Recovery of US Poker Player Funds

Absolute Poker, one of the three biggest online poker sites that catered to US poker players and had its doc.com domain seized by the FBI in what is now being referred to as 'Black Friday', has broken its long silence over the matter and reported that its in talks with the US Department of Justice.

The company, together with the other two major players in the US market; PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, had its founders indicted on Friday 15th April on charges of bank fraud, money laundering and illegal online gambling activities.

Now that the Department of Justice stated that it will release the doc.com domains in order to allow the return of US players funds, Absolute Poker stated that it is liaising with The Department of Justice in order to have its domain released and allow returning funds of US players.

The Department of Justice agreed to release the domains of Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars and is now planning to allow the same to Absolute Poker.

However US players should not expect to be able to play on the doc.com domains of these poker sites even if the sites reopen. They will only be allowed to withdraw any funds they have in their player accounts.

A further confirmation of this was issued in a statement by Preet Bharara the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York responsible for issuing the indictments. Bharara stated that "No individual player accounts were ever frozen or restrained, and each implicated poker company has at all times been free to reimburse any player's deposited funds."

In the statement it is also mentioned that the US government is happy to enter into a similar agreement with Absolute Poker for release of domain for the purpose of releasing players' funds.