Yesterday’s announcement of the settlement of the civil case between PokerStars and the United States Department of Justice brought about a wave of celebration that has probably never been seen in the poker community. With the deal, one of the darkest chapters in online poker history has been closed with, it has to be argued, all sides coming out ahead. But there are still questions that linger as we bask in our post-settlement reverie.
What About CEREUS?
Lost amid the euphoria over yesterday’s announcement by PokerStars and the DoJ was the subtle settlement of the civil case against Absolute Poker and UB.com, the CEREUS Network sister sites that have been effectively shuttered since April 2011. While announcing the settlement with PokerStars, the DoJ also quietly announced that Absolute Poker (and, it is assumed, UB.com as well) had agreed to forfeit all of its assets to the DoJ to dismiss their civil claims. This entails funds deposited with the company, hardware and software and any other “intellectual property” that the CEREUS Network maintained.
What is the most valuable piece of CEREUS that the DoJ is looking at, however, is its database. According to a report from Bloomberg Businessweek, Preet Bharara, the U. S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, has stated that this database will “likely decrease in value” if it isn’t flipped around and sold quickly.
As to what the players with funds on the CEREUS sister sites will do, you probably can expect payment to be handled by the DoJ, much like what will happen for American players and their funds on Full Tilt Poker via the PokerStars settlement. For the international players who have their funds on CEREUS, that will be a bigger question as the DoJ may just shut them out of any chance of returning their money.
What About My Money?
International players will have perhaps the easiest route regarding the issue of getting their money back from Full Tilt Poker. Within 90 days, players who wish to take their money off of Full Tilt will have the ability to do so and PokerStars will handle those reimbursements per the settlement with the DoJ. PokerStars has stated that they will be bringing back FTP in some form later this year; many international players will have a tough choice to make in whether to stick with the site or invest their bankrolls elsewhere.
For American players, this is a more complex issue. On its face, the DoJ handling repayment of American customers of Full Tilt looks like a fairly easy issue but – as with most things regarding the federal government – there are some bumps in the road that could be faced. Will players have to pay taxes (some for a second time) on the money they receive from their Full Tilt accounts? What forms will Americans have to fill out? What happens if someone has moved and cannot prove that they are the person that has ownership of that account? As you can see, it becomes a much more thorny process with the U. S. government involved.
The Future of Online Poker?
For the rest of the world, there will be little that is noticed. PokerStars will do what they have done since their inception in 2001: continue to provide an excellent poker game, great customer service and respond quickly to issues. When they reintroduce the “new” Full Tilt Poker later this year, they will probably only add to their status as the number one online poker company in the industry. But there are some concerns with this.
Will the new PokerStars/Full Tilt powerhouse be considered a “monopoly” when it is created? The two rooms – when both were active prior to “Black Friday” – completely dominated the marketplace, with rooms like PartyPoker, the iPoker Network and 888 Poker lagging far behind. This perception of a monopoly could make it tougher on PokerStars rather than easier, although PokerStars has stated that they will not be looking into moving Full Tilt Poker back into “restricted” markets (countries that have laws to dedicate services to their own nation) such as France, Italy and Spain.
In the United States, PokerStars will more than likely have a much more difficult time. Although the settlement with the DoJ does open the door that PokerStars could return, the lack of any federal regulation of the industry keeps that door closed for now. Even though the DoJ will allow PokerStars to come back, they can’t force the states to deal with them, which is where regulation has passed the federal government at this point.
The states moving forward with regulation of the online gaming industry, such as Nevada and Delaware, will not look kindly upon PokerStars’ past record. The likelihood of those states allowing PokerStars – with their upper management still under criminal indictments – to get into the market is unlikely. Even if PokerStars was to team with a Nevada casino enterprise (Steve Wynn, the CEO of Wynn Resorts, previously had a deal to team with PokerStars), the likelihood of the Nevada Gaming Control Board issuing a license would be a long shot.
Finally, the last thing that the powerhouses of the Nevada gaming industry (Caesars Entertainment, Boyd Gaming, etc.) want is to contend with PokerStars; as such, they will probably move “heaven and earth” to prevent them from accessing the Nevada system at the least.
As the next days, weeks and months play out, more will become clear regarding yesterday’s “fanfare for the poker players.” For now, all that can be done is to once again sit and wait.
