Poker Online

Category: Poker Online

On 15^th April 2011, three of the top American providers of poker online games were indicted by the US Department of Justice as part of the ongoing legal battle around electronic payments to gambling websites, this date for the gambling industry will be forever known as ‘Black Friday’. Full Tilt Poker, Poker Stars and Absolute Poker began by doing everything possible to maintain their reputation, unfortunately Full Tilt Poker were not able to take the impact of the indictment and yesterday suspended all business operations, much to the disdain of online poker players.

Shortly after Black Friday, the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) who licenses Full Tilt Poker announced it would be reviewing the situation shortly. Next they announced the suspension of Full Tilt’s license which in turn forced the company to shut down all servers and suspend all operations. The full AGCC statement went as follows: “The decision to suspend these licenses follows a special investigation prompted by the indictments unsealed by US Attorney General’s Office in the Southern District of New York on 15^th April 2011, during which grounds were found to indicate that these licensees and their business associates were operating contrary to Alderney legislation”.

The servers used by Full Tilt Poker are currently offline and all forms of play have been fully prevented. Most reactions shared by players were of resignation as opposed to anger. One player from the United Kingdom wrote “Full Tilt ceases operations. I guess after Black Friday, today should be called Predictable Wednesday. I hope everyone gets their money”. Players attempting to visit the site are met with a message stating that the servers are currently down for maintenance and will be back up shortly, but few take this information at face value. A spokesman for Full Tilt Poker has gone on the record as saying that the public can expect a statement from the company within 24 hours which will be followed by further interim statements as matters move forward. Unfortunately, the AGCC ruling came at the worst possible time for Full Tilt Poker who were mid-way through financial negotiations which would have allowed the company to return the deposits of American players.

Poker Stars however, the other major American online gambling site has reacted to the Black Friday events by reassuring their customers that business will continue as usual and that they are in no way under any threat from the same issues. A spokesperson for the site said “online operations continue as normal and all funds in players’ accounts are safe and available for withdrawal as usual with no delays”.  The Isle of Man Gambling Commission who license Poker Stars stated that the companies global licensing it intact and all their services are in full compliance with licensing requirements. Poker Stars report a 5% increase in web traffic after Full Tilt suspended its services.