Over the last few days, rumblings could be heard in the online poker community that Full Tilt Poker was going to make some sort of announcement on May 30th. People’s hopes were raised, thinking that this may mean that Full Tilt was ready to start sending payments out to U.S. customers, who have had their bankrolls locked up in their Full Tilt accounts since Black Friday, which was a month and a half ago. As it turned out, an announcement was made on Monday, but to the dismay of most, it was more of the same.
In an update posted on poker message boards such as Two Plus Two and PocketFives.com, Full Tilt representative “Doug” wrote in response to the big question as to when U.S. players will be paid, “We still do not have a specific timeframe for this. There has been, and remains, no bigger priority than getting US players paid as soon as possible, and we have been working around the clock to get this done.”
The reassurance that the issue is the highest priority comes as little solace to the vast majority of those waiting for their money, as this has been the company line since the whole mess started on April 15th. Adding to the frustration is the fact that PokerStars started processing withdrawals within two weeks of Black Friday and withdrawals that were made via electronic funds transfer were completed, with the money in players’ bank accounts, within 72 hours in most cases.
Full Tilt is fully aware, however, that it has not handled the situation very well. Doug’s official update started with the following:
“We acknowledge that our lack of communication reflects poorly on us, and rightfully so. We have been too optimistic in estimating how long it would take to sort through the issues we have faced since Black Friday. And as frustrating as the delays have been for us, we recognize that it cannot compare to the frustration you have been feeling.
We further recognize that our lack of communication has led to much speculation and many unsubstantiated rumors, which have often been contradictory. With this message, we hope to clear up as much confusion as we can, while at the same time keeping in mind the constraints imposed on us as a result of the cases brought in the Southern District of New York.”
Full Tilt also stated that in attempting to “speed up” payments, it is “raising capital to ensure that the US players are paid out in full as quickly as possible.”
Last week, eGaming Review reported that representatives of Full Tilt co-founder Ray Bitar, one of the men named in the Black Friday indictment, are looking for investors outside of the financial services sector to inject the company with as much as $150 million so that it can repay its customers. One Bank of Ireland account belonging to Full Tilt and Bitar was unfrozen by the U.S. Department of Justice last week, reportedly freeing up more than a third of the money owed to U.S. customers, but that money has not been distributed yet. In all, U.S. players are waiting for somewhere between $100 million and $150 million.
Part of the problem seems to be the timing of the indictments and bank account seizures. At the time of the seizures, Full Tilt was scrambling to to find a payment processor to process transactions between the poker room and U.S. customers’ bank accounts. The company actually had a $60 million shortfall because it had credited players’ Full Tilt Poker accounts with funds that had not actually been transferred yet from the players’ bank accounts to Full Tilt Poker. Crediting accounts with deposit requests before the funds are actually moved isn’t unusual, as the funds are typically debited in short order. In the case of this $60 million, however, payment processor issues resulted in the shortfall lasting longer than expected. Even so, it shouldn’t have been a big issue, but then the indictments were handed down and bank accounts were seized. According to eGaming Review, that resulted in a perfect storm of epic proportions: the bank accounts were seized before Full Tilt even knew about it, so now there was both a shortfall of customer deposits plus seized bank accounts, resulting in Full Tilt staring at over $100 million in funds owed to customers.
Additionally, even accounts that weren’t touched by the Department of Justice have been inaccessible because the banks got scared and voluntarily shut down.
In the past, when there has been payment processor issues or frozen accounts, Full Tilt has pulled money from its own coffers to pay customers while the issues were resolved. In this case, it hasn’t even been able to do that, since its bank accounts were seized. Thus the need to find investors.
Starting to think a visit to Ireland, and to Ray Bitar seems like a good way to speed up the process of getting my life savings back before the theiving government inflates it to nothing. Don’t make me come see you guys…life savings…think about it.
anybody who puts more money at risk than they can afford to lose especially Full Tilt needs a guardian
oatley…STFU.
Anyone who feels it necessary to say something so uninformed has obviously nothing better to do than “rub it in” on people who just lost their job, and ALREADY TAXED life savings.
How about understanding that all professional gamblers use their bankroll interchangably with their other money…there is no line. It’s impossible to be a low level professional gambler and NOT have most of your life savings put aside for gambling at any given time. What did you want me to do exactly? Play lower stakes than I needed to survive? Make constant transactions that were unnecessary? Do you keep money in a bank, or under your mattress?
Banks don’t have all your money either…the fact they don’t have all the money isn’t suprising. If the Feds raided and froze your bank’s assettts the same thing would happen…the bank would only have 10% or so of the money needed to pay the depositors.
The difference is, with a bank, the government would unfreeze and otherwise aid in the return of innocent customer funds. In this case, with poker sites, they don’t care and plan on stealing the money they are extorting from the sites. The sites were never more reputable (FTP and Stars) than the moment before the raid and seizures. Almost no one pitched major fits about money not being paid. Only psycho loonies thought poker was fixed, and whined about that. But now, 50,000 Americans have had their jobs outlawed, and huge portions of their liferolls frozen or stolen (we’ll see which). The longer it takes, the more our criminal government inflates the dollar, and the less the money is worth…meaning it’s advantageous for the site to wait longer, in order to pay less back in total. Any banker will explain this principle of inflation and credit to you.
Now, instead of FTP being a bank/poker room for so many pros, we are now the bank, and they owe us. Now they’ll play the inflation waiting game to owe less in total payouts. Inflation always aids the loan recipient, not the lender (and now we are the lender).
So stop with holier than thou BS about my money management, and so many other pros…apparently we managed our money well enough to make a living without working like a drone (like everyone else), and if we weren’t essentially trodden upon by our own government, who relieves us of our property rights and trial rights with no regard for the natural rights codified in our Constitution, then we will still be WORKING, earning LEGAL income, and paying TAXES…like we were before Black Friday. But you blame the victim of theft (us), and not the extortionist government, or the dubious actions since of FTP.
And for the record…all the FTP owners need to understand…you do NOT make 50,000 enemies, and NOT have one of them look you up and pull your card eventually. I hope they are trying to raise the funds, I hope they are tightening the corporate belt in order to save up foreign dollars from foreign customers to pay American players…but in case they aren’t, in case they are thinking of doing a “dine and dash”, they need to realize some of us aren’t from the “nice side” of town, and don’t give a F. Some of us actually have enough marginal utility (see utility theory) in that cash to do quite a lot.
I just heard a guy in a podcast say he has about $200k on two of the sites, FTP and AP. He knows the AP money is gone…but if FTP is too, his life will be totally changed, and his wife and child effected. And you blame this on him, not the people he was doing business with like almost anyone who does business with a bank would do? What did he do that was sooo different than what you do with your bank (except the interest was way higher online in terms of ROI for pros)? You don’t blame the criminals we have in Washington trying to run all of our lives for no good reason?
You sir, are a loser…in poker, and life. Don’t be suprised when people with nothing left to lose go allin over this.
I don’t know why FTP is having an issue paying out its customers. According to other articles on this site, the DOJ made arrangements for PS and FTP to return player’s funds back in April; FTP immediately started giving excuses as to why it couldn’t do so. Meanwhile, I got a full refund from PokerStars shortly thereafter. The fact that FTP still can’t manage to refund its players leads me to believe there was a serious mismanagement of funds on their part… and thus the need for regulation if they’re going to operate in the US. I look forward to the day when our ‘we-know-whats-best-for-you’ congressional masters pull their heads out of their asses and allow poker to return.