Winners and Losers in PokerStars-FTP Deal

Tournament fields should see a big boost once the money is back in players' hands.

Last week, the DOJ and PokerStars came to a settlement over Black Friday and came to terms over the purchase of Full Tilt Poker.

This week, we take a brief look at the winners and losers as a result of these deals.

Winner - The Poker World

The conclusion of the deal between the DOJ and PokerStars for Full Tilt goes beyond PokerStars being able to offer services in the US in areas where poker is legalized.

It will effectively redistirbute $390 million into the poker community, which is an amount that will certainly have an immediate short-term effect on the poker world.

Players who lost their entire roll on the site can now try to make a comeback. Others will have a much-needed bankroll infusion.

Expect live tournaments to get a positive boost for close to the next year, including the next big winner.

Winner - The 2013 World Series of Poker

This year's WSOP saw dropoffs across the board, but that was expected in the aftermath of Black Friday.

With repayment of player funds from Full Tilt around the corner, this will have an impact on the WSOP and numbers should increase for many events next year including the Main Event.

Next year very well may see the return of a PokerStars and Full Tilt prescence at the WSOP, especially if they get licensed in Nevada.

How big of a prescence is hard to predict early on but it will definitely be a noticeable one.

Loser - Caesars Entertainment

Based on its deal with the DOJ, PokerStars will now be allowed to reenter the United States online-poker market once it is legalized.

This is going to be a bit of a blow for Caesars Entertainment as it was looking to be the dominant force in the US online poker market.

Now that PokerStars will not have any restrictions, Caesars will still be a major player but maybe not the top dog it thought it would be.

Loser - Smaller US Online Providers

Companies such as Shuffle Master were looking forward to being a big player in the US online poker market and these companies may well be forced to reevaluate their role with the return of PokerStars.

PokerStars merely needs to make a skin and meet state technology requirements to get its site live.

In addition, PokerStars has the track record, money and now the good karma associated with repaying the Full Tilt debt to help drive traffic to its site.

Loser - American Poker Players at Tax Time

Sorry folks, but you guys are going to pay for getting your money back and it will be in the form of higher taxes.

While this will not be a big deal for those of you that pay taxes as you should, the rest of you will be wise to pay the taxes on your Full Tilt money as the DOJ will obviously know exactly how much you have been refunded.

Then again, this may be a good problem to have compared to what the alternative was before this deal.