Now that the process for players to file their claims with the claims administrator has passed (the November 16 deadline was yesterday), what will be the next steps in the procedures in the Full Tilt Poker saga?
For most of the players affected by the 2011 shutdown of Full Tilt Poker in the United States, yesterday marked the closure date for filing their claims. Beginning on September 16, the claims administrator for the remission process, Garden City Group, sent out an estimated 1.4 million e-mails to former Full Tilt customers. After two months, GCG has received back an estimated 41,000 petitions from those e-mails from customers looking to be reimbursed.
That process, however, isn’t quite done yet. According to the GCG website, there will be a “grace period” following the closure of official application acceptance. “There will be a limited extension to the November 16 filing deadline for players who are Affiliates and for certain players identified as “Pros” in the data supplied by Full Tilt Poker,” the statement on the GCG website stated. “Such players will have 30 days from notification to submit a petition.”
Those affiliates and the players who were recognized on the Full Tilt Poker website as “Red Pros” (an unofficial status that did not make them a part of the “Team Full Tilt” stable) were one of the big question marks through the entire process. After initially stating that these players wouldn’t receive any compensation for their money on the site, GCG amended their criteria to state that affiliates could petition for the part of their balances that wasn’t related to any activities from their affiliate status (their “poker transactions,” as the GCG website put it). Additionally, the “Red Pros” could also apply, although their status is murkier.
The GCG update continues, “We are in the process of reviewing petitions filed by (customers) who confirmed their balances online and who have not disputed their FTP Account Balance or submitted multiple petitions. We expect payments to be made with respect to such petitions with confirmed balances by March 31, 2014.” Those payments are expected to come in the form of an e-check to a player’s bank account.
Even with the estimated 41,000 petitions that have been filed, GCG should be able to process those quickly. For the most part, those that were a part of the two-month application process were not contesting the information that GCG had on file from Full Tilt Poker and, as such, they should be able to receive their full balances back. The bigger question could be what will happen to the remainder of the money that the federal government collected.
Over the past two years – from fines imposed on major players in the Full Tilt Poker hierarchy, the settlement between PokerStars (who purchased Full Tilt) and the U. S. government and other financial forfeitures – the potential money pool has grown to hundreds of millions of dollars. If the 41,000 petitions (a grossly low number that makes up only about 3% of the e-mails that GCG initially sent out) were each for $1000 (highly unlikely), that would only total $41 million. The remainder of the money from the Full Tilt forfeitures would then go back to the federal government.
The saga that began in 2011 seemingly now can work its way towards closure. As a part of the “Black Friday” indictments from April of that year, Full Tilt Poker was unable to come up with the funds to pay back American players their balances, which resulted in the shutdown of the site later in 2011. Until late last year, Full Tilt Poker was dark but, after being bought by PokerStars, the site came back to life. As a part of that settlement, PokerStars paid back international players who wanted their money back, but the U. S. government took on the task of paying back U. S. players, which will come to an end once GCG completes the remittance process.