Preet Bharara, the New York attorney who lead the FBI’s online poker crackdown now called “Black Friday,” announced today that Absolute Poker can begin returning funds to its U.S. customers and prohibit any deposits by American players. The official agreement follows PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, who have already begun the refunding process.
All three companies remain in legal limbo with Bharara and U.S. prosecutors. In his statement, Bharara said the three companies “are moving forward with the process of returning the funds they owe to their U.S. customers. This office expects the companies to return the money that U.S. players entrusted to them.”
The Absolute Poker agreement “expressly allows” for players outside the U.S. to continue playing “online poker for real money.” Lawyers and representatives for Absolute Poker didn’t respond to calls seeking comments. Absolute Poker is based in Costa Rica
Though online poker has an estimated market of $5.1 billion last year, the industry has been hit particularly hard by the Black Friday measures. Many foreign companies, not currently being prosecuted, have recently pulled out of American markets.
Though Bharara’s statement is welcome news to Absolute Poker’s stranded U.S. customers, Absolute has said that it still faces complex legal issues that must be resolved before any payments will be issued. Absolute says they will work with third-party payment processors to facilitate returns as soon as possible, but have not issued an exact date. Unlike Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, Absolute Poker has not been allowed access to its domain name.
In his statement, Bharara said, “The Company’s US attorneys, Blank Rome LLP, continue to work diligently to resolve these issues, which is a necessary further step to facilitate the return of funds to players. Player funds, therefore, will not become immediately available for withdrawal as a result of today’s agreement with the DOJ.”