Full Tilt Poker and Groupe Bernard Tapie

[Steve-O]

I mentioned this blog post in the recent radio chat, it's worth a look, and check out the links to the older posts on the subject.

http://burbspoker.blogspot.com/2012/...t-and-any.html

[Belly Buster]

GPT essentially hold a "free option" over full tilt. If the regulatory climate looks like it is improving, then GPT will exercise that option and do a deal to buy FTP. If things all turn south, then they can just walk away and blame lederer etc.

Not a bad position for GPT - totally shit for anyone with funds tied up.

[Dan Druff]

I mentioned this blog post in the recent radio chat, it's worth a look, and check out the links to the older posts on the subject.

http://burbspoker.blogspot.com/2012/...t-and-any.html

I've actually read this before. I thought it was something I hadn't seen yet.

Where are you getting the DOJ agreeing to paying players back 30 cents on the dollar? I have never seen any discussion that such a thing is a possibility.

I do think that GPT is stalling on purpose, and perhaps they are waiting for things to get worse/more desperate so they can grab it for a price that's a lot less than being asked for right now.

Nobody knows what's going on for sure, but the lack of progress is certainly for a reason, and I doubt it's just because they want to withhold information until a deal is actually done.

[Steve-O]

I mentioned this blog post in the recent radio chat, it's worth a look, and check out the links to the older posts on the subject.

http://burbspoker.blogspot.com/2012/...t-and-any.html

I've actually read this before. I thought it was something I hadn't seen yet.

Where are you getting the DOJ agreeing to paying players back 30 cents on the dollar? I have never seen any discussion that such a thing is a possibility.

I do think that GPT is stalling on purpose, and perhaps they are waiting for things to get worse/more desperate so they can grab it for a price that's a lot less than being asked for right now.

Nobody knows what's going on for sure, but the lack of progress is certainly for a reason, and I doubt it's just because they want to withhold information until a deal is actually done.

The 30% is my approximation. A company (not GBT) offered the DOJ $30 million for just the software, which seems like about the right price and what I think the deal will eventually be for. The whole thing is a clusterfuck because Full Tilt turned over their assets to the DOJ thinking GBT would then finish the sale. So the DOJ is sitting on the software and asked GBT for $80 million (which is supposed to go towards player payments). To me this means that the DOJ either has the additional $70 million, or more likely was never planning on 100% payouts to begin with; most likely taxing all winnings off the top or using some other method to keep the total US payout under $80 million. The seized money belongs to the DOJ and I doubt they plan on dipping into that pool after conducting a years-long investigation.

Basically my feelings on it are that players were never getting much more than $.50 on the dollar ($80 million instead of $150 million), and if the software is only going to fetch $30 million instead of $80 million, this works out to somewhere around $.20 on the dollar for US players, throw in a whatever other assets the DOJ has from Full Tilt when it liquidates and my guess is somewhere in the $.25-$.30 range.

Basically it would work something like a standard bankruptcy liquidation, debts are paid off as best as they can be when the assets are liquidated.

[LinuxGDog1666]

Just wish they could get the money back to players, I know a few guys that have alot of money on Full Tilt. They would have cashed out but it took such a long to to cash out they just left it there hoping it would get better, but it did not.

It does look bad, I only hope the cash goes back to players,

[Salty_Aus]

I mentioned this blog post in the recent radio chat, it's worth a look, and check out the links to the older posts on the subject.

http://burbspoker.blogspot.com/2012/...t-and-any.html

Full Tilt are hiring people in Ireland.
I thought this was an encouraging development.

http://www.jobs.ie/Jobs.aspx?Categor...s=pocket+kings

[tommyt]

they are apparently applying for a gaming license.

http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news...-poker-license

[Steve-O]

they are apparently applying for a gaming license.

http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news...-poker-license

Yeah, the one subsidary that wasn't officially up and running that the AGCC said could reapply in the future Orinic or something like that. It will be interesting to see if the AGCC goes for it and what GBT plans on doing with the license.

[Salty_Aus]

they are apparently applying for a gaming license.

http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news...-poker-license

Yeah, the one subsidary that wasn't officially up and running that the AGCC said could reapply in the future Orinic or something like that. It will be interesting to see if the AGCC goes for it and what GBT plans on doing with the license.

And they registered a company in Malta at the beginning of April that will be responsible for the new Full Tilt. Just a million in capitol but the signs are there.
I'm quite sure now that this deal will go through.
If you open the Full Tilt client you will even notice it upgrades to a new version.
Fingers crossed for all you guys with funds in limbo, I took all my cash out after black Friday.

[Steve-O]

Yeah, the one subsidary that wasn't officially up and running that the AGCC said could reapply in the future Orinic or something like that. It will be interesting to see if the AGCC goes for it and what GBT plans on doing with the license.

And they registered a company in Malta at the beginning of April that will be responsible for the new Full Tilt. Just a million in capitol but the signs are there.
I'm quite sure now that this deal will go through.
If you open the Full Tilt client you will even notice it upgrades to a new version.
Fingers crossed for all you guys with funds in limbo, I took all my cash out after black Friday.

Yeah, it looks like some form of a deal is imminent, but what precisely the deal is for I'm not going to speculate on yet.

http://pokernewsboy.com/online-poker...-of-life/11857

If they are reopening than Euro Players should be expecting a check very soon, but the absolute silence is a bit disheartening; that tells me there is some aspect of this deal that they do not want to talk about, or NOT talk about it and then catch flak for not talking about it. And of course US players will have to deal with the US DOJ, and who knows when that will happen or what the end result will be.

The DOJ could have repaid US players already, so it's obvious seized funds will not be part of the payout, which means $80 million (the price GBT is paying for FT) is the max I think US players will ever receive, and as I've speculated it could be quite less. Also, if I was one of those 20 or so people who owed money to Full Tilt I'd be shitting my pants right now that the DOJ is going to come looking for it (This could very well be the issue that HAS held up the sale if GBT was trying to pawn this debt of to the DOJ and only offer them $60 or $70 million instead of $80 but allowing them to take on the debts owed to Full Tilt). The lawyer for GBT said this was holding up the sale but never explained why, and this is the only way it makes sense.