A court case that started in 2015, when PokerStars was ordered to pay $290 million to the state of Kentucky, has finally come to an end. Flutter Entertainment, parent company to PokerStars, agreed to pay a $200 million settlement to the Commonwealth, and also forfeit $100 million that was placed in bond.
In 2015, Judge Thomas Wingate ordered the online poker room to pay the massive fine, after he found the site guilty of providing unlawful online gambling services to state residents between 2006 and 2011. When the case was reinstated in 2018, the Supreme Court increased the fine to $870 million. The Court of Appeals ruled in PokerStars’ favor in 2019 and waived the fine, although that decision was appealed by the state and the fine was reinstated once more.
In the meantime, Flutter Entertainment purchased The Stars Group in May 2020.
After years of going back and forth, and after it was raised to the Supreme Court this month, the state’s legal team and Flutter Entertainment agreed that it would be wiser to settle the case out of court.
According to a statement by Flutter, it was said that the group believes that this settlement agreement was in the best interests of its shareholders, and that it now considered the matter closed.