The Commonwealth of Kentucky has filed a lawsuit against top online poker site PokerStars to try and gain access to tens of millions in alleged poker player losses. These losses are being claimed by the state in regards to when PokerStars operated in Kentucky from 2006 to 2011. The Poker Players Alliance has now joined the lawsuit to try and delegate these funds to the players rather than the state of Kentucky.
The PPA is expecting the funds that would be derived from the lawsuit to go to the Commonwealth. John Pappas, the Executive Director of the PPA, released a press release with information regarding the lawsuit in which he states that the lawsuit is a ‘cynical big government grab’ of private consumer dollars in order to pay for the excesses of politics. Pappas states the lawsuit is based on a long-shunned statute that is comparable to anti-dueling laws that are still on the law books.
Poker Players Alliance points out that the Commonwealth has used their time and resources to figure out how to extort money from companies of online poker gaming that could have been better used by creating a safe and regulated market for online poker players. Efforts in this manner could have raised equal amounts of money as the lawsuit or even more in the future, benefiting the Commonwealth in the present as well as the future.
The PPA believes the affected players should be the ones who collect any monies from the PokerStars lawsuit, not the attorneys in the case or the government. Amaya Gaming, the parent company of PokerStars, has weighed in on the PPA joining the lawsuit. Amaya Gaming’s Vice President of Corporate Communications, Eric Hollreiser, stated that the Poker Players Alliance intervention of the lawsuit is welcome and they believe the PPA represents the interests of residents as well as poker players in Kentucky.
Amaya does not feel that the lawsuit has merit and they plan on continuing to pursue the matter in court. However, they do believe if a judgement is made towards monetary means, the money should be given to the consumers and not the attorneys of the plaintiffs.
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