want my $250 back one time

"Finally, there are some concerns by posters that the purchase of Full Tilt by pokerstars would amount to a monopoly, as only one other company, bwin.party, can even begin to come close to what a combined PokerStars/Full Tilt operation would amount to."ya for like 6 months until Zynga enters the real $ gaming and takes over as the largest online poker site by light years.

 

Originally Posted by Gameslut

The moment the U.S. opens back up for "legal" internet poker, then we'll what happens. I doubt the U.S. government will allow any kind of monopoly. Who cares who controls the rest of the world...no offense intended.

About half of P5s is from outside the US, so safe to say a lot of people here care :) But point taken about how it affects Americans less

I don't see how stars settling with the DOJ and purchasing FTP would have any bearing on speeding up the process of allowing them to re-enter the US market once online poker is regulated. I would think party poker would have a quicker shot at getting back into the US market since they left the US almost immediately after W and crew passed the bill way before BF. Stars and Tilt continued to break the rules. Plus, we all know the heavy hitters in Vegas will have the first opportunity at US online poker and will continue to contribute money to their friends campaign funds account.

oh cool, avg field size 20,000

 

Originally Posted by RedIceRap

whats wrong with the monopoly thing? would be great if stars would just buy everything so everybody gets payed!

Would have good implications short-term, but bad implications long term. If they had a virtual monopoly, they would in term not be encouraged to come up with any new innovations, would be driven to increase rake since there is no competition, and things like customer service and payouts may becomes worse and slower. Competition drives improvement, no competition causes stagnation and deteriation. I do agree though that a deal with Stars at least would get people paid, and I do prefer this over what was proposed by the GBT, I am just wary about what might be a few years down the line with a huge Stars/FTP controlled industry, especially if no new players step up or there is regulation in the US.

You can't be concerned about the what if's, the market will set the rules and if a larger pokerstars doesn't work with it, then people will look elsewherei also dont think zynga or whatever the hell it is will make a big dent in any real money poker anytime soon, facebook members playing for free doesn't mean that they will automatically start donating cash just because they can, it is as popular as it is because it's free.......and just because PS has 100,000 people on 15000 tables at any one time also doesn't mean they are all paying customersin any business, the model to grow is buy out the opposition or grow ergonomically, PS doesn't appear to be growing it's membership base, everytime someone deposits for the first time, they probably lose someone else disenchanted with their own effortsbuying FT allows them to grow by gaining access to all the players that were not on (or have since joined) PS - appears quite logical to melastly how anyone can claim this would mean a monopoly and anti trust laws being broken doesn't know that there are 100's of other sites available to play poker on, just because they have the largest membership base doesn't mean any laws are being broken, if everyone who fills their car up at shell decides to in the future use BP, doesn't mean BP will be fined or told to cease and desist, it's business man and the big doggy wins - the smaller pups just have to lift their gameand Wacky, having a larger player base, means more money, means more r & d development and companies in general like to stay number 1 when they have tasted it - so any reference to falling customer service et al, doesn't wash with mecheers all

 

Originally Posted by downbylaw11

oh cool, avg field size 20,000

its the daily Mon.-Sun. storm

fulllstars would gain a dominant position in the on-line poker market but def not a monopoly. :eek:if in 10 years fullstars represents 70%-100% of the on-line poker market, then lets use this famous word "monopoly" again, but for now lets forget it please.

If GBT was in conversation with DOJ for almost a year, then... stay tuned, you have a lot of news to review.

the whole black friday thing was to shut down so the "monopoly" AKA vegas group ala harry reid as the legislative dupe for them to have the american market all to themselves. thats why it isnt safe to play anywhere from the u.s. because vegas will have their way.... because they paid for the service$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ which is how the congress and the president understands things.... and dont think this lobbying poker alliance is your friend on this.... they are in their pocket too. This was all a muscle job sort of like cops in the 20's going in and busting up a speakeasy that belonged to the racket that wasnt paying out enough bribe money.

its not going to be a true monopoly as there will of course still be a number of smaller sites, but for mtters who want big fields and big monies on a platform that doesn't suck...there isin't really gong to be a choice either. That means rake will go up imo just look at stars.fr( paying rake on rebuys/addons in bigger rebuy tournaments, freezouts E45+5 not 50+5, or E91+9 not 109). Poker is less than a zero sum game because of the rake and all these little percentages will add up and make it so less people will be able to make a living from the game. Real lack of forsight/understanding of the implications from a lot of posters here. I really hope Zynga do become a massive player in the real games soon as one of the first posters said.

 

Originally Posted by Gameslut

The moment the U.S. opens back up for "legal" internet poker, then we'll what happens. I doubt the U.S. government will allow any kind of monopoly. Who cares who controls the rest of the world...no offense intended.

You have to realize that just because some states pass legislation legalizing online gambling that it's still illegal under federal law and no company will want to open up any online casino in the US that goes across state borders. Medical pot is legal in some states however no single drug company wants any part in selling it until it becomes legal under federal law.

Btw when pokerstars settles with the DOJ for a significant sum of over 100M then there will be a 0% chance of them buying out Full Tilt. That is the next real news to look for.

There won't be a monopoly, as there are plenty of people offering online gaming. They're just holding a gigantic portion of the market share right now because nobody else can keep up with them

Once the average Joe Poker in the U.S. feels secure that his $ is safe and there is no fix in on the games through regulation, online poker market will explode in the US!!!! Huge GTD's and tons of fish just dumping $$ online.... BTW who really wants the Full Tilt Brand????? I can see stars wanting their software and their data base of custi's..... BUT THE NAME FULL TILT imo will never be the name of a poker site again... the name is like a curse word in the poker world and a brand that is compared to Bernie Madoff in the media... How do you get new custumers to sign up to the site that ripped off THE WORLD for 300 MIL?????