What was made crystal clear in the e-mail is that GBT had full intentions of remaining in the online poker market.

What is strange about Tapie’s plans is the degree to which he wished to make this online poker room (essentially) a rebranding of Full Tilt Poker without having to go through the US Department of Justice. For one, Tapie intended to “attract ALL OF the Pocket Kings KEY STAFF to join me [emphasis unchanged from original email].” Even more confounding, though, was Tapie’s explicit intentions to use this site to “repay” FTP accounts, using the same exact plan that Tapie had proposed to the DoJ.

So Tapie was going to launch a poker site with all of the head honchos of FTP at the helm, and then, this site was actually going to honor FTP money.

The e-mail quickly outlined some other ways that Tapie has attempted to circumvent the influence of the DoJ on Full Tilt’s fate. He said that he tried to convince Ray Bitar to—without the approval of the Department of Justice—accept a temporary license in order to be able to relaunch the site. Bitar insisted on asking for permission and was subsequently denied approval. Tapie also tried to have Bitar place FTP in insolvency and let all employees know that their jobs were at risk, but it seems likely that Bitar sought DoJ approval on this as well, and no action has been reported of this nature.

As with all of the other statements that Tapie has made regarding Full Tilt Poker, this e-mail continues the rhetoric that he is acting in the interest of unpaid accounts, saying “I continue to believe that our plan for repayment was fair.” This premise was once “good enough” for poker players to consider GBT the hero in this situation. Just so long as players felt that GBT gave them a chance at seeing their money again, they were going to side heavily with Tapie through any dubious reports that might have been made on his reputation, intentions, tactics, etc.

This crucial premise is now thoroughly clouded, though, as Diamond Flush reported two weeks ago some shocking details about the proposed repayment plan. Without going into too thorough of details on what was a lengthy and dynamic proposal, Tapie’s repeated emphasis on the fact that his plan paid back almost 95% of players was pretty clearly disingenuous. These player accounts only made up a fraction of 1% of the entire amount due to players, and the 5.1% of players who made up more than 99% of the money were getting—to be very brief—a bad deal.

Essentially, those players could earn their bankroll back by playing poker on the site for 18 months. The plan sounded like if a store were to refund a customer, not with cash and not even with store credit, but with a 25% discount—one that would expire once the total amount of money saved equaled the amount that was owed to the customer. It would, in fact, be even worse than that because the store, in this case, would be paying back in services (facilitating a poker game) instead of goods with a tangible value.

The short of it is this: with Tapie’s intended repayment plan becoming unacceptable to the poker community, his moves to work around and against the Department of Justice are growing unpopular. And these latest implications, of launching a FTP-esque site without having to work with the DoJ, certainly seems to fall distinctly into this category.

PokerStars.com Purchases Full Tilt Poker?

8:30 PM ET Update: Diamond Flush spilled details of how players would have been repaid had the GBT gone through:

Players with an account balance of less than $ 100 could be repaid in full or have that balance credited to their players account in the new company, virtually immediately. According to some sources, this was believed to encompass ~95% of account holders, and is what the media release today in fact, labeled as 94.9% of ROW players. What was left out of that release was that that purported 94.9% of player balances amounted to approximately $ 16,000,000.00.

The remaining 5.1% of players, with an approximate aggregate account balance of $ 168,000,000.00 fell into a different group. [...]

In each of these categories, in order for players to move more than the original $ 100 over to the unrestricted column (available for withdrawal), there would be significant playthrough requirements. (Full article)

It’s looking better and better for the players that the GBT deal did not go through.

4:40 PM ET Update: Diamond Flush releases a statement from Full Tilt’s attorney Barry Boss of Cozen O’Connor, stating:

To address issues reported today in the media and on blogs, Full Tilt Poker confirms that its agreement with Groupe Bernard Tapie has in fact been terminated. Despite this development, Full Tilt Poker is more optimistic than ever that its number one goal will be obtained: Full Tilt players will be repaid. Full Tilt Poker has been in settlement discussions with the US Department of Justice. As such settlement discussions are always confidential, we are unable to comment on any rumors related to the details of those discussions. As soon as we have information to share publicly we will do so.

