“Full Tilt down?”
That short query has become a sort of inside joke in the online poker community over the years, as whenever players had trouble logging on to Full Tilt Poker, a number of threads would be started almost simultaneously on internet message boards asking about the status of the company’s game servers. Today is a special day, however, as that question is now more relevant than ever. The Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC), the body which licenses Full Tilt, has ordered the online poker room to cease operations.
In dual statements released today, the AGCC said that it has issued Suspension Notes to Vantage Limited, Oxalic Limited, Filco Limited, and Orinic Limited, who together do business as Full Tilt Poker. The companies must “cease to exercise their eGambling licenses,” which means what one would logically think it means. Full Tilt Poker is immediately forbidden from registering new customers, accepting deposits, allowing customers to withdraw funds, and hosting any poker games whatsoever.
A hearing on the matter has been scheduled for 10:00am on Tuesday, July 26th in London.
The AGCC briefly explained the situation, saying, “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 15 April 2011, during which grounds were found to indicate that these licensees and their business associates were operating contrary to Alderney legislation. The nature of the findings necessitated the taking of immediate action in the public interest.”
In the press release, Andre Wilsenach, the Executive Director of the AGCC, added, “The decision to suspend the eGambling license was in the public interest and, because of the seriousness and urgency of the matter, it required that immediate action be taken ahead of the regulatory hearing.”
News of the suspension was made public in the late morning in Alderney and very shortly thereafter, all play on Full Tilt Poker was halted. Of course, many players had no idea what was going on at that moment; the only indication of any issue on Full Tilt’s website was a short message near the bottom of the home page reading, “Scheduled Maintenance in Progress: The system is currently down for maintenance. Please check back soon!”
Full Tilt Poker has yet to make a statement regarding the license suspension.
Today’s action by the AGCC is the biggest blow to Full Tilt Poker in the two and a half months since Black Friday. In fact, many in the poker community believe it is the final dagger for the once high-flying company. What had previously been the world’s second largest online poker room by a longshot had already lost half of its player base since Black Friday after it had to shut out all U.S. players. Now, with poker operations completely stopped for at least a month, the company will fall into an even deeper hole.
Full Tilt still has not returned funds to its former customers in the United States, so today’s developments certainly do not help matters. The company has been looking for an investor to inject it with $100-$150 million so that it can repay U.S. players, but now any potential buyers will be even more skittish. And of course, now Europeans, Canadians, and all other Full Tilt players around the world won’t see any of their funds until at least after the July hearing. They say misery loves company and now there is plenty to of it to go around.
Is this the end for Full Tilt Poker? That remains to be seen, but if it somehow survives this, it would be hard to imagine it ever regaining its prominence again.
so they revoke FT’s license in the interest of the public? Well I’m a member of the public with money in a full tilt account. Guess I’m a donk cuz I don’t see how their action represents my best interests!
cant play poker today . why?
You would have thought that the U.S. gov.would have legislated that all monies be reimbursed before shutdown.With the recession still happening the money would be better off spent by everyone instead of the top cats @ Full Tilt laughing about in their mansions.
the agcc should wake the hell up like really we have no freedom anymore,everyone knows that the goverment in every country r idiots.if we put the goverment and the agcc in a round room and told them to piss in the corner,well first there would be a meeting 2 months later of course,then a whole bunch bearucrats that could not find the corner would spend millions of tax payers money for a survey only to find out yes in fact they r idiots.face facts there mad because they cant get a fat wallet from poker i hope bad tidings for all goverments they should have a meeting about growing up and leave us people who r not harming anyone alone so to the agcc u can kiss my canadian ass not on the right cheek and not on the left cheek but right on the ol starfish PUCKER UP.
so the blockheads got us again, don’t they realize the other 99% of legitimate, honest players make up the majority?, is this an insult to democracy? Can’t they prosecute the guilty in private? It was a cause of applause for U.S. players to be allowed, someone out there was standing up for our freedom agains’t an unfair law. Where’s the biatche that want us to spend more time with them, I could go on for ever with this but will it make any difference? Full Tilt was innovative, with Rush poker, multi entry etc. how can the house loose? Do you think the freerolls and bonus did them in? I doubt it.
it’s about time those thieving bastards got there due
I mailed to fulltilt, AND THEY ANSWERED :o
Hi,
As you have heard, the Alderney Gaming Control Commission (AGCC) has suspended Full Tilt Poker?s license with immediate effect, subject to a formal hearing late July.
Full Tilt is in ongoing discussions with the AGCC with the aim of rectifying the situation as soon as possible, therefore re-enabling real money play on the site.
Unfortunately, until this is resolved Full Tilt Poker is unable to facilitate any play, and this includes deposits and withdrawals.
Full Tilt Poker are deeply sorry for this inconvenience and will update you as and when there is further information available.
Thanks,
Anna-Lena
Full Tilt Poker Support
So why do those of us who DO NOT use real money have to be punished? What is so illegal about the play money portion of the website that we cannot enjoy the entertainment purposes of the game?…………..
