operate. gl!" I mean the big banks still occasionally close accounts tied to internet gambling. I don't see how this works.

The "good idea" part (namely Rush poker, FTP did say patent pending) is the only thing that has made sense to me.

I am guessing PStars is already raking hundreds of ks a day on "zoom" poker already.

Why doesn't settling the civil suit by buying FTP make sense?

Because that's just picking up additional liabilities when they could (unless DOJ says otherwise) settle their own litigation.

Why would they want to pay FTP players the 300 million? Why wouldn't they simply settle for 450 or 500 million or whatever? That's already significantly more than what Party settled for.

Keep in mind the Frenchies balked at 300 million price tag or thereabouts and FTP is probably worth more to them than to PokerStars (due to cannibalization).

some of those runs are absolutely nuts

I'm just assuming that their settlement would be bigger than 450 or 500 million, there is value in dropping the charges against Isai, and the customer loyalty they'd gain would be worth a bunch of $$.

Isn't 2011 Stars worth a LOT more than Party 2006 as well?

This is all just fun speculation

that is shot so beautifully. the production is incredible.

yes for sure.

In a swedish poker documentary i heard that party had a profit of $500M in 2005. Thats a lot of money but stars has to be >10 times larger than party was in 2005?

Am I a geek for watch SC2 pro games on youtube

About 2x, if that.

Keep in mind party's idea of rake back was... Uh, what did they give out?

I had 25% through affiliate, but I guess it was kind of under the table iirc

omg what a game...