So they did not confirm the fact that PokerStars purchased FTP, and probably cannot legally comment yet, but they stated they are even more optimistic than ever, which makes us even more optimistic.

3:40 PM ET Update: PokerStars speaks! Eric Hollreise, Head of Corporate Communications for PokerStars for PokerStars, comments on the deal, but doesn’t say much:

We’ve had a lot of enquiries and there’s lots of speculation on the forums, so I wanted to address the PokerStars chatter. As you know, PokerStars is in settlement discussions with the U.S. Department of Justice. As such settlement discussions are always confidential, we are unable to comment on rumors. As soon as we have information to share publicly we will do so.

However, many people are stating that since PokerStars didn’t outright deny the rumors, there is a very good chance this is legit.

3:38 PM ET Update: QuadJacks reports a leaked e-mail sent early on 4/24 from Ray Bitar to all of Full Tilt’s employees stating that PokerStars has agreed to acquire Full Tilt Poker and the deal is true. Full transcript not yet available.

2:55 PM ET Update: Shaun Deeb makes a post on 2p2 with good news from his source regarding the deal:

I feel bad making a new thread but dont want this info lost elsewhere but cliffs are included my source I trust a lot.

Anyways the deal is already done by what I am told;

Players will be paid within 90 days
FTP will be open in the US market
Isai will be stepping down from the company

If these statements are true I feel that Isai deserves all our thanks+ business in the future with his company he is bailing out the igaming industry’s tarnished reputation

Deeb’s comments are interesting, but are getting heat, especially him mentioning that FTP will be opening in the US market. Update : The comments about opening in the US seem to refer to the fact that if the law changes to allow online poker, Full Tilt will then be allowed to open in the US instead of being black listed.

1:55 PM ET Update: Pokerfuse tweeted a link to PokerStars.co.uk which shows PokerStars was searching for software developers on Dublin, which is where Full Tilt’s headquarters are located. It seems the post was made about 10 days ago.

1:47 PM ET Update: Casino City Vin tweets saying they are hearing the deal is just a rumor and not reality. Still, nothing has been confirmed.

1:45 PM ET Update: Daniel Negreanu comments to Poker Listings, saying he is unable to confirm or deny the news:

“I have no information on it other than what I’m reading but people I’m talking to seem to believe it’s true,” said Negreanu.

“The idea of PokerStars buying Full Tilt for $750 million seems impossible to me, so based on what I know it would really surprise me.

“But it would definitely be good for poker players because PokerStars is a good company and players wouldn’t have to deal with those scumbags anymore,” he said.

1:40 PM ET Update: PokerUpdate has reported that they received confirmation from “credible sources” at Full Tilt offices in Cherry Wood, Dublin that this is in fact true. There still has not been any formal announcement from PokerStars.com.

1:00 PM ET Update: Statement released from Groupe Bernard Tapie, the original investor who planned on purchasing Full Tilt (Read the full statement here):

Groupe Bernard Tapie regrets to announce that, after seven months of intensive work, our efforts to obtain final approval of the United States Department of Justice of the agreement to acquire the assets of Full Tilt Poker have ended without success. Ultimately, the deal failed due to two major issues.

The parties could not agree on a plan for repayment of ROW players. (continued)

12:00 PM ET Update: This still has not been confirmed. However, it seems very likely to be accurate as reported by multiple sources.

375 days have gone by since hundreds of thousands of Full Tilt Poker players world wide had their bankrolls disappear into thin air. And just as much as Black Friday is broodingly remembered, April 24th, 2012 will likely be its counterpart in the poker history books. Multiple sources are reporting that PokerStars has bought Full Tilt and is settling with the US Department of Justice.

As of right now, all news point toward this being the best-case scenario; in fact, it’s arguably better than best case scenario. Starting with the most important, PokerStars plans to refund 100% of all player accounts across the globe.

