Agreement reached with US Department of Justice with Absolute Poker
This was published 12-05-2011Following the civil and criminal matters filed in the federal court in Manhattan and made public on April 15 2011 (which is now known as Black Friday) it was announced earlier this week that Absolute Poker, including the UB (formerly Ultimate Bet) brand has reached an agreement with the United States Department of Justice.
In terms of the agreement, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (‘SDNY’) will provide all the necessary assurances to allow third parties to work with Absolute Poker in order to facilitate the return of funds which are currently held by third party processors to players who are located in the United States. This is a very important step towards returning US player funds.
Absolute Poker has also notified the Southern District of New York that it has closed its U.S.-facing operations and that it has agreed to the cessation of real money poker play in the United States. The agreement between them does not provide for the return of Absolute Poker’s worldwide domain names, such as www.AbsolutePoker.com www.UltimateBet.com and www.UB.com., nor has Absolute Poker requested such return.
A Monitor, approved by the US Attorney’s office, will be provided to assess the Company’s compliance with the terms of the agreement.
It has always been Absolute Poker’s top priority to refund account balances to its US players although the Company has many legal issues to face before this can be done. As a result of the agreement players funds will not become available immediately for withdrawal.
A Company spokesperson said “As previously announced, we have already taken specific actions to exit the US market by closing our US-facing operations. Blank Rome LLP will continue to engage in discussions with the SDNY in order to complete the necessary agreements for the final transfer of frozen fund balances to our US players. This remains our highest priority. We will continue to update our players and the poker community, as we move forward to resolve outstanding issues.”
