Absolute Poker Signs Agreement to Return U.S. Players Funds

Now it seems that Absolute Poker will be paying back U.S. poker players according to prosecutors on New York City. Wednesday the announcement was made that Absolute Poker signed an agreement with the U.S. government to allow withdrawals to U.S. players and to continue operations to all foreign players.

According to U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara;

“With this agreement, all three of the companies that allegedly engaged in the operation of illegal internet gambling businesses, as well as massive wire fraud, bank fraud, and money laundering, are moving forward with the process of returning the funds they owe to their U.S. customers. As with the other two companies we named in the Complaint, Absolute Poker has at all times been free to reimburse any player’s deposited funds. This Office expects the companies to return the money that U.S. players entrusted to them. And as today’s agreement continues to demonstrate, we will work with the poker companies to facilitate the return of funds to such players.”

Though the agreement is similar to the one signed by Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, there is one difference. The Agreement does not allow for the restoration of the domain names used by Absolute Poker. The Agreement does appoint an independent Monitor to verify Absolute Pokers compliance and gives “necessary assurances” to third party entities working with the online poker site to facilitate the funds being returned.

This is a big announcement from the U.S. Attorney’s office and Absolute Poker. There have been many stories going around as to how Absolute Poker had no money and couldn’t possibly return funds to U.S. players. Having a third party monitoring the return of funds may be an indication that the U.S. isn’t quite sure this will happen either. Hopefully U.S. poker players will not have to wait long to start seeing their money back in their accounts.