Full Tilt Poker Closed - Licence Revoked
A POKER GIANT FALLS
Full Tilt Poker, once a giant of the online poker world boasting such luminaries as Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey and Chris Ferguson as official sponsored players has closed to real money play with immediate effect.
All games were suspended early on Wednesday 29th June after their official gaming licence, based in Alderney in the British Channel Islands, was revoked.
LICENCE REVOKED PLAY SUSPENDED
The reasons given for this by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission, the AGCC, were the recent complications arising from the events of Black Friday, when Full Tilt Poker, Pokerstars and Absolute Poker/UB had their domains seized by the US department of justice. It is understood the AGCC felt that the underhanded methods used to process payments from American players constituted a breach of the licencing conditions.
This was their brief official statement on the matter: "“The decision to suspend these licenses follows a special investigation prompted by the indictments unsealed by US Attorney General’s Office in the Southern District of New York on 15th April 2011, during which grounds were found to indicate that these licensees and their business associates were operating contrary to Alderney legislation."
A company facing such serious charges as fraud and money laundering could no longer continue to operate from within the jurisdiction of Alderney. This is a very serious developemnt for Full Tilt as surely no other jurisdiction will allow them to relocate with the charges from the US government hanging over them.
THE BEGINNING OF THE END FOR FULL TILT, ABSOLUTE POKER AND POKERSTARS?
It had previously been thought that Full Tilt and the other big two US facing poker sites would only have to take a hit from losing their US players, but it is now becoming clear that their servicing of US players will have much wider ramifications and their transgressions of US banking laws will almost certainly result in the suspension of operations from all three major poker rooms.
The first sign of the fallout was a statement issued earlier by Moneybookers, a payment processor who provide banking services to the majority of Full Tilt players;
"As a Moneybookers customer, you already know you are the most important part of our business. We always make sure you receive the safest service. For this reason we have stopped accepting deposits made to Full Tilt Poker. There are extraordinary circumstances behind this situation which are beyond our control. We will not comment on these, just take appropriate action that protects our customers."
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF PLAYERS AFFECTED
A major catastrophic consequence of this is the effect on non-US players. Up until now US players have been more or less aware that there were dangers involved in playing online poker. But this latest development shows that the decisions of the US department of justice with regard to online poker can have devastating worldwide implications.
Europeans, Canadians, Australians and players the world over who played at Full Tilt are feeling for the first time what it has been like to be an American online poker player in recent years and boy are they pissed.
When play was suspended on Wednseday morning there were thousands of cash games and tournaments in progress.
Here's what one Full Tilt regular had to say:
"I was playing 6 tables at once and doing well in 4 of them - i'd already lost on 4 tables so i was expecting to get my money back. I'm not sure this is to do with Alderney the island as i'm from the mainland UK and the site paused on all 6 tables after each hand got played out - now i cannot even access the site. I've got about $800 in my account - luckily i withdrew about $3000 a few weeks ago after the first FBI scandal some months back.. Also next month was bonus month - i've got about $400 in bonuses to play off - looks like that ain't going to happen either - and i've got 31 months of iron man built up. Really annoyed...but thank god i wasn't playing bigger games."
CHANCES OF RECOVERING MONEY FROM FULL TILT
Unfortunately Full Tilt was known for its high rollers so there were very many players with huge bankrolls that have been effectively frozen out. While those who were playing in tournaments and in cashing positions at the time will not see those prizes it is likely they will be able to recover their bankrolls providing Full Tilt do not declare bankruptcy.
One possible stumbling block to this could be the fact that, contrary to Alderney gaming regulations, customer funds were not segregated from company funds (surely another reason for the suspension). Alderney has strict player protection policies but it seems that Full Tilt were flouting them, meaning if the company goes bust, the players won't get paid. This is highly embarrassing for the commission, terrible for the players, and shameful for Full Tilt who are surely finished now.
WITHDRAW FUNDS NOW
Our advice to European and other non-US players is CASH OUT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. US players.. your best chance is to support the lifting of online gambling prohibition.
In anticipation of similar actions against fellow ex-US facing poker sites we also advise you to withdraw any funds you may have at Pokerstars, Absolute Poker, and Ultimate Bet.
