Deal lets poker sites resume

LOS ANGELES – Two online poker sites shut down by the federal government last week have been permitted to start up, again, but only to help players get their money back, authorities said.

Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars regained access to their domain names after striking agreements with the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, which on Friday accused founders of the sites of bank and wire fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling.

The agreements prohibit the sites from allowing patrons in the U.S. to play for money on the venues. But Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars have free rein outside the country.

The U.S. attorney’s office said it might strike the same deal with Absolute Poker, another shutdown site.

The restored sites “will facilitate the return of money so that players can register their refund requests directly with PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker,” according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.

“No individual player accounts were ever frozen or restrained, and each implicated poker company has at all times been free to reimburse any player’s deposited funds,” the statement said.

But the Full Tilt Poker site used for playing for money was not operating as of Wednesday afternoon. The company, based in Dublin, Ireland, issued a statement saying that there were “numerous legal and jurisdictional issues” with getting money back to patrons.

“Unfortunately, there remain significant practical and legal impediments to returning funds to players in the immediate future,” the statement said.