After Black Friday, we should have seen it coming. Three years ago it was the financial investors and the insurers, now it is the turn of the online casino owners – how callously they handle our money!! The system ought to be better regulated as in the case of UK sites like 888poker, friends and party. Thank God I switched to 888poker some time back and have always felt it as one of the safest places to play poker. They are legal and are listed on the London Stock Exchange, which gives me the surety they wont fall like a pack of cards. And thank God for that.
I have 50k in there OMG!
do the other poker set ups really think we,re going to trust another poker outlet? I f they dont fix FT I think all the poker games will end
Is anyone surprised by this? Fully Tilted/Rigged poker should have been shut down years ago. Thank you FBI and Alderney Gambling Control Commission for protecting the public from these foul,cheating, greedy scum bags. If you don’t believe tilted poker was rigged, ask yourself why you were being dealt ace king every 50 hands instead of the statistically correct 1 in 169 hands. So nice to see those K-Beck Ijians not being able to soak the Canadian tax payer any longer to fund this horribly crooked site. I have been hanging my head in shame ever since I learned this site was on an Indian Reservation just outside of Montreal. If you are an honest Canadian, you known that (1) Quebec does nothing but take from the rest of Canada, and (2) so do our Indians. Couldn’t be a more toxic combination in this country! I wonder how long it will take for an honest site, to start raking less than the other sites and hence get ALL the American business. If you think I am too harsh about the shutdown of riggedpoker.com ask yourself just how foul that ‘Rush’ poker was. Poker is a game of patience and of gaining an idea of whether your opponents are bluffing. Just how does this occur in ‘Rush’ poker? It doesn’t, all that happens is that you get raked 2% to 4% 5 times a minute instead of 1 time a minute. I hope lots of people go to jail for the fraud that was Fully Tilted/Rigged poker. I am glad you’re DEAD! Lastly, remember how these parasites at Full Tilt continue to lie to the public by stating in their support link that they ‘ are down for system maintenence.’ Even after being exposed wordwide for the con the are, they continue to lie and cheat the public.
Unfortunately there are a lot of decent people who believed this tax evading offshore money laundering site was legit. I personally never trusted a company which cowars from paying taxes like a “real company”. The suckout ratio and monster hand after monster hand was too evident for those of us who actually have an understanding of rational odds. Hopefully those were were involved and have a stake in this so called company rot in hell when proven guilty.
Ha Ha Ha Ha !!!!! It didn’t take rocket science to see just how “RIGGED” FTP was even on the play site—Ridiculously so!!!!! And that was the VERY reason I never played for real money—what a joke!
Sad to see it go – had a lot of fun playing there and made many online friends.
Happy to see these Full Tilt phony skum bags got shut down for their corrupt rigged poker site–In playing a short period of time I flopped a 4 of a kind 8 times and lost 7 of the hands–that fraud poker site was amazing for their rigged suck out hands–I feel sorry for the people that got screwed on the real money games–but any MORON could have seen it comming—THE TASS
lol there goes my $3
Sorry to see FT Poker go down. We didn,t play for real money just fun. We played every night. Always free little tornments just a lot of free fun. Sorry to see it go. For allof those who played for real money–shame on you anyway. Gambling my friend DOES NOT PAY?? Good luck trying to get your money back–SUCKER
I do think it is government (us) barking at justice to do treasury a favor by tying up funds of WHOEVER owns them. This way they can have it all put in a trust (as the jails do) on both sides of the pond. Since this money can’t earn much interest, it will be combed by obama and the queen mama’s money men to see if inequities are present, who owes who what, and they will hold it as long as possible. It can make more interest in euros than dollars. That will be their tell. I play free poker. But I am livid anyway. GL ALL
Finally maybe they’ll pay out the us players since we haven’t been able to get our money in over 3 months now damn shame everyone else was still able to play
I’ve been tryiny for almost 3 months to play the free poker game site & everyweek i redownload & trash it . they should have had a set up for when we try to download or goto the site , it should tell someone that won’t open (reason why?)or should say on the 1st page that their shut down ; keep checking back or when it well be operational again !!!!Sorry for your possible lose’es of your $$$$ pep’s ; but for us free player’s who want 2 play or have been playing ;to get payback also. if possible ? A LOVE FOR POKER MR. GUTHRIE
I played in their free rolls and qualifiers and managed to win a few dollars in those tournaments. I then started to play in some cash games, small ones and had started to build up a bankroll. Sure, I had taken my share of bad beats, but I don’t feel the site was rigged. Poker has been ruled a game of skill by courts in the USA and is legal to play in the state I reside in. I never made a deposit with full tilt but managed to start and build up an account from nothing on the site. I believe in freedom and I feel this ban on USA poker players is unfair and illegal. This is supposed to be a free country, yet my government has banned me from certain sites on the internet? Sounds like communist China to me. It is a shame that I live in a country so proud of its freedoms, yet I am not free to enjoy the same rights as citizens of many other countries do. I do not need the government to hold my hand or babysit for me. It is true many people probably do. The world is full of dumb people, but I do not feel I should have to sacrifice my freedoms to protect people who are not smart enough to cross the street by themselves.
Dont see why they had to close the NOT REAL MONEY games down..Loved to play for fun..It figures,,you find a good site to play and they just had to mess that up..W2G!!!!