US Government Releases PokerStars Bank Account

According to several published reports, PokerStars has gained access to another of their frozen bank accounts, reaching a deal with the United States Department of Justice to utilize most of the funds stored in that account.

The account is one PokerStars held with the Hapoalim Bank in Luxembourg. The bank is connected to Sphene International Limited, one of the many financial institutions named in the Black Friday indictments. Sphene was allegedly involved with the PokerStars payment processing procedures, which were a major part of the case brought against PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and the Cereus Poker Network back in April.

According to the deal, PokerStars now has access to most of the money in the account. While it is not known how much money is in the account, the US government dictated that $5.5 million must remain in the account. This figure was the amount “derived from online poker play for real money in the United States.” However, the remaining funds have been released to PokerStars to use as they wish.

In contrast to Full Tilt Poker, which has faced a litany of issues in the time since Black Friday, PokerStars has bounced back well from the USA online poker shutdown. To date, PokerStars has paid back around $125 million to American players, and has continued full service to their players in other countries around the world. Meanwhile, FTP has been unable to begin making payments to American players, and has had their operating license pulled, leading to the current situation where their site is inaccessible to players worldwide.