Barry Greenstein confirmed his intention to repay a $382k outstanding loan he received from Full Tilt Poker years ago, committing now to pay its new owner.
“I was always going to have to pay whoever owned Full Tilt … clearly, PokerStars will own Full Tilt in a few days or a little longer, and finally I will know who to pay,” Greenstein posted on popular internet poker forum, 2+2.
The post comes nearly six months after Greenstein disclosed his outstanding debt to the poker community following an attempt by Group Bernard Tapie—the front-runner to purchase Full Tilt Poker assets at the time—to settle the debt with Greenstein.
GBT stated publicly that the deal to purchase Full Tilt Poker and potentially pay back players world-wide was in jeopardy in part because of the $16.5m in outstanding loans made to high profile poker players including Phil Ivey, David Benyamine, Layne Flack and Erick Lindgren, while other players such as with Mike Matusow and Barry Greenstein owe “a smaller, but still significant amount.”
Earlier in the year, Greenstein, member of Team PokerStars and known as the “Robin Hood of Poker,” declined an offer from GBT’s attorney to pay a discounted amount should US playesr not be paid back their deposits in full, stating, “I have never paid less than I owe on any debt.” Greenstein decision not to repay the loan was over a concern that it would not be distributed to the players.
On why the loan had not been repaid earlier, Greenstein remarked: “In addition to borrow money online, I have had lots of credit lines from casinos. At one point I owed over 3 million with no interest. I didn’t lose most of it, but often used it to play and invest (and sometimes lose in that way.) I paid the casinos off, but Full Tilt was last because I had no pressure to pay.”
After restating his intention to pay his debt, Greenstein wondered, “I’m curious if they will try to collect from anyone else.”
