While that amount may seem paltry compared to the $731 million payment that PokerStars made to settle the DOJ’s civil charges and repay the non-US Full Tilt customers, the effects could be enormous. The purchase of a land based US casino, along with recent advances in pro-online poker laws, could open the door for PokerStars to offer online poker within the boundaries of certain states. Three states: New Jersey, Nevada and California, are currently seeking ways to allow online poker within their states as a means to increase tax revenue.

Without a doubt, these state governments and online poker players are eagerly awaiting news on this potential purchase, as it will bring PokerStars very close to opening the doors to certain American players. However, PokerStars’ competitors are certainly frowning at this news. Zynga, the Boyd Gaming Group and Caesars Entertainment have all expressed a strong interest in offering real money online poker games to the American market.

Caesars Entertainment has already aligned itself with 888 Holdings while MGM and the Boyd Gaming Group has previously entered into a partnership with bwin.Party. Both moves were done in an attempt to fast track online games to the American or individual state markets as soon as laws allow it. Earlier this year Zynga also confirmed its intentions to offer real money games to their members. Zynga’s free play poker application on Facebook has become somewhat of a behemoth, in part due to Black Friday when Americans were shut out of real money online poker play.

If PokerStars is able to complete their deal and purchase the cash-strapped Atlantic Club Casino, they too would have a strong claim on being able to offer real money internet poker due to their physical casino ownership. While PokerStars’ payment to the US Government doesn’t give them any expressed permission to re-enter the US online poker market, it will certainly give them an advantage when that door opens back up.

For those who aren’t American or don’t understand lame duck Congress, lame duck Congress sessions of occur after the November elections when elected congressmen are approaching the end of their tenure and try to pass legislation before their term expires. In this case the legislation poker players want passed for this lame duck Congress would be the legalization of internet poker.

According to the one of the main proponents of the internet poker bill, Sen. Harry Reid, there are more important things to focus on, mainly the economy. It’s obvious the American economy sucks, so there’s no need to go into it, but basically both sides of Congress are too occupied with fixing the economy to be concerned with internet poker.

According to the article, Sen Reid further stipulates that if he could get “13-15 Republican votes” the bill would move forward, but at this current moment in time he has “none”. The internet poker bill is currently known as Reid/Kyl. The bill would make most internet gambling illegal with the exception of online poker.

Obviously this spells bad news for online poker since it has been nearly 17 months since Black Friday and most proponents of online poker believed that internet poker in the United States would be legal and regulated by now. However, with this news about the bill being at the near bottom of things Congress is concerned with, it seems that the United States could be waiting at the very least another six months before poker is both legalized and sites are playable again in America.

Cake Poker will still be available to players in other countries

Cake Poker has become the latest site to pull out of the United States online poker market, it has been announced. All American players will be automatically moved to Juicy Stakes Poker – another client on the Revolution Gaming Network.

Cake Poker can be expected to focus on the European market. It is unclear exactly why Cake Poker has decided to take this step, although in the current climate it is unfortunately not a big surprise.

Exact details are still unclear, and we’ll be bringing you updates as we receive them.

Discuss this news article in our forum here.

The ruling came complete with a 120-page opinion complete with visual graphs and charts that show over the long run skilled players clearly have an edge over the unskilled and novice players. The judge goes into specifics on how most hands are won without showdown minimizing the chance part of poker and maximizing the skill.

Furthermore the poll posted by NBC shows that an overwhelming 84% of 25,000 voters feel that online poker should be legal in the United States. All signs are pointing to an legalized internet poker in the United States, as the courts are consistently ruling with the side of internet poker and the public clearly supports it. Now all that the major remaining hurdle is waiting for congress to back a bill for the legalization of online poker.

The DOJ estimates that there are many as 1.3 million “potential US victims” who had funds with Full Tilt Poker before they shut down. The estimated total amount of American player funds to be paid out is $159 million, which the DOJ has in their possession.

As previously reported, American players will each need to submit their own remission claim to the DOJ in order to receive compensation. Given the huge amount of claims expected to be processed, it is no wonder that the DOJ is seeking outside assistance in order to complete the now 16 month long ordeal with Full Tilt Poker.

PokerStars, having recently bought out Full Tilt Poker, had initially offered to repay American players. Instead, Pokerstars will only be responsible for non-US player balances while the DOJ deals the American accounts. Jeff Ifrah, an attorney for Full Tilt Poker, says that processing time is a priority and that there should be a 100% reimbursement of all player funds. Ifrah also helped to strike the deal between PokerStars and the DOJ.

To date, there is still no specific information available from the DOJ regarding how or when American players should file a claim for their funds.

The poster that the community has known as “FTPDoug” for years is now posting under his real name, Shyam Markus, again as an official liaison between FullTilt Poker and the poker community. He apologized profusely for the FullTilt Poker difficulties over the past 15 months. Although he did not write the post-Black Friday responses himself, he maintains that he “never posted anything that [he] believed at the time to be untrue”.