It is also expected that PokerStars will keep the site in full operation so that Full Tilt Poker will be an online poker room once again with separate promotions and all. This is also the best-case scenario labor-wise, since the full operation of the sites as separate entities will mean that employees will be keeping their jobs with their respective companies.

The good news started just a day after the one-year anniversary of Black Friday. Some of the most hopeful and most concrete signs yet to come out of the debacle began to crop up, all starting with FTP’s homepage displaying a number of players, tables and tournaments running on the site. Over the course of the next 24 hours, the number changed numerous times. It was apparent that they were testing their software. Tweets, forums and reports went in a frenzy over this, as finally the poker community was getting signs that were unfettered by rumor and anonymous sources.

It didn’t stop there. The software was also upgraded, there was a company with FTP connections that applied for a gambling license, and Pocket Kings—a poker strategy site—put up a Help Wanted sign. While testing the software could have been someone just kicking the tires (in fact, the software was also tested back in June of 2011 without much coming of that), these other signs showed a resource investment that would be unnecessary unless there was a serious buyer.

And after eight days of cautious optimism, that serious buyer has turned out to be the biggest online poker room in the world.

It’s being reported that the deal is for $750 million. This includes a settlement with the US Department of Justice and the aforementioned refund of player accounts.

Stay tuned, as we will keep this page updated to keep up with all of the news that is sure to be trickling in over the course of the day.

Post your comments or questions below or see our thread on the FTR poker forum: Breaking News! PokerStars to Purchase Full Tilt (FTR Poker Forum)

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Sources:

Original tweet from Chili Poker’s CEO, Alexandre Dreyfus:

As for what this means for the future of Full Tilt Poker remains up in the air. If Full Tilt regains it’s lost license then we could potentially see the reopening of FTP rather soon. What this means for repayment of former funds remains also in question. It seems logical if FTP reopens that it would be a top priority for FTP to repay in full the players outside of the United States, as these players will be the player base until the U.S market reopens. It is largely unknown when, how or to what extent. US players will be refunded their lost funds.

There are, according to iGaming Business, four individuals leading this particular charge – Steve Segal of New York, Todd Terry of New Jersey, and Nick Hammer and Robin Hougdahl of Minnesota. This group is returning to the litigation process after a failed attempt in 2011, when their initial case accused Full Tilt of racketeering, wire fraud, and money laundering. Because of the widespread distribution of the individuals involved, however, this first case was thrown out by a federal judge on the grounds that the collective matter was outside of his jurisdiction. As with their current suit, Lederer, Ferguson, and several other Full Tilt related persons and companies were named.

Why single out these two? In the end, it comes down to money. The class action statement alleges that Lederer received some $42 million in profit sharing and loans from Full Tilt, while Ferguson is accused of drawing $85 million from the company. These sums, the defendants argue, were illegally obtained and should be reimbursed to the site’s former players. The loans themselves are not the issue – it’s where the money came from that has raised eyebrows across the poker world.

“Defendants,” the lawsuit reads, “approved distributions and loans to the other owners of Full Tilt Poker from funds directly traceable to the player accounts… The distributions and loans to Lederer, Ferguson and the other Full Tilt Poker owners were from intermingled funds containing monies from the player accounts.”

The court documents, which were filed in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada, come nearly one year after the events of Black Friday. The four accusers are seeking a refund of their online poker bankrolls, as well as the payment of punitive damages.

The day that forever changed online poker

On April 15, 2011 the US Attorney’s office in New York announced that PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker were being indicted on charges of bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling. The domain names of the poker sites were seized, forcing the operators to halt all real money play for US players. As the indicted companies scrambled to move their web servers to European domains, there was chaos and panic in the poker community. Players, fearing the worst, rushed to immediately cash out their bankrolls. Distressed messages were flung back and forth over social networking. Online poker forums were flooded with traffic, in some cases causing servers to crash. It was as close to poker armageddon as anybody could imagine.

