On Friday, the Garden City Group (GCG), the company authorized by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York to be the Claims Administrator for the long-frozen Full Tilt Poker funds, posted a couple important updates on the remissions process on its website.
The first concerned former U.S. customers of Full Tilt Poker who have had their remissions approved. Anyone who has an outstanding delinquent debt owed to the U.S. government will see the amount of their refunds reduced accordingly through the Treasury Offset Program (TOP). The TOP program is also used to garnish people’s tax refunds, wages, and retirement benefits.
Those who are affected by this policy should have been sent an e-mail on January 29th that included a Unified Financial Management System Vendor Request Form, a form which must be filled out and returned to the Garden City Group within 30 days. Neither the GCG nor the U.S. Department of Justice can answer questions about the specific debts; those questions must be directed to the Treasury Offset Program.
The second notice posted by the GCG affects former Full Tilt Poker affiliates. Originally, affiliates, along with “red pros,” were disqualified from receiving any reimbursements, but after further discussion with the Poker Players Alliance, the DoJ thought better of the decision and allowed affiliates and pros to submit petitions for remission. The catch for affiliates though, is that they are only eligible to receive refunds for money earned through poker play, not from their affiliate business. The GCG has said that on January 31st, approximately 8,400 e-mails were sent to former Full Tilt affiliates with instructions on how to file a petition. Affiliates are urged to follow these instructions and login to the claims website to get started. The deadline for affiliates is March 2nd.
Unfortunately for some affiliates, the GCG still has not calculated their refunds properly. For example, it is sometimes disallowing any non-poker playing income earned by an affiliate, even if it is not money the affiliate made from the affiliate business. Rakeback is one of these income sources. While not directly derived from playing, it is also not affiliate business income. Nonetheless, in some cases, it is not being included in the reimbursement package.
The Garden City Group is still figuring out what to do with the pros and will notify them when decisions have been made.
For all former Full Tilt players who submitted a claims application, confirmed their Full Tilt balance, and had that claim approved (about 30,000 people), the GCG expects electronic payments to be made by the end of the month.
Further information can be found at http://www.fulltiltpokerclaims.com.
