"Black Friday" Finally Ends For Many US Poker Players

Published on September 30th, 2017 8:49 pm EST

For many poker players based in the United States, "Black Friday" finally came to an end earlier this week.

In April of 2011, the US government swooped in on the online poker industry, temporarily closing down Pokerstars, Full Tilt Poker, Ultimatebet and Absolute Poker.

Pokerstars quickly regained their footing, as they were able to pay out segregated funds to their US customers in short order.

"Black Friday" would be the beginning of the end for Full Tilt Poker 1.0, as they didn't have the necessary funds to repay their US customers. Pokerstars and the US government would eventually cut a deal that involved Pokerstars making Full Tilt Poker's customers whole. Full Tilt Poker's US customers would receive their money back a number of years after "Black Friday" took place.

Those with money on Ultimatebet or Absolute Poker held out little hope of ever getting their money back, and most had written it off. Earlier this year, however, there was a surprise announcement, as it was revealed that the former US customers of UB and AP would be getting their money back. In the end, there was enough money left over after the Full Tilt Poker payouts to make the former US customers of Ultimatebet and Absolute Poker whole as well.

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While the payment process will take more than a year to finish, the first wave of payments was completed by the Garden City Group earlier this week.

In total, 7,400 Petitioners received nearly $33.5 million back. This included former customers of both Absolute Poker and Ultimatebet.

The Garden City Group continues to accept and process Petitions, and this process is expected to continue for a while. If you haven't submitted your claim as of yet, you should probably do so sooner rather than later.

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Filed Under: Online Poker Rooms