Isai Scheinberg, Paul Tate, Raymond Bitar, Nelson Burtnick, Scott Tom, Brent Beckley, Ryan Lang, Ira Rubin, Bradley Franzen, Chad Elie and John Campos were the 11 defendants named in the indictment. The charges claim that the defendants were engaged in massive money laundering schemes through illegal transfer methods, including bribing banks and fraudulently disguising transactions in their efforts to circumvent the restrictions put into place by the UIGEA – the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006.

The 51-page indictment goes into detail on how the poker sites worked with “highly compensated third party payment processors who lied to United States Banks about the nature of the financial transactions they were processing and covered up the lies through the creation of phony corporations and websites to disguise payments to the Poker Companies.” Because of the enactment of UIGEA in October 2006, major banks started rejecting any transaction that involved online gaming of any sort, including online poker. The accused poker sites used various methods to circumvent the law, including funneling payments through phony businesses like fake flower shops and pet supply stores in order to fool US banks into approving transactions to and from poker sites.

The UIGEA was a terrible blow to online poker back in 2006 – many sites simply packed up and left the US market, many recreational players (often referred to as “fish” by the more serious players) lost interest in the game, and players complained about action drying up at the tables. With major sites like Party Poker and OnGame exiting the US, it opened up a great opportunity for PokerStars and Full Tilt in particular to dominate the American market. By 2011, nearly five years had passed since the UIGEA and poker seemed to be well on the way to a full recovery. PokerStars and Full Tilt (and also Absolute Poker along with its sister company Ultimate Bet, but to a lesser extent mostly due to serious cheating scandals) seemed to be faring just fine in the post-UIGEA world, their secret money transfer schemes operating without a hitch; hardly anyone had any idea that the perfect storm was brewing in the background.

Enter Daniel Tzvetkoff. Australian entrepreneur and child-genius, having started his own company at 13, he was a key player in the development of the payment solutions desperately sought by the poker rooms to enable fund transfers in the US. It was reported that relations had turned sour between him and one of the poker sites, either Full Tilt or Poker Stars. The company accused Tzvetkoff for stealing $100 million dollars from them, and as a result sued him for damages. The rumors say that the poker site tipped off the FBI about Tzvetkoff’s plans to travel to the US. Tzvetkoff was summarily arrested in April 2010 for the same money laundering charges that would be pointed at the indicted poker sites one year later. A sudden turn of the tide came when Tzvetkoff reportedly held secret meetings with the authorities in August. It is rumored he provided the FBI with critical information on the inner workings of the payment scam, selling out his former clients in exchange for his exoneration. He has not been heard from since. He is rumored to be living under FBI witness protection, and is expected to testify against the defendants in the trial of the 11 men charged in the Black Friday indictment.

The aftermath

The catastrophic aftershocks of Black Friday are felt to this very day. Full Tilt Poker and Cereus Poker Network (to which Absolute and Ultimate Bet belong) have suffered irreversible losses. The already scandal-ridden Cereus Network lost 75% of its player base within just a couple weeks. The network had already lost much player trust after their shameful cheating scandal where company insiders logged onto the poker site using special super-user accounts allowing them to see opponent hole cards and cheat players out of millions in high stakes games. Shortly after Black Friday, Absolute Poker announced that they were limiting withdrawals from player accounts to $250 a week, all the while continuing to accept new deposits, leading to rumors that Absolute Poker was lacking the capital to pay out user accounts in a situation comparable to a classic bank run. Such suspicions seemed to be confirmed as reports came in that the Cereus was on the verge of bankruptcy, and had fired 95% of the employees. Although some Canadian and European players did start to see their account withdrawals arrive on their bank accounts, US players have yet to see any of their money. There has been speculation that if the DOJ allows liquidation of assets, players may be able to see at most 10-15% of their funds returned.

