Recent updates on the dread day in poker history now known as Black Friday, include Poker Stars beginning to pay out US players, Full Tilt’s US player funds still in limbo, indictments, and 5 sites expressing that they still serve US players.
To catch you up if you haven’t heard, the US Federal government, specifically the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) seized the domains to three of the largest online poker sites serving US players, Full Tilt Poker, Poker Stars and Absolute Poker. Affected players in the US were not only shut out of their poker sites, but they were also locked out of access to any funds they had sitting in real money accounts at those sites. There’s what you missed, here’s what’s happening now.
Poker Stars has struck a deal with the DOJ and the two found a suitable bank to start paying out US players their funds withheld in the seizure. Full Tilt Poker is still in talks with the Justice Department and has found no payment processor willing to cash out US funds until some sort of government deal is similarly cemented. Meanwhile, 11 poker execs from the three sites are now under indictment.
As for playing online poker, US players are not as out-of-luck as the DOJ would have them be. Because at least half-a-dozen sites are still accepting US players, including Bodog Poker, Carbon Poker, Intertops Poker, Sports Interaction, Lock Poker, and Cake Poker.
In the meantime, many professional poker players have expressed their wishes to leave America and move to another country where they can play poker more freely. Canada, however, is proving not very hospitable to newcomers from the Black Friday fallout.