Everyone in the poker world seems to be wondering what fate will come of Full Tilt Poker, the deposed leader of online poker (along with its rival, the still-standing Poker Stars). The news out of FullTilt of late seems like nothing but a litany of dismal headlines. Here’s a rough chronology of the latest string of unfortunate events for all things Full Tilt Poker.
On June 29, after a three-month silence on the subject, the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) finally responded to the U.S. Department of Justice’s allegations of Black Friday (April 15, 2011) against Full Tilt Poker by suspending the sites license to operate pending a July 26 hearing in London. A few days later, ARJEL, the French equivalent, did the same.
Before this, even European players unaffected by the closure of FullTilt’s U.S. operations were defecting en masse to other poker sites, no doubt partly over concerns about FullTilt’s ability to pay back dislodged U.S. players the unused funds in their accounts with the site. Now, even those European players remaining at the site will have to find a new place to play while this gets ironed out.
On June 30 a class action lawsuit was officially filed against Full Tilt Poker. On the positive side, however, former Team Full Tilt member Phil Ivey has dropped his own personal lawsuit against the site. So maybe all’s not entirely bleak.
Even if Full Tilt emerges triumphant from its July 26 hearing, the question still lingers like a dark cloud: Will Full Tilt Poker recover from this debacle?