Last week, the Garden City Group, the appointed Claims Administrator for U.S. Full Tilt Pokerfunds, announced that player cashouts would be based on balances as of April 15, 2011. Other methods of determining how much players would be paid back, including total deposits, had been tossed around. Whether players will receive their full balances, or just a percentage on the dollar, remains to be seen. When the process will begin is also unclear.

The Poker Players Alliance, the main lobbying voice for poker players on Capitol Hill in the United States, has been in touch with the Garden City Group to expedite the claims process as much as possible.

The organization’s Executive Director, John Pappas, told PocketFives, “Last week’s announcement shows that progress is being made and it should please every poker player who has money tied up on Full Tilt. Over the past several weeks, the PPA and the poker community intensified its pressure on the DOJ and Garden City Group to expedite full remission of player funds. Even members of Congress began weighing in on behalf of their constituents.”

Pappas surmised, “While many factors contributed to the timing of the announcement, there is little doubt that player activism played a role. To be clear, the much-anticipated announcement only marks the very beginning of the remission process, and affected players should be mindful that it still may be some time until they actually receive their money.”

A recent CardPlayer article claimed that players in the United States could potentially wait over a year to be reunited with their Full Tilt bankrolls.

We asked Pappas what metric the PPA heard would be the basis for player cashouts before last week’s news. Would it be deposits, balances, or something else? Pappas explained, “There were indications that the DOJ was considering a remission process that was not based on players balances at the time they were frozen out of their accounts. In our November meeting with them, they alluded to the idea that deposits could be the basis. The PPA and its legal team countered that line of thinking and provided the DOJ with a memorandum that explained the legal and practical reasons for paying back account balances.”

You can read the PPA’s communication with the DOJ by clicking here.

One of the questions lingering on players’ minds is whether they’ll get the full balance of their funds back or merely a percentage. Contrary to several reports floating around last week, it’s still up in the air. “I don’t want to predict because I have learned that Government can be very unpredictable,” Pappas evaluated. “However, there is no reason why players should not be made whole. PokerStars absorbed all of Full Tilt’s debts in their settlement with the DOJ and they have provided more than enough funds to cover the player account balances.”

Pappas added, “It is also likely that less than 100% of affected players will seek remission of their funds, although I hope players are properly notified of the opportunity. Thus, the pool of available funds for players who do will be even larger. Let’s not take this for granted, though, and we should keep reminding the DOJ that 100% of player balances, including cash value tokens, points, and medals, is the expected return.”

We’ll keep you posted on the latest poker legislation news right here on PocketFives.

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