Full Tilt shareholders essentially walked from the company Thursday, transferring assets over to GBT.
Earlier on Thursday, Subject:Poker reported that Full Tilt Poker shareholders agreed to transfer the company’s assets to Groupe Bernard Tapie.
The asset transfer paves the way for GBT to complete its deal with the U.S. Department of Justice.
While it’s an important step in the revitalization process of Full Tilt, what does it mean for players will balances stuck on the site?
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1. In the short-term, not much. The asset sale does not move U.S. or European players immediately any closer to getting their balances back. It just removes yet another barrier.
2. On that note, however, if you’re a non-U.S. player, the chance to access your balance is much closer than if you’re a U.S. player. Just to get Tilt’s license reinstated, GBT will need to cover all international player balances. Whatever the timeframe is for that is when non-U.S. players can start withdrawing money (presumably with a penalty). For U.S. players, you could still be looking at a year or more process, and there’s no guarantee the DoJ will even release your balance to you, as it’ll be their responsibility to do so, not GBTs.
3. But you can rest assure that this deal is going to happen, and you’ll at least get the chance to access your balance. The two biggest hurdles for the revitalization of Full Tilt are cleared: GBT came to terms with the DoJ, and Tilt shareholders agreed to those terms. From here, it’s all procedural. GBT wouldn’t have come this far to let it fall through now. Especially, as we wrote recently, it’s a helluva deal for them. If you’re a non-U.S. player, it’s just a matter of time now. If you’re a U.S. player, you’re still drawing live.
Given where the company and its chances were just two or three months ago, you can’t ask for more than that.
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