One Irish account belonging to Full Tilt Poker (FTP) and its co-founder Raymond Bitar, still owes U.S poker players US$100m to $150m has been unfrozen by the United States Department of Justice.

Regretably U.S players would not paid right away and that no date has been confirmed as yet for when this might take place.

The Bank of Ireland account that has been freed-up is one of nine FTP accounts frozen. In total 76 bank accounts have been exposed since the 15th of April Indictments which belongs to one of the three indicted poker sites – constitutes more than a third of the estimated $100m to $150m that still needs to be paid to American players by Full Tilt Poker, according to information obtained by Internet casinos.

Bitar’s representatives in Ireland have been trying to raise $150m from potential investors to repay U.S players. In lieu for money these investors …

PokerStars (Based in the Isle of Man) refunded U.S internet poker players from its “past U.S-facing operations” approximately one month after ‘Black Friday’ with a $100 million.

PokerStars said in its latest press release it refunded players’ cash and it would “remain true” to its agreement reached on April 20th with the U.S Department of Justice-permitting players from the U.S to cash out their balances. It’s still unclear at this point in time whether PokerStars still owes American players money.

On the 27th of April PokerStars confirmed in an official statement that it started returning player funds and that “there is sufficient cash to cover the initial withdrawal requests”.

On April the 15th federal prosecutors indicted eleven people (founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker) on the grounds of bank fraud, unlawful gambling offences and money laundering. The indictment and civil complaint aims to confiscate in excess of US$3bn …

Absolute Poker came to an agreement with the Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, guaranteeing U.S players who deposited their cash with the internet poker site that they would be refunded.

Blanca Games stated in its press release this morning: “The US Attorney’s Office permitted third parties to work with Absolute Poker only to ensure that U.S-based players receive their funds.”

The release confirmed also that Absolute Poker and its sister site Ultimate Bet won’t be operating in the U.S anymore, therefore the settlement reached with authorities did not come with the return of dot.com domains.

Nevertheless, Blanca said, “Regrettably, there are still many legal issues that need to be iron out first before U.S players’ funds would be returned to them.”

Philadelphia law firm Blank Rome LLP represents Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet in the United States. Both these onlinet poker sites terminated their contracts with …

The Poker Lounge which is the producer of Full Tilt’s sponsored television show informed Cassaon-casino that no date has been finalised as yet for filming to continue and it awaits feedback from the US-indicted internet poker site.

Subsequent its preliminary delay of filming just after Black Friday on the 15th of April it was expected that Presentable Productions and Full Tilt would return this month to the company’s Cardiff-based studio. Producer Rob Thomas said there might be a hold-up for the scheduling of this year’s World Series of Poker, with Presentable unsure when players will be released by Full Tilt to take part in the show, which would be televised on Channel 4 in July.

“To be honest the present situation makes it rather difficult for us to commence filming, we still await the go-ahead from Full Tilt,” Thomas said.

“When it comes to the actual filming there’s no reason …

Gaming jurisdictions are countries that issue licenses to the various online gambling establishments such as bingo halls, casinos and internet poker rooms such as those involved in “Black Friday”.

The three online poker rooms (Absolute Poker, Pokerstars and Full Tilt Poker) that where indicted by the Department of Justice are licensed by three different gambing jurisdictions. The three have now responded to the indictments with their statements.

Absolute Poker is licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Comission (KGC). The company received it license in 1996 from the licensing authority in the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawke located just outside of Montreal, Canada.

In a statement they released earlier thay said that their primary concern is to ensure that players are not adversly affected by the actions of the US authorities. The KGC is currently in discussion with Absolute Poker and upon completion of their review they will decide what steps need to …

The internet poker industry in the United States has taken a severe beating lately. As a result many European poker affiliates believe they’re in the money again. The fact that the big three poker sites have been indicted in the U.S created a glimmer of hope amongst European affiliates and a number of internet poker operators.

It’s a given fact that PokerStars, Full Tilt and Ultimate Bet applied a lot of pressure on their poker affiliates by lowering their margins to below 5% revenue share. Ironically affiliates are the main reason for poker’s tremendous growth and the mentioned poker sites offered affiliates excellent deals five years ago. As always once the operators start cashing in, it’s always the poor affiliate who’s left sniggering in the dust and so-called “lifetime revenues” gets flushed down the toilet.

As of late taking into account the current situation and the aggressive expansion/promotions by European poker sites, …

Just 72 hours after the indictment of eleven senior executives and the owners of three of the United States most prominent internet poker sites, many European-based internet casinos are now racing to introduce poker sites in the hope of attracting U.S-based players.

In view of the fact the U.S Attorney’s Office levied charges against Isai Scheinberg the founder of PokerStars on Friday, Full Tilt’s Ray Bitar and nine other members for suspected fraud, money laundering and unlawful gambling. The player base on many rivals’ sites has gone up exponentially.

Pokerscout recently reported that the three affected poker sites experienced a significant drop in their traffic, whereas Full Tilt’s traffic dropped by a staggering 48% this week alone. On the contrary PKR’s traffic increased by 21% (for a non-U.S site the best), PartyPoker experienced a 9% increase, a 5% increase for 888Poker and iPoker network’s poker figures also increased by 4%. …

The executive director of the 1 million-members Poker Alliance players (PPA), John Pappas said that Friday’s federal actions against internet poker sites and its owners is basically a ‘declaration of war’ on poker players and the rights of poker players.

In a statement issued on Saturday his comments read as follow and he did not hold any punches back:

“All over the United States millions of Americans are fuming as a result of the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) scathing attack on online poker sites. While the government’s focus may be on the internet casinos operating these sites, it’s clear as daylight that it’s a declaration of war on poker players and their freedom.”

“In the U.S at present there are more than 10 million online poker players without any decent poker sites to wager since many derive their livelihood from poker. Some have concerns whether they’ll receive their funds …

Eleven individuals regarded as the founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker have been accused of alleged bank fraud, unlawful gambling offences which entailed money laundering in an indictment unsealed by federal prosecutors recently.

The 52-page indictment and civil complaint as seen by Cassaon-casino is seeking a minimum penalty which is approximately US$3bn in civil money laundering penalties from the three internet casinos and its defendants. They claim these parties “deceived or directed others in such a manner to hoodwink United States banks and financial organizations into processing billions of dollars in payments.”

The United States government imposed restraining orders against 76 bank accounts in fourteen countries used by these internet poker sites and their payment processors. The U.S government also seized five poker internet casinos. Poker players accessing these sites (PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com and UltimateBet.com) were notified by the FBI about the indictment. Isai Scheinberg and Paul Tate of PokerStars, Raymond …

Nevada’s poker bill remains on track as Assembly politicians contemplated a revised version which will aid intrastate poker, but requested that Congress must decide on internet casinos that will accept out-of-state and foreign based players.

Assembly Bill 258 has been passed by the Assembly Judiciary Committee without any hiccups, with committee chair and bill sponsor William Horne telling Card Player that: “The parties approved that intranet poker is also on the cards and the Nevada Gaming Commission is going to license internet poker, before federal regulation takes place.”

The revised bill prohibits Nevada from regulating or taxing out-of-state play pending federal laws which is applicable to internet poker were in place or the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) had given Nevada the green light.

It would appear that Horne’s comments contradicts an earlier report in the Las Vegas Sun that the Committee permitted a revised permitting the Nevada Gaming …