Ultimate Bet/Absolute Poker/Full Tilt Poker Payouts For US Players

Cereus network including Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet Poker are attempting to liquidate their assets in order to repay player’s who have funds still on their sites. US players have not been able to play poker on the sites nor withdraw funds since April 15^th 2011 referred to as Black Friday when the US government effectively shut down on-line poker in the United States.

As of 12/7/2011 there have been no updates from the Cereus network regarding the proposed plans to liquidate their assets to reimburse player’s the funds owed to them. Additional bad news was reported by Mark Slatcher of the Tulsa Poker Examiner that sometime around 12/2/11 that the sites’ database had been hacked and the information of over 3 million customers were published on a public internet site. The customer’s information included full names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses. The information supposedly has since been taken down off the public site. However it’s still disconcerting the Cereus network was not forthcoming with reporting this breach of personal information to their customers when it happened. The obvious reason being they are not regulated and therefore not required to inform the clients of such breaches of their security and therefore made the decision not to do so.

Why would a poker site which from every indication is going under and flouts the interests of their customers make the attempt to reimburse player’s funds in the first place? So far, Pokerstars is the only one of the big three Poker sites affected by Black Friday including Full Tilt and Cereus which has repaid their customers. Not coincidentally Pokerstars appears to be the only viable on-line poker company of the three that appears to be in the position to remain financially profitable operating outside of the US market since Black Friday. It appears the only reason Cereus would make a reasonable effort to reimburse player’s funds at this point would be for the owner’s to escape criminal prosecution by the US Department of Justice. It seems clear at this point that the Cereus network will not be in a financial position to return to being a profitable on-line poker company in the future once the dust settles.

Of note are the 3 million customers in Cereus’ data base at the time of the leak. Obviously there is a market for on-line poker and money to be made both by the companies themselves and the governments that should regulate them. Hopefully this current battle between the US government and on-line poker sites will pave the way for a regulated on-line poker community in the future where funds are safe and information safeguarded. Until then it appears the odds of US player’s seeing dime one of the money they have on Cereus’ sites is akin to drawing to an inside straight.

All three companies involved Full Tilt, Poker Stars and Ultimate Bet/Absolute Poker have been granted an extension until January 2, 2012 to respond to the US Department of Justice. They were to respond by November 30th but were granted an extension when they filed a motion that the Department Of Justice did not have the legal right to sieze the funds in the first place. More information should be made available to player's with funds tied up on the sites early in the new year. Whether this information will be favorable to players or not is yet to be seen.

According to Poker News Report, the co-founder of Absolute Poker, Brent Beckley has plead guilty to knowingly accepting credit card payments from US Poker players for the purposes of gambling. He also admitted to using phony Internet companies to launder these payments such as the sales of golf balls and other items. Sentencing is scheduled for April 19th. It's reported he will serve about 18 months in jail under his plea deal.

The Cereus network had asked the Department of Justice to be able to liquidate its assets for the purposes of paying back their customers. There has been no word on the outcome of this request at this time. The DOJ however does appear to be working with Full Tilt Poker on a plan to pay back US players from the pool of money seized. Given the reports of Full Tilt practically running a ponzi scheme on their site it remains unclear how much of the player's money would actually be available to pay back.

That repayment is still on the table for DOJ and Full Tilt seems to be a good sign for players still awaiting payment from Cereus. Cereus is the smallest of the three companies involved in the Black Friday debacle and so it seems logical that the DOJ is attempting to settle the larger issue of Full Tilt's payments before tacking the smaller pool of Cereus player's still awaiting repayment.

That the DOJ seems interested in repaying US players at all is a good sign. Given the grey area of whether player's themselves knowingly broke the law by playing on-line poker it would seem the DOJ could take the stance if they chose to do so that all payments are forfeit and belong to the US government.

It now seems likely Cereus is indeed going under but will be attempting to pay back clients what it can from the assets it still has. If US players do in fact get paid back it will likely be considerably less than what is owed to them. Probably in the 25 cent on the dollar range which equates to a 75% loss.

When poker does get back up and running and hopefully regulated emerging sites may have to deal with frequent payout requests and smaller bankrolls being kept on their sites. At least from the generation of gun shy players who have had to deal with losing significant portions of their bankrolls in recent years. And not due to poor poker play.

States across the US reeling from budget shortfalls are looking for ways to raise capital any way they can, some even looking at on-line poker. Nevada and Washington D.C both appeared poised to have legal on-line poker up and running in their respective states by the end of the year.

This may bode well for those of us with money still tied up in the Black Friday sites. The Department of Justice should make more of an effort now to pay out clients if the government hopes to bring them back into the fold of on-line poker when these new government sanctioned sites open. The vast majority of the US on-line poker players were involved with either Full Tilt, Poker Stars and UB/Absolute as they were the largest sites. Getting funds back to these players will go a long way in cementing a solid client base for the new State run on-line poker sites. As with the lottery, if Nevada and DC do well other States are surely to jump into the action soon after.

