With the site owing more than $300 million worldwide to its former players, the financial investment required of the Tapie group is no small matter, as the pending deal includes a stipulation that they must pay back the players account balances in full. In order to fulfill this obligation, the Tapie group is considering offering equity stakes to a handful of customers that are owed the largest debts of the poker site.
Though the idea that the site may offer equity shares to customers isn’t likely to cause a great deal of controversy, the fact that the group may offer investment opportunities for the sites current owners is likely to raise a few eyebrows. Behnam Dayanim, a lawyer representing Laurent Tapie, confirmed that the group would seek “new investments from the site’s existing owners.” Dayanim did emphasize, however, that the existing owners “wouldn’t be involved in managing the company.”
If such a deal were to go through, however, it would likely require the approval of the United States Department of Justice, which seized the site’s domain name and bank accounts in April, as well as the assurance from the Alderney Gaming Control Commission that Full Tilt Poker would be able to reacquire its gaming license. The prospects for the site to mend its broken relationship with the AGCC seem promising, however. After stripping Full Tilt of its gaming license last week, the regulators stated that “It is important to note that the revocation of FTP’s license does not, as has been suggested, prevent a reactivation of the business under new ownership and management.” We’ll have more coverage of this complex story at GosuGamers.
