In an updated press release Tuesday, Absolute Poker announced a deal was made with the United States Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York who agreed to “provide all necessary assurances that third parties may work with Absolute Poker to facilitate the return of funds to players located in the US.”
The announcement also claims that their US-facing operations have closed, yet at the time of writing US players still continue to play real-money games in the poker room.
The current version of the press release, published through Marketwire, has been altered from the original statement on Wednesday in order to “correct certain language in relation to civil matters filed in federal court.”
The press release states further that “Absolute Poker has not requested the return of its [...] domain names.” In the original Black Friday indictment, the dot-com domain names of the Cereus Network – ub.com, ultimatebet.com and absolutepoker.com – were seized, along with the domain names of PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.
No Confirmation from DOJ
Notably, there has yet to be any official word from the Department of Justice to confirm the deal. When news first came to light that the US Attorney had come to an agreement with PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, the press release came first from the US Attorney General’s office.
In the “Domain-name use agreement”, dot-com domain names were returned to PokerStars and Full Tilt to facilitate withdrawals to US players. In the press release three weeks ago, the DOJ stated that they had made the same offer to Absolute Poker, “but no agreement has yet been made.”
Since, PokerStars has successfully returned balances to US customers, but players are still waiting on news from Full Tilt. Apparently, some progress was made yesterday, as US players received money in their accounts as part of the 'Take Two’ promotion. Players await an announcement from Full Tilt expected by May 15th.
US Facing Operations “Closed”
In the Absolute Poker statement, they state that “The Company has [...] closed its US-facing operations, and it has agreed to the cessation of real money poker play in the US.”. However as of writing, US players continue playing for real money on the site.
“We can now move as expeditiously as possible to establish proper mechanisms for the return of funds to our US players.” they state, but continues:
Unfortunately, the Company still faces several legal issues which must be navigated before funds can be paid out to US players. The Company’s US attorneys, Blank Rome LLP, continue to work diligently to resolve these issues, which is a necessary further step to facilitate the return of funds to players. Player funds, therefore, will not become immediately available for withdrawal as a result of today’s agreement with the DOJ.
The news comes after Cereus announced on Monday they were dropping their entire stable of online poker pros. In the press release, they state that these “efficiency measures” were required in order “to enable the brands to continue to operate their non-U.S.-facing business.”
