Breaking: It sounds like Full Tilt have had their licence revoked. I’m not at home so can’t check to see what happens if you try loading the software.
I’m hoping everyone who had money in their account gets it back – it sounds like it might be held until the end of July at least. Needless to say, I am very annoyed, sorry to everyone I encouraged to join the site to play in the BotherSOP and obviously HORSE Hilarity is off.
Software stays in a “connecting… – trying again…” loop on start-up.
The .net website alleges that the system is down for scheduled maintenance. The .com site is plain not working. A least on black Friday there was a helpful message from the FBI!
I’d like to say I’m hopeful, but having worked in the industry I know it is damned near impossible to have a gaming licence revoked. For this to happen is very bad indeed. Still, the server-side software has value, and a huge ready-made client base. Just as Ultimate Bet/Absulte Poker changed ownership after their massive scandal and are doing ok, I can see one of the big casino chains stepping in here.
There was discussion during the Grand Final of moving to PokerStars next year anyway, although doubtless if I start backing that it will go down the pan.
I would hope Full Tilt is too big to fail, but…
The Full Tilt Forums appear to be down also.
Blonde Poker forum: http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=52905.315
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Well, I’d be happy to play the long game and open up a PS account.
I have actually set up a home game club, people are welcome to join it but there won’t be a game this weekend, and I’m not sure I’ll be able to add value to any future HORSE tourney:
You are invited to join my private poker club for Home Games online.
– If you don’t already have it, download the free PokerStars software from http://www.pokerstars.com
– Open the main poker lobby, then click on the Home Games tab
– Click the ‘Join a Poker Club’ button
– Enter my Club ID number: 466738
– Enter my Invitation Code: onlyconnect
That’s it! Once I’ve approved your membership request, we’ll be ready to start playing Home Games online together.
If you want to find out more, visit http://www.pokerstars.com/homegames
Full Tilt Poker, with headquarters in Cherrywood in Dublin, has had its licence suspended in what’s being described as a “serious” matter reports Thejournal.ie tonight.
Reading on, the site was licensed by the Alderney Gambling Commission, which has revoked the licenses; why, we don’t know. A full hearing is scheduled on 26 July.
Well, we do kind of know. FT had a facility whereby you could essentially get credit put into your account even though FT was still trying to find replacement credit card processors who would deal with US customers in the current climate. This went on so long that the gap between player credit given and actual cash received racked up to $60m.
So, assuming the credit cards all hold up, the $60m is still theirs – they just can’t get at it in this climate. To this end, the Gaming Board had to put a stop to their operations.
Can’t sleep. Would usually play some rush poker when i can’t sleep but ho-hum.
It was e-check deposits, not credit cards, so essentially debits where Full Tilt weren’t taking the money before crediting the account. To allow people to play before the e-check had cleared is idiotic but in itself not a reason to suspend a licence. Of course, with the DoJ closing down the US operations for flagrant flouting of the 2006 UIGEA, there is no way on earth that FT will be able to call those “deposits” in now.
Not segregating players’ funds in escrow, using said funds for “operational costs”, and failing to pay back the US players when they’ve had ample time – pokerstars has managed it – now that’s a reason to suspend a licence. That missing $60m will hurt, but as payout liabilities are far greater it’s only a piece of the puzzle. The looming DoJ judgement is a bit of a decoy in all this, as pokerstars has equal liabilities there but has proven to their regulator (Isle of Man) that they are complying all the way.
Three ways to proceed.
1. Do nothing, leading to no licence and bankruptcy/insolvency. Very bad for all concerned
2. Buyout. Site would retain some reputation, players would get paid.
3. Move to a different gaming commission. This looks like their choice as their servers have moved to mohawk.ca which is in Kahnawake’s jurisdiction. This also looks close to suicide – why would the players or payment processors trust them after running away? We will see though.
I worked for nearly 5 years for a poker site doing everything from customer support to game administration so I know a fair bit about what the staff are doing right now, about how certain payment processors work and, sadly, what happens when you try to circumvent certain US laws. I thought all the crap we went through was rough (though using the ban chat button was always fun). This is all just insane and i really hope the support staff aren’t getting flooded with abuse.
All that, and I forgot to mention that about 70% of those echecks were cleared before black Friday anyway. And I still can’t sleep.
I worked for nearly 5 years for a poker site doing everything from customer support to game administration
Oh, that’s very cool! Noting the past tense, I hope there was a happy ending. I won’t ask which one, but I wonder if there are any non-confidential fun war stories.
Non-disclosure agreement in place I’m afraid, so the most juicy stuff has to stay under wraps. It’s not too hard to find out I used to work for pokerpages/pokerschoolonline/bugsysclub when it was an independent site. It all went belly up, and only a generous buyout by pokerstars after I’d been made redundant saved the players’ deposits.
The most fun was going to Sky studios on a media pass for the 2004 poker millions final. QQ v AA heads-up for the title? Amazing. Watching on a giant cinema screen that overheated after 3 hours and being shunted into a small green room? Not so amazing, but Roger de Coursey was there (sans Nookie Bear) which was brilliant.
We also punched way above our weight when we sent a player to the WSOP main event. Other sites were sending hundreds and hundreds of online qualifiers each, from memory I think we gave out 3 seats, two of whom took the $10,000 instead. Matts Andersson took the seat, made it all the way to the final table and pocketed $575,000. amazing buzz in the office when we were following the live coverage, such a deflating moment when we saw he was out but still incredible.
The biggest piss take was when we found out another site was stealing our tournament results database. Basically, we also maintained a database of every middling-to-major brick and mortar tournament in the world. Another site later decided they wanted a results database and produced one very similar to ours, including the spelling mistakes. We trapped them by deliberately having errors in the reported payouts for a day, then correcting them after they’d screenread the wrong data in. We knew then that they weren’t typing it in themselves from results sheets as the mistakes were elementary. Court action was taken and they were forced to remove all the stuff “sourced” from our site. I wont name them here but its easy enough to find out.
Oh, getting freebies was also very nice. I’ve still got a dozen books on Omaha ring games in their original delivery box, a dozen more I haven’t opened yet, and loads of old poker school caps.
Needless to say, the bulk of the work was dealing with people screaming obscenities because their AA was called by K7o and the flop came KK7, and the like. That, and people seemingly incapable of clicking on the link to recover a lost password. Not to mention all the sodding deposit and cashing out problems that the UIGEA caused.
I seem to be hijacking this comment section with my life story. Apologies. Anyway, the BBC have picked up on the story http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/13973280
Sloppy journalism. Talks about sites pulling out of the US after the UIGEA passed, then mentions 3 sites that didn’t pull out of the US and kept their operations in their original non-US locations. No mention at all of places like Party Poker who actually withdrew their services to the US customers.
Anyway, it’s now odds on that they will be licenced by kahnawake gaming commission, who have about as much control and integrity as state boxing commissions do over WWE events. Look out for me pounding the cash out button the very second it becomes available.
To be fair, I did ask you 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
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