FullTilt PokerStars domains returned to allow player withdrawals

Finally some good news for US poker players.

Not great news, but the best development since ‘Black Friday’ at least.

The DOJ has reached an agreement with FullTilt and Pokertars whereby their domains will be returned to allow all US players to withdraw their funds.

Authorities have been pretty eager to stress that players are not, and never have been the focus of this crackdown.  Particularly after the PPA mobilized more than 65,000 player email, letter and phone complaints addressed to members of Congress and the Department of Justice in a matter of days.

“No individual player accounts were ever frozen or restrained, and each implicated poker company has at all times been free to reimburse any player’s deposited funds,” said Preet Bharara, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.

Interestingly there was no word on whether a similar agreement had, or would be reached with Absolute Poker to allow their players access to funds.

I’m tipping there’s going to be A LOT of money flowing through cyberspace over the next couple of days as US players, and probably players from the rest of the world do the mad dash to get their cash!

Some of that cash will no doubt be used to buy seats in the upcoming 2011 World Series of Poker starting in May.  Some of it will also make its way into new accounts at the likes of bet365 , Ladbrokes , PartyPoker etc who have been frantically marketing new poker player bonuses offers since the weekend.