The Garden City Group (GCG), the Department of Justice-appointed claims administrator for millions of dollars-worth of lost Absolute Poker and UltimateBet deposits, announced this week that the deadline for claims submissions has passed. Petitions that were filed on time are being reviewed and after that phase is completed, the GCG will move on to look at disputed claims.
The GCG posted the following message on the claims websites, absolutepokerclaims.com:
The deadline to submit Petitions for Remission was Thursday, September 7, 2017. GCG is currently reviewing Petitions that were filed prior to the deadline by Petitioners who confirmed their last known Absolute Poker/Ultimate Bet Account Balance.
Once this review has been completed, GCG will begin reviewing the Petitions filed by Petitioners who are disputing their last known Absolute Poker/Ultimate Bet Account Balance or have submitted their filing as a new Petition (and did not confirm an account balance posted on the online portal).
While these reviews are being conducted, GCG will continue to accept Petitions, but late filings will be subject to review at a later date and at the sole discretion of the Department of Justice.
Please continue to check this website for updated information.
The concept that players could get their money back after Absolute Poker and UltimateBet disappeared after Black Friday was a novel one, considering we all chalked any money we had on deposit with those poker rooms as a loss. But it looks like there was money left over from the Full Tilt claims process, so the DoJ is using that to refund AP and UB customers.
The claims process for AP and UB began in April, as the GCG sent e-mails to former players with Petition and Control numbers to be entered on an online form, along with some basic account information. Those, like me, who didn’t get the e-mails because they no longer checked the e-mail accounts associated with AP and UB, could still file claims using their poker login info.
In August, e-mails began to go out to those whose Petitions for Remission (fancy term for claims) had been approved. From there, the next step was to go back to the GCG site and enter banking information so that one could get paid. That was a departure from the process used for Full Tilt claims; Full Tilt customers were directed to enter their banking information immediately with their petitions, rather than in a second step later. It is unknown why this was changed, but it could just be an information collection and/or privacy issue – why take banking information from everyone if not everyone will have their claims approved?
It does not appear that any payments have been sent out yet. The GCG indicated that we should expect to see a payment four to six weeks from the time we submit our banking information. I, for some reason, delayed submitting mine for about a week after I got the confirmation e-mail, so I would expect the money to hit my bank account by the end of this month at the earliest.