Casino regulators on the British Channel Islands on Wednesday suspended the gambling license of Full Tilt Poker, halting the company's online card games and intensifying its legal problems in the U.S.
The Alderney Gambling Control Commission said in a statement it was immediately suspending Full Tilt's license after an investigation prompted by earlier federal indictments in New York, accusing company executives and associates of bank fraud, money laundering and other crimes.
Full Tilt officials did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
Online poker operations are illegal in the U.S. under a 2006 law that forbids financial institutions from processing payments related to illegal online gambling. Prosecutors in New York say employees of Full Tilt, Poker Stars and Absolute Poker skirted this law by disguising payments, creating shell retailers online and pushing money through as sales for things like golf balls and flowers.
The Alderney commission said its internal investigation showed that Full Tilt employees and associates operated contrary to its gambling laws. It set a hearing on the matter for July 26 in London.
"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," said Andre Wilsenach, the commission's executive director.
PokerScout, a website that tracks online poker traffic worldwide, showed zero users playing on Full Tilt for real money Wednesday, down from an average of 9,000 at any given moment during the past week.
The commission's move prompted gambling regulators in the Isle of Man to reaffirm the licensing status of PokerStars, the world's largest online poker site that has faced the same legal trouble as Full Tilt.
"PokerStars continues to demonstrate compliance with its license conditions in the Isle of Man," the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission said in a statement. "PokerStars continues to offer withdrawals to any players who wish to withdraw their funds, including players in the USA to whom PokerStars does not currently offer real-money gaming."
Withdrawals have been a sticky topic for players loyal to the sites.
PokerStars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker have all taken steps toward agreements with the U.S. Department of Justice to repay players who deposited online funds with the sites. But only PokerStars has begun actually repaying funds.
The site said in a statement it has repaid about $120 million to Americans, keeping funds segregated from operating accounts.
PokerStars said it also remains in compliance with regulators in other jurisdictions including France, Italy and Estonia.
they shut it down cause of public interest lmao
found some more Full Tilt servers are currently inaccessible to UK players, while the site’s European customers are being told the online poker room is apparently undergoing ‘Scheduled Maintenance.’
It is now uncertain whether and when the site will re-open and what will happen to player’s deposits in the UK, Europe, and the Rest of the World.
The poker-verse has since been flooded by concerned and interested parties posting on twitter, Two Plus Two poker forums and social networks.
UK pro Keith Hawkins wrote: “Full Tilt ceases operations. I guess after Black Friday, today should be called Predictable Wednesday. I hope everyone gets their money.”
Full Tilt celebrity Tom Dwan seemed convinced the site would pull through after Black-Friday, and tweeted at the time:
“I’d guess ftp/stars is worth more than 93c on the $ (almost 100% u get paid but could take 2-3mnths n worst case more.”
Dwan had since offered to return monies received from the site in the event of non-payment but following today’s remarkable breaking news simply stated:
“Seems like Alderney regulatory body (where ftp’s license is) just shut down ftp. Wow I think?”
Joined: Oct '09
Location: Portugal
Age: 54 (M)
Posts: 233
Posted by dozn01: Online poker operations are illegal in the U.S. under a 2006 law that forbids financial institutions from processing payments related to illegal online gambling. Prosecutors in New York say employees of Full Tilt, Poker Stars and Absolute Poker skirted this law by disguising payments, creating shell retailers online and pushing money through as sales for things like golf balls and flowers.
The question is, even if they keep their licenses, will PS or AP survive if everybody withdraws their money in a panic wave ? Does anybody knows if poker houses keep all the money of all players and only use for themselfs the rake/fees ?
Joined: May '11
Location: Canada
Age: 36 (M)
Posts: 979
pokerstars is probably the only site id trust to use, as they said before at least ps is paying back the yankies, i wouldnt go make a 50k deposit but maybe an extra 100-200$ i can afford to risk, hell it is poker, you shouldnt even have money on there that you arent willing to risk
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 49 (F)
Posts: 14197
I wouldnt trust PS either after what happened to FT. For the time being PS is the biggest fish in the pond so thats the one they will try to catch. when you go fishing you go after the big ones not the small that you cant even grab with your hands
Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 6669
I have to agree with what was posted above, i really started not to trust pokerstars anymore after what happend with full tilt poker, i mean the same thing can happen to them anytime, considering ftp was banned because they were under a fbi investigation, so pokerstars is in the same position
I think all non us players should move on safe europan poker platforms like the ipoker network or part poker for those that like their poker software, plus there are still other options like pacific poker for example
Plus smaller poker platforms sometimes proved more profitable than bigger poker platforms where there are a lot of regulars Good luck to all!