Former players at Full Tilt have had no better luck. Although Full Tilt relaunched games for non-US players shortly after Black Friday, at the end of June 2011 all games for all players were abruptly halted without warning; cash games and tournaments were simply canceled mid-hand with player funds in play. Customers eager to withdraw their funds were met with alarming news. Several non-US players reported receiving withdrawal payment checks in the mail, only to have them bounce when trying to deposit them into their bank accounts. The outlook would continue to worsen for Full Tilt as scandal after scandal made headlines. The events of Black Friday were tantamount to opening Full Tilt’s Pandora’s box.

Much more sinister allegations emerged against the company in an amendment to the original indictment charges, as the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office broke the news on September 20, 2011. The document claims “Full Tilt was not a legitimate poker company, but a global Ponzi scheme. Full Tilt insiders lined their own pockets with funds picked from the pockets of their most loyal customers while blithely lying to both players and the public alike about the safety and security of the money deposited.”

Coincidentally (or not), Full Tilt happened to be holding meetings with the Alderney Gambling Control Commission at the time of the announcement of the DOJ’s amendment. Despite Full Tilt’s attempts to defend itself and have its gambling license reinstated, the commission found that Full Tilt had broken the rules and “had fundamentally misled AGCC about their operational integrity by continuously reporting as liquid funds balances that had been covertly seized or restrained by US authorities, or that were otherwise not available to the operator.” In other words, Full Tilt lied about the amount of money that was actually available to them in order to make it look like they were more capable of repaying customers than they actually were. As a result, the AGCC revoked Full Tilt’s licence on September 29.

A long list of lawsuits has been directed at Full Tilt since Black Friday, from Phil Ivey boycotting the 2011 WSOP and threatening to sue Full Tilt Poker, to a lawsuit from Cardroom International, to class-action lawsuits from various groups of players. It would seem that after becoming so mired in scandals and lawsuits it would be very difficult to find an investor to buy the company, but on September 30, it was announced that the French investment firm Groupe Bernard Tapie had agreed to take over ownership of Full Tilt. The firm is associated with previous successes with reviving bankrupt companies, so players can only hope that the buyout will result in their accounts being reimbursed. Some of the latest rumors on the matter were that Tapie would pay back non-US players while the DOJ would handle repaying US players, while on the other hand major poker personalities like Daniel Negreanu have outright expressed their belief that the Tapie deal is dead, and there is little hope that players will ever be reimbursed.

Considering the failures of Full Tilt and Cereus, PokerStars has come away from the events of Black Friday relatively unscathed. In fact, despite facing the same money-laundering allegations as the other two poker sites, PokerStars has managed to maintain their reputation as a legitimate and trustworthy company in the eyes of poker players. One factor that helped PokerStars remain in business is that at the time of Black Friday they had a larger proportion of traffic from outside the US, which means the amount of traffic they lost afterwards was less dramatic than it was for Cereus and Full Tilt. For example, some estimates show that Full Tilt lost roughly 50% of their player base after Black Friday, whereas Stars’ traffic was down by just 25%. While this surely helped to lessen the impact of losing US players in one stroke, differences in business practices was probably another major aspect that proved to make the difference.

PokerStars has always proudly advertized the fact that player funds are kept in segregated accounts and are never used to cover operational costs, meaning the cash is always on hand to handle player withdrawals. As evidence of this, PokerStars managed to start repaying US customers just weeks after they were forced to close their doors to US customers. This is in stark contrast to Full Tilt where this sort of fiscal responsibility was apparently not practiced. The result was much like a bank run, where a bank makes a bet that not all the customers will rush to empty their accounts at the same time – and loses.

Where do we go from here?

The road to online poker legalization in the United States has been long-winded and difficult to say the least. Numerous bills motioning for intra-state poker legislation have been introduced in states such as Iowa, Mississippi and Hawaii, only to meet roadblocks, often failing to get off the ground at all. The only state that has made remarkable progress is Nevada, as the Nevada Gaming Commission approved regulations governing licensed online poker within the state late last year. Major players like bwin.Party and 888 Holdings are already flocking to obtain licenses, creating partnerships with brick-and-mortar organizations like MGM Resorts International, Boyd Gaming and Caesers Entertainment.

