Money Owed to Poker Stars
This was published 19-08-2012Following the shut down of Full Tilt Poker by the Department of Justice last year it came to light that besides the fact that the online poker room owed massive amounts of money to over a million players from the US, Full Tilt Poker had allowed several of the industry’s most prominent pros to borrow massive amounts of money from them. It was later ascertained that Full Tilt Poker had actually lent out a total of $18 million to a couple of players and that some of it came from customer deposits.
Since Poker Stars’ acquisition of Full Tilt Poker, they are endeavoring to recover as much of this money as possible.
Barry Greenstein is the first and only professional to have been responsible enough to pay back a major loan by recently paying Poker Stars his $400k debt.
Other professionals have stated that they are quite prepared and happy to pay back the money owed by them in cash but that they have been waiting for the right opportunity in order to do so.
Phil Levy, Erick Lindgren, Layne Flack, David Benyamine and Mike Matusow are also players who owe large amounts of money to Full Tilt Poker.
Phil Ivey is possibly the worlds’ best all around player at present and also has value as a sponsored player. There is, therefore, a good chance of Ivey paying back the $4 million that he owes.
It would appear as though Lindgren will find it more difficult to pay off the $4 million that he allegedly owes as his reputation has taken a big hit over the past year. Benyamine and Flack have also taken a huge hit and will find it quite difficult to take care of the $2 million debt that each of them owe.
Owing to the latter three pros’ financial situation it will not be easy for Poker Stars to get them to pay back what they owe, even if they go after these players.
