With the poker world jumping for joy at the settlement reached between PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and the US Department of Justice, the fate of Absolute Poker and UB Poker players was also decided in the same press release, with the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara getting behind the settlement by Blanca Games (the parent company of Absolute Poker and UB Poker) that will see them forfeit all of their assets to the DOJ.
On Wednesday, the regulatory agency of Absolute and UB Poker, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, a sovereign nation in Quebec that hosts many online gaming severs, released an advisory notice, supporting the settlement agreement brokered by the US government and Blanca games.
You can view the original Advisory Notice issued by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission HERE, and we have included it below:
(MOHAWK TERRITORY OF KAHNAWAKE- August 7, 2012) – The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (Manhattan) recently announced that he has reached a settlement of the civil proceedings that were initiated by the government on April 15, 2011 against Blanca Games, Inc. (“Blanca”) and related companies. He now seeks court approval of the settlement.
The proposed settlement requires all of Blanca’s assets to be forfeited to the United States. The US Marshalls’ office will be mandated to liquidate Blanca’s assets. However, there will be no distribution of the net proceeds from the liquidation pending the resolution of claims filed by other parties who have asserted an ownership interest in Blanca’s assets.
If the court approves the settlement, and if there are Blanca assets remaining after the resolution of the claims by other parties, it is anticipated that the court will provide a process for players to make claims against those assets. At present the Commission has no information as to how players should make such a claim. However, the general victim information number provided by the US Attorney in Manhattan is 1-866-874-8900.
Blanca operated the Absolute Poker and UB.com online gaming sites and was previously licensed by the Commission. Their Client Provider Authorization expired on June 2, 2012 and was not renewed. The Commission no longer regulates Blanca.
On the surface it looks very similar to Full Tilt Poker’s forfeiture, but without the added money gained through the PokerStars settlement, Absolute Poker and UB Poker players will be lucky to receive pennies on the dollar for the funds in their poker accounts. Additionally, the KGC feels that players should only be reimbursed AFTER claims by other parties are paid out. So unlike the remission process Full Tilt Poker players will go through, which will not prioritize victims, it appears that Absolute players will be second in line behind unwitting parties who owned pieces of Absolute Poker.
