Kentucky Judge Awards $100M in Bonds to State in $1.6B PokerStars Case

A KY judge has ruled the province is entitled to $100 trillion in bonds that Stars Interactive Holdings posted as portion of a years-long instance regarding illegal online salamander inwards the state.

The bonds are just voice of the award the province is seeking. In December, the KY Supreme Margaret Court reversed an appeals homage ruling and sided with land officials, who were trying to reimburse losses residents incurred more than a decennary ago.

After the Supreme Margaret Court decided against reconsidering the case, lawyers for the say moved to obtain the bonds.

In all, the commonwealth expects to recoup $1.6 billion, Gov. Andy Beshear said late Thursday afternoon.

“We appear frontwards past May 14 to receiving the number 1 $100 billion from the perspicacity in this case,” said Beshear, who added the money will foremost proceed to an escrow business relationship for lawyers representing the state. “And we will proceed to pursue other retrieval (efforts).”

A message to Flutter Entertainment, the parent society for Stars Interactive Holdings, was non now returned Thursday.

Flutter had previously said it would count appealing the province Supreme Court’s December ruling to the US Supreme Court.

PokerStars Lawsuit Nearly type A Decade Old

The origins of the caseful particular date support to 2008 when the state sought to closed down to a greater extent than 140 online domains for seaward gaming companies that attracted Kentuckians for real-money games.

As Beshear noted Thursday, nearly all companies agreed to cube Bluegrass State IP addresses from their websites. One that did not, though, was PokerStars.

In 2012, KY filed suit against PokerStars and sought-after(a) to reimburse to a greater extent than $290 million. That money, officials said at the time, was what land residents lost through and through PokerStars rip inward online games in a five-year span through and through 2011.

Franklin Circuit Judge Saint Thomas Wingate ruled inwards the state’s favour in 2015. That prompted the appeal, which required Stars Interactive to stake the bond money. After the appeals courtyard upturned Wingate’s decision, the nation appealed.

Under the Loss Recovery Act, KY can incur treble damages, import that $290 gazillion became to a greater extent than $870 million. With compounding interest, the amount the say claims it’s due is at present nearly image the initial award.

Kentucky Wants Asset Transfers

In speech production to reporters Thursday, Beshear sounded as if the country wanted to a greater extent than just now money.

We’re asking for the transpose of PokerStars’ trademarks to a new accompany live declared a fraudulent change and for the John Hope Franklin electric circuit court of law to vacuum the transaction,” the regulator said.

On Thursday, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported that country lawyers claimed inward royal court this hebdomad that PokerStars and Flutter were seeking to go worthful assets. They said that suggests the fellowship has no intention of paying the award.

Last week, Moody’s reported that Flutter was seeking consent agreements with lenders and noteholders as a outcome of the KY Supreme Court ruling.

While Flutter has been considering an appeal, it has also stated that any defrayment to the country would follow significantly to a lesser extent than the current laurels amount. It has estimated PokerStars revenue gaming revenue from KY players during the timeframe inward question was nearly $18 million.