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Groupe Bernard Tapie joined Bwin and PokerStars applying for the Spanish gambling license required to operate in Spain. This means that Full Tilt Poker is very close to be reopened and players will soon be paid. As Rakerace.com reported, Spain legalized online poker [3], which means another nation segregates itself from the global poker market. Any poker provider who wishes to offer their services in Spain is requred to apply for a license, have an office in the European Union and have to delegate a Spanish representative. Also, they will only be allowed to advertise their services on separate .es domains, and need to provide access to their servers' data to the license providers and financial institutions and pay a 25%-30% tax after their income. The bill is effective from 2012.
[4]Over 50 companies applied for the license in Spain, and however the list of such providers is not public, according to leaked information PokerStars, bwin.party, Ongame, Ladbrokes and 888 already applied.
According to information of the Spanish site Poker-Red, the Groupe Bernard Tapie also applied for the license on behalf of Full Tilt Poker, which suggests that the reopening of the room is imminent. As it is well known, Groupe Bernard Tapie came to an agreement with the United States Department of Justice concerning the acquisition of Full Tilt Poker, eliminating the last barrier hindering the repayment of FTP's customers. According to the agreement, the DoJ will confiscate Full Tilt Poker's assets, which the Tapie group will purchase from the department for $80 million. Next, the DoJ will repay the American customers, while Groupe Bernard Tapie will pay the international customers.
There hasn't been any news concerning Full Tilt Poker since November, only Jeff Ifrah (lawyer for FTP) suggested that there is a big statement coming from the company, but it didn't arrive yet. Rumors say, it will be about the shareholders agreeing to the acquisition, which will give a final green light to Groupe Bernard Tapie. Since Full Tilt Poker will only be able to operate in Spain if they pay their customers, it seems very close that the room might reopen. This is very good news for the poker community indeed.