Based on his new official post, he says that there will “definitely” be a re-launch in the near future, likely early November or perhaps even late October. Although they’ve been “bought out” by Pokerstars, FullTilt Poker will be managed separately and will continue to strive towards providing more uniqueness to the online poker landscape.

Once the site reopens, FullTilt will try to hit the ground running by having everyone’s account logins remain the same and presumably non-US player balances available for use. Players from the United States will only be allowed at play money tables.

As far as US player balances go, individual American players will need to apply directly to the DOJ for remission of their funds. Players with partially completed bonuses will be compensated in some way, while those who had purchased bonuses with FTP points will have the points refunded.

All in all, things are looking excellent for FullTilt Poker and their players. It’s amazing how much things can change. Just a year ago players were still in shock over the events of Black Friday. Many players had given up all hopes of ever getting their money back.

PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker agreed to forfeit over $700 million to settle their case against the Department of Justice. With only $150 million owed to U.S. poker players by Full Tilt, it appears that the settlement funds are more than enough to provide recompense to fans that have waited nearly 16 months for positive word on the Full Tilt case. Rumor has it that certain people within the Department of Justice are less than satisfied with paying U.S. players for money they assert was won illegally. This is inconsistent with the arrangements made with PokerStars in the aftermath of Black Friday, when players were repaid their total online winnings promptly following the U.S. crackdown.

The U.S. government has always described U.S. citizens as victims in this situation. Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan leading the charge against online gaming companies, has described Full Tilt as a Ponzi scheme. Full Tilt is alleged to have paid their owners nearly a half a billion dollars in compensation while not keeping enough funds on hand to refund player deposits worldwide. While this is unconfirmed speculation about the ultimate fate of the settlement funds and player deposits, it seems disingenuous to secure the necessary funds to fully repay the victims of this crime and refuse to do so, simultaneously asserting contradictory repayment policies.

The political climate for online casino gaming becomes cloudier every day. The U.S. Department of Justice continues to hold the belief that online gaming is illegal despite numerous legal opinions and clarifications from the Executive branch. Unfortunately, the players are the ones left in the middle, waiting for the day when the laws are clear, government actions are consistent and poker fans can again take part in one of America’s greatest games online.

With Bally Technologies and International Game Technology, or IGT, receiving licenses to provide Internet gambling software to licensed brick-and-mortar casinos from the state last month and Shuffle Master receiving its service provider license earlier today, only two identifiable obstacles remain before Nevada becomes the first state in America to have its casinos operate legal online poker websites.

First, the Independent Testing Labs approved by the state must test the software developed by licensed software providers for fairness, among other things.  Second, the state must approve at least one of the more than thirty land-based casinos that have applied for a license to host a legal gambling website.  According to Mark Lipparelli, the Chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, Nevada may not have to wait too long to overcome at least one of these obstacles.

According to the online version of “Card Player Magazine” and the “Las Vegas Review-Journal,” among other sources, Lipparelli estimates that Nevada could issue its first operator license(s) within the next 60 – 90 days.  If Lipparelli’s estimate is accurate, Nevada truly is well-positioned to become the first state in the nation to offer independently run, state-regulated online poker to its residents and visitors who are at least 21 years-old.

Senator Rod Wright, chairman of the committee and one of the introducers of this bill was the one who made the call on removing the current iteration of the bill this morning. At this point we can only speculate on the reasons. It could be that Wright felt that the current version of the bill isn’t yet able to stand up against criticisms. There are some critics of the bill who say that it doesn’t allow for all Californian tribes to have an equal footing in the profitable new market. There are also worries regarding the partnerships of outside organizations with Californian tribes. This could lead to giving too much influence of the California online poker scene to groups based outside of California.

There were previous concerns that the bill would open the door prematurely for other non-poker gambling games, such as casino and sports betting. The bill was to be amended to remove the relative clauses which would have potentially allowed for licensed operators to offer non-poker games after a period of two years.

The fee for a five year online poker license will be $30 million. Licenses will be issued by the California Gambling Control Commission (CGCC) rather than the California Department of Justice. Applicants will also need to be in “good standing” for a minimum of three years with the CGCC before their license will be considered.

These changes come mostly to appease the influential California tribal associations who have interests in ensuring that they maintain their leg up in offering online poker residents of the state. By limiting the applications to only the currently operating poker rooms/casinos, many of whom are run by Indian Tribes, there will be significantly less competition in the online scene. It also means that there will be no outside operators swooping into the lucrative market, without first entering into a partnership with an existing licensed entity.

Provisions in bill SB1463 will allow partnerships to apply for a license, so long as a member of the partnership meets the licensing criteria. The partnership between Bwin.Party and the United Auburn Indian Community (UAIC), for example, will qualify due to the existing relationship between the UAIC and the CGCC.

There is currently no provision in bill SB1463 which would limit the number of internet poker licenses issued. While there is not yet a specific time that the doors of online poker will officially open for Californian online poker, it is likely that it could happen before the end of this year.