Online poker sites are anticipating and betting on a lot more than just intra-state poker, which is of course be severely limited by the small populations and the resulting lack of liquidity. For example, recently Shuffle Master announced its plans to purchase the OnGame network, and their agreement includes a clause that states an extra €10 million euros would be paid if real-money poker becomes legal in the US within 5 years. This of course shows how much potential site operators value poker traffic that crosses state and international borders, and is the key element that will determine the success of US online poker businesses. It is not yet clear how this will come to be. Federal legislation has thus far been a non-starter. Initiatives have been made from the side of the players to send petitions to the White House, but the Obama administration has yet to send a response. Some positive news emerged when the Department of Justice published a memo clarifying that the restrictions of the Wire Act of 1961 apply only to sports betting. Up to that point, the vagueness of the old law made it unclear whether all online betting that crossed state borders was considered illegal. The new clarification gives poker players some hope since it means the Wire Act does not explicitly outlaw online poker.

Perhaps a very likely scenario, even if this view may seem cynical, is that big name Nevada casinos have the financial clout to effectively lobby for federal legislation. Even though politicians like Newt Gingrich have been reported to be opposed to poker legislation since his main financial backing comes from from the owner of the Sands Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas who sees the online business as competition to his business and is strongly against it, it stands to reason that because other major players like MGM and Caesers clearly see a profitable opportunity in the US online poker market, we could very well see a pro-poker Las Vegas financial lobby be the catalyst for change. The fact that major foreign-based online poker companies are creating partnerships with these Las Vegas casinos seems to show that these companies are banking on that as well.

As a parting thought, we will leave you with the words of Congressman Barney Frank, who, just days after Black Friday, ridiculed the crackdown as “an incredible waste of resources.” He criticized the indictments saying that rather than running around arresting rogue poker site operators “protecting the public from the scourge of inside straights,” the feds could “go after the people responsible for empty houses, not full houses,” referring to the major banks whose fraud caused the major global financial crises of the last few years. Indeed, it seems the government tends to coddle and bail out fraudsters and criminals who create revenue for them, a criterion that unregulated online poker failed to meet.

On this day, the advocacy group Poker Players Alliance (PPA) has reignited their fight using the slogan “The players will never fold.” They are calling for all players and enthusiasts to contact their Congressmen and other elected representatives and reiterate that we have a right to play the game we all enjoy.

The PPA website homepage has been replaced with a special page to help users easily contact their own elected representatives about the issue. With just a few clicks and some basic personal information, players can quickly send out an already written form letter to the offices of the President of the United States, their State Senators and the U.S. House of Representatives. The form letter is well written and touches upon many aspects of online poker, including supporting studies and documents and the benefits of safety through federal regulation and tax revenues. The document is titled “Please Support Sensible Poker Legislation.”

The PPA can’t stress enough how important it is that as many people as possible send this (or their own) written letter to the government officials who will ultimately decide on the fate of online poker within the United States.

The battle by American players for legalized online poker is also important for poker players around the world. The result of the actions (or inaction) of the U.S. government regarding online poker is sure to affect how other governments view the game. We all want to be able to play the game we love in a safe and secure environment. So do your part for online poker by making your voice heard. Visit the PPA website today.

Without doubt, former Full Tilt players are certainly getting frustrated that this saga remains ongoing. A lot of poker players have voiced opinions that they just want this all to be over with one way or another. With the ongoing news that has flowed into the rumor mill from the last few months, this seems to be coming true. Many Full Tilt Poker insiders seem to believe if this deal is not done with Tapie Groupe that Full Tilt has no hope, but many of these people remain optimistic that a deal with George Bernard Tapie will indeed get done. When rumors first started appearing it was whispered that Full Tilt Poker could be returning online as soon as April 15th, the anniversary of Black Friday, however as time goes on it seems that this is unlikely. With Tapie in Dublin, Ireland, the Full Tilt Headquarters, players have many reasons to be optimistic at this point, especially combined with this news that Full Tilt has applied for a gaming license and is hiring employees again.

