Flutter settles Pokerstars bribery case

The company will pay to settle a case that dates back to before it bought Pokerstars in 2020.

Ireland.- London-listed Flutter Entertainment has agreed to pay a $4m settlement in a case brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The case involved allegations of bribery against Pokerstars dating back to before the brand was acquired by Flutter in 2020.

The SEC claimed that Pokerstars, then owned by the Stars Group, made $8.9m in payments to Russia-based consultants between 2015 and 2020 as part of its lobbying efforts to push for the legalisation of poker in the country. It found that some of the payments ended up being passed on to government officials, which would put Pokerstars in breach of international foreign bribery laws.

Flutter has now settled the case without either denying or accepting the charges.

The company said in a statement: “This is a legacy issue, related to a period prior to Flutter’s ownership of the Stars Group. Following our acquisition of TSG, we made significant changes to implement a framework of controls in line with Flutter’s existing standards.”

The SEC acknowledged Flutter’s cooperation with its investigation and that it had taken steps to ensure that such an incident does not happen in the future. The company withdrew from Russia following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

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