The event organizers say some potential participants might not be able to pay for a buy-in due to frozen funds
As we all know, about a month ago top executives of three major online poker operators, Full Tilt Poker, Poker Stars and Absolute Poker were indicted and arrested and their websites went down. This came as a result of an operation carried out by FBI, along with the US Department of Justice. A week later the companies came to an agreement with the authorities, which allowed them to let American players access the websites, so that they could pull their money out of the frozen accounts of the companies.
Nevertheless, up until today money has been paid only to limited number of players, while most of it still remains on the companies’ accounts due to the restrictions put on them by the US court. The companies’ spokespeople have been reassuring the public that there is enough money to pay everybody and that the problem is mainly technical, though many have certain doubts.
Among those unsure of the outcome of the affair are the organizers of the World Series of Poker championship, which is due to start in the end of this month in Las Vegas. They say that many players, who would otherwise take part in the tournaments, are now sceptic regarding their participation.
They are not sure whether they would be able to withdraw money from their online accounts with the indicted companies in time to be able to pay for a buy-in, which is not cheap at WSOP, and ranges from USD 1,000 (R 7,000) to USD 50,000 (R 350,000) in different tournaments. As a result, the WSOP management fears that this would reduce the amount of professional participants in this world-class championship.