“The AGCC would like to thank Peter Dean for his detailed and thorough report,” said André Wilsenach, the group’s executive director. “We believed it was important, given the sensitivities surrounding the revocation of Full Tilt Poker’s licenses that an independent review should be carried out into the way in which the AGCC conducted itself throughout this process, and we are grateful that this has now been completed.”

Wilsenach goes on to say that, though the report found that the AGCC acted in a proper fashion, there were a few suggestions on how the process could be improved.

“We accept those proposals,” he said, “and will seek to implement them as soon as practically possible.”

With the investigation complete, it appears as though the pending purchase of Full Tilt may pick up steam. Group Bernard Tapie, long considered the frontrunner in the contest, has seen its Managing Director, Laurent Tapie, pick up stakes and move to the Irish city of Dublin. Pocket Kings, Full Tilt’s parent company, also makes its home in Dublin, bringing many to believe that the deal is all but done. Indeed, one source cited by PocketFives went so far as to say that the parameters of the purchase have been laid out.

“They are finalizing the deal with U.S. Department of Justice,” he said, “but it’s a done deal… Tapie is getting ready to reopen Full Tilt Poker in Europe. The deal should be signed next week.”

Elsewhere on the legal front, several of those indicted during Black Friday are now being given more time to address their civil complaint. Ray Bitar, Howard Lederer, Rafe Furst, and the aforementioned Chad Elie will have until May 14 to address the government’s grievances against them. Full Tilt, Absolute Poker, and PokerStars (the sites these men were involved with) will also be required to submit some sort of response by the late-spring deadline.

Elie, for his part, has already made something of a statement. The former payment processor recently entered a guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, stating “I know that my conduct was wrong.” According to PokerNewsDaily, Elie faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Due to his cooperation, however, it appears as though the court is leaning toward a much more lenient judgment. A sentence of between six months to a year is expected, with a $500,000 fine tacked on. Though currently out on bail, he will return for sentencing at the beginning of October.

Another payment processor, Daniel Tzetkoff, has managed to wiggle out of a much more serious mess. By agreeing to appear as a witness for the prosecution, the 29 year-old will avoid a prison term which could have stretched to 75 years. A native of Australia, Tzetkoff handled more than $1 billion in illegal financial transactions, according to PokerNews. The star witness has been living under FBI protection since his arrest in 2010.

GBT still has to complete the diligence of Full Tilt as well as numerous other tasks before the site can reopen successfully. First, they have to fully repay the players; to not do so would doom the business before it even re-opened. Second, they must rehire staff and infrastructure to get the site back online, as well as obtain a gaming license from one of the gaming commissions and probable numerous other steps that are known only to GBT.

This is outstanding news, for as most players have given up hope at receiving any of their former funds locked away on Full Tilt. The news for the last few weeks has been very grim, but it seems this is a rather welcomed breath of fresh air. While the poker world remains skeptical and guarded, dark pessimism has turned into slight optimism.

In his interview, Ray Bitar says to PokerNews that he has remained silent, not due to cowardice or because he was hiding out, as the poker world has believed, because his legal advice has directed him to remain silent. It was believed silence was the best way to try and get a deal done to salvage the situation. He further stated he is very apologetic and that he has never worked harder in his life than he has now. PokerNews ends the article by saying that there was more to the interview, but Ray Bitar wanted the first release of the interview focus on his apology and there will be more releases to follow.

In my opinion, Ray Bitar’s interview says absolutely nothing. Apologizing at this point is utterly meaningless to myself and many other poker players. There was plenty of time for this many many months ago, and to do so now when it seems the deal is about to fall through seems to rub salt in the wound. Like the rest of the poker world, I will save my final judgment as more details about the future of Full Tilt are released as well as the rest of the interview, but for now I, and most of the poker world, believe this may be too little too late.