Last week the US Department of Justice announced that the Wire act of 1961 only applies to sports betting and does not include other forms of betting including poker. It appears likely that we will see at least State run on-line poker in the US in 2012.

Some States are aggressively poised to enter this market at the first opportunity such as Nevada and New Jersey while others appear content to wait on the side lines to see what develops.

As poker players we have what is a perfect storm brewing to finally legalize on-line poker with States being financially strapped and looking for any new revenue stream including allowing on-line poker ventures in their jurisdictions. US gamblers wagered 4 billion dollars on-line in 2010 which is a big pile of taxable income that cash strapped states would certainly be happy to take of cut of.

Poker, as anyone who plays knows, is a game consisting of skill more than luck and is hence not gambling in the normal sense such as bingo or the lottery. It appears lawmakers are going to use this distinction to get a foothold on on-line gambling in their respective States. Poker is basically easier to sell to the voters than sports betting or roulette. However, once viable on-line poker is established it will be much easier to add the more lucrative forms of gambling such as slots and blackjack to the laws down the road. Once the door is pried open it will not be closed easily.

What does this mean for players with money still in limbo from Black Friday? Unfortunately, nothing other than with State legislation the risk of losing your bankroll in a future Black Friday type incident is greatly reduced.

The US is still considering allowing Cereus to sell its assets and use the proceeds to pay back players but the earlier prediction of 25 cents on the dollar is now down to 15-20 cents on the dollar. For many recreational players who only have triple digit bankrolls on the sites this is reaching why bother proportions. Though for those with more substantial bankrolls 15% is better than zero.

However, to further complicate matters is appears a lawsuit has been filed by 8 professional poker players who are attempting to get more than the 15-20 cents the rest of us can expect if this plan ever goes through. This may slow the glacier pace of this settlement even further.

888 Poker appears poised to expand into the US market as soon as the opportunity becomes available. At this time is seems Nevada is likely the first State that will pull the trigger on allowing on-line poker to operate in their State. This should get the ball rolling for on-line poker to start thriving again in the United States by the end of year.

It also appears Full Tilt is poised to rise from the dead under new owners. A French company is in negotiations with the Department of Justice to buy the battered company for a cool $80 million dollars and the deal is said to be almost complete. Full Tilt should resume business effective March 1, 2012 if all goes as planned. Whether these funds will be distributed to the Player's who had money on Full Tilt by the DOJ is yet to be seen.

Both of these events may bode well for players with money tied up on Cereus. Perhaps these events will make it more attractive for an investor to swoop in and buy Ultimate Bet with the possibility of the US market opening back up. These funds could then be used to pay back players with money still on the site. And instead of the 15 cents on a dollar a bankruptcy sell off would provide, a deep pocketed investor may choose to wisely provide 100% payback to snare a potential built in player pool made up of former UB clients with money still on the site's books.

No recent developments to report on the Cereus Network payouts. The only real hope appears to be the DOJ allowing a liquidation resulting in at most 10-15% of funds being returned to players. In the straw poll below it appears 43% of players have less than $1000 on the site. Meaning a payout of $150 or less if all goes as planned.

Lesson to be learned for any future on-line gambling ventures is to not to keep any kind of significant bank rolls on these sites.

Now one of the only remaining US sites where you could play poker, Bodog has been shut down by the DOJ. Bodog, however appears to have been one step ahead of the DOJ this time as they moved their players to a different site called Bovada in December of last year. Bovada was basically a clone of Bodog but is not operated out of the US. Whether or not this will prevent the DOJ from messing with the Bovada site remains to be seen. But the obvious advice is if you have more funds on the site than you can stand to lose, start moving it off now.

I recently made a cash out from Bovada this month and to their credit it went very smoothly.

News has been released on the site Poker News Report that a British company is looking to buy Full Tilt's software for around $35 million if the the sale of Full Tilt to a French concern falls through for $80 million. Both deals pending approval of the US Department of Justice who doesn't appear to be in much of a rush to settle anything in this matter.

If appears the British company is only concerned with Full Tilt's software which is, in my experience one of the best poker software programs out there. Full Tilt likely also still holds the patent on their version of "crack" poker where players can auto fold and be moved to a new table immediately. This increases the amount of hands dramatically to 400 plus per hour and also the rake generated to the site. A patent that could be very profitable to a legitimate Poker site.

Poker News reports that Full Tilt was making about $1 million dollars per day in profit prior to Black Friday.

Although European companies are now picking over the remains of Full Tilt Poker there has not been any movement on when Cereus or Full Tilt players can expect to see any pay outs.

