Action group determined that any money won in the courts will go to player pockets and not those of the state
The Poker Players Alliance action group has filed a motion to join a State of Kentucky lawsuit against certain Pokerstars associates which is seeking to claim millions of dollars in player losses between 2006 and 2011 (see previous InfoPowa reports) for state coffers.
The PPA says that it is determined that any funds awarded go to players resident in Kentucky and not the state itself.
In a statement, the Alliance said that the Commonwealth of Kentucky is wrong in unilaterally seeking redress on the losses without the consent or collaboration of players resident in the state, and with no intention to return monies lost to such residents.
"This is a cynical big government money grab of private consumer dollars to pay for political excesses," said PPA executive director John Pappas in the statement.
"This entire lawsuit is based on a long-shunned 19th Century sore loser statute, which is about as applicable today as the anti-duelling laws still on the books.
"The Commonwealth has spent countless resources and time figuring out how to extort money from online poker companies when they could have spent that time creating a safe and regulated market that would have raised equal or greater amounts of money to benefit the consumers and taxpayers of the Commonwealth both now and in the future.
"The affected players should be the ones who collect from this suit, not the government, and certainly not the attorneys."
Pokerstars parent group Amaya applauded the intervention of the PPA, with communications chief Eric Hollreiser commenting:
"We welcome the intervention of the Poker Players Alliance to this suit and believe they represent the true interests of Kentucky residents and Kentucky poker players.
"While we do not believe the suit has merit and will continue to pursue the case in the courts, if there is a monetary judgment it should go toward the consumers who played on PokerStars and not to line the pockets of opportunistic plaintiff's attorneys."
Online Casino News Courtesy of Infopowa
