NEW YORK-Set­tle­ment deals reached be­tween fed­er­al pros­e­cu­tors and three In­ter­net pok­er com­pa­nies call for more than a half bil­lion dol­lars to be paid to the gov­ern­ment, en­abling US pok­er play­ers to re­cov­er more than US$160 mil­lion lost when the com­pa­nies shut down US op­er­a­tions last year, au­thor­i­ties said yes­ter­day.

US Dis­trict Judge Leonard B. Sand ap­proved set­tle­ment agree­ments with Pok­er­Stars and Full Tilt Pok­er. A sep­a­rate agree­ment be­tween the gov­ern­ment and a third com­pa­ny, Ab­solute Pok­er, had not yet been ap­proved by the court. Pok­er­Stars said in a re­lease that its deal with the US De­part­ment of Jus­tice calls for it to pay the gov­ern­ment US$547 mil­lion over three years with the mon­ey be­ing used in part to re­im­burse for­mer U.S. cus­tomers of Full Tilt Pok­er.