Bovada has sent out emails to its customers in Maryland that they will be banned from the site. Bovada states their money will be refunded to them.

The reason for the ban is that their payment processor MyPayLinq has stated it will stop doing business in Maryland, New York, Washington State and Utah.

Bovada is one of the last remaining sites where US residents can play poker on line. Given this recent development it appears it would be wise to start moving most of your money off this site as they appear to be running into payment processing issues.

The Black Friday trial participants have been given yet another extension to May 14th.

It does appear the sale of Full Tilt to a French concern for $80 million dollars will go through in the next two weeks.

A Non-US poker site has started Fast Poker which is reported to be identical to Full Tilt's Rush Poker making it possible to play 400 plus hands per hour without the need to multi table. While on-line poker in the rest of the world marches on, it continues to stagnate in the United States.

A poker documentary All In was released this week, ironically chronicling the rise of poker in the United States, especially after the story of Chris Moneymaker who turned $39 into millions by earning a seat at the World Series of Poker through his on-line play, sparking the interest of thousands who flocked to on-line poker to learn the game on the cheap.

It is unknown how many will come back to on-line poker when and if it gets legalized in the US again. On-line poker is losing more and more momentum each day the Black Friday fiasco drags on.

Even though the answer seems so simple; legalize it, regulate it and tax it, the likely hood of being able to fire up your computer from the comfort of your home and play some poker seems years away. And the likely hood of seeing any money you may have tied up on Full Tilt or Cereus does not seem good.

Well it's officially been a year since Black Friday and still no payouts in sight.

Full Tilt players appear to have a slight glimmer of hope if the DOJ decides to pay back US players from the sale of the company to a third party.

I fear any hope of Cereus players getting paid back is nearing zero.

The Poker Player's Alliance is still moving forward trying to regulate and legalize poker nation wide. They are currently trying to push through a bill by Joe Barton of Texas. Please support the Poker Player's Alliance if you have not done so already.

So, though its a bummer to not recoup funds from Cereus it's hopeful that poker may be legalized in the US by the end of 2012.

It appears the deal to sell Full Tilt Poker for $80 Million has fallen apart.

However, there are strong rumors that Pokerstars has stepped in and is interested in purchasing Full Tilt Poker for $750 Million.

The sale for $80 Million appears to have fallen through as the interested party could not come to terms with the DOJ on repayment of players. Full Tilt however seems more than willing to pay top dollar for the company and is offering to gladly repay the players.

$750 Million is a lot of money but considering that Pokerstars and Full Tilt have been the top two poker sites for years, this seems like a brilliant play on the part of Pokerstars. They would be essentially making themselves a behemouth and would pose almost a monopoly concern in the online poker world.

Adding to their potential for success is their ability to make nice with the DOJ opening a possible door back into the US Poker market down the road.

$750 Million will seem like a drop in the bucket compared to the potential future profits they stand to make if they are successful in basically cornering the on-line poker market for years to come.

Pokerstars appears poised to purchase Full Tilt Poker from the Department Of Justice for $420 Million later this week. In addition to the $420 Million dollar price tag Pokerstars will be paying an additional estimated $330 million to settle up with players who lost their money when Full Tilt was shut down.

This appears to be the first significant payday for the US government from their seizure of three of the world’s largest online poker sites, Full Tilt, Cereus and Pokerstars itself.

Pokerstars, unlike Full Tilt and Cereus wrangled itself out of the DOJ's grasp quickly by cooperating with them right away. This decision has proven to be a shrewd one as Pokerstars is now poised to be the dominant online poker company as the DOJ has done the dirty work of wiping out their major competitors, Full Tilt and Cereus.

At least this appears to be good news for some of the players who have money locked up on Full Tilt as Pokerstars at least alludes to the possibility of making good on these debts.

A movie is in the works based on Ultimate Bet's scandal which involved Russ Hamilton. It will also touch on the Black Friday debacle. It's slated to star Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake and the title is Runner Runner. Early speculation is that it will have a similar feel to Rounders and is being made by the same director. Runner Runner is scheduled to be released in 2013.

In other poker news it appears that Nevada may have online poker available as early as this summer. This could be the opening of the flood gates to all of us American online poker players awaiting the return of our beloved game.

I plan on posting online poker related news to this blog until US poker is available again. I started this blog initially to chronicle the return of money seized in the Black Friday shut down but at this point have given up hope on seeing that money again.

My money was on the Cereus site, Ultimate Bet to be exact. Although I think Cereus is a lost cause I do think with the sale of Full Tilt to Pokerstars bodes well for player's who have funds on the Full Tilt site. Unlike former Cereus players I think the Full Tilt players should still hold out hope of getting repaid at least some of their funds.