In a “Stipulation and Order” document filed this past Friday, September 2nd, in the United States District Court of the Southern District of New York, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ), has agreed to release an unspecified amount of previously seized funds back to PokerStars.
The funds were seized as part of the $3 billion civil case against PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker stemming from the indictments of those companies’ principals and payment processors on April 15th, now known in the poker community as “Black Friday.” The money released is from an account numbered 272010 in Bank Hapoalim (Suisse) SA, located in Luxembourg, listed on page 2, Schedule A of the original civil complaint as being in the name of Sphene International, a PokerStars payment processor. PokerStars has been given the green light to use all of the funds in the account except for $5.5 million which was earned from United States customers. As stated in the document:
“WHEREAS, the Government and PokerStars have reached an agreement pursuant to which PokerStars consents to the restraint of $5.5 million in the Account for the pendency of the above captioned case, and the Government agrees that it does not object to PokerStars’ use of the remaining funds in that account;”
The agreement will remain in place until the civil case ends or a “Superseding Order” is handed down, instructing otherwise.
This is not the only Sphene account held at Bank Hapoalim. The civil case refers to “all accounts held at Bank Hapoalim…” which would lead one to believe that there were multiple accounts at that institution. No reason has been given for the return of the funds to PokerStars, though it couldn’t hurt that PokerStars has been cooperative with the DoJ since Black Friday. Unlike Full Tilt Poker, which has not refunded a single penny of its former customers’ money, PokerStars has accommodated U.S. players, allowing them to withdraw their deposited funds. It helps that PokerStars is still operational, whereas Full Tilt had its online gaming license suspended by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission and has been out of business since late June.
PokerStars still ranks as the world’s largest online poker room or network for cash games, according to PokerScout.com. With a seven day average of 24,600 cash game players, it dwarfs the next largest entity, Playtech’s iPoker Network, which boasts 4,150 cash game players. Both PokerStars.it and PokerStars.fr, PokerStars’ Italian and French-facing rooms, respectively, also rank in the top ten. PokerStars.it is fourth with a seven day average of 2,300 cash game players, while PokerStars.fr ranks seventh with 1,800.
