In 2011, Full Tilt Poker (FTP) was forced to shut down their US market. Thousands of professional and recreational players were left without access to funds estimated to be in the region of $184m. After a four-year hiatus, they will be returning to those fertile soils after the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) finally approved their license. It’s expected, by the time the first hand is dealt, that all former US based FTP players will have received their portion of that lost money.
The process has not been pretty, but everyone who has been involved: from PokerStars, the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) and the Garden City Group (GCG), should be extremely proud as the end now seems to be in sight, and everyone is expected to be made whole.
John Pappas, Executive Director, PPA has announced that another tranche of FTP payments – worth $5.7m – has been approved by the United States Department of Justice’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section (AFMLS). That money will be sent to an estimated 2,000 petitioners. GCG is expected to distribute the cash payments in the next fortnight.
The latest round of payments will include any disputed funds, petitioners who filled their petitions in incorrectly and any new petitions from persons who were left behind on a mission to Mars and have only just hitched a ride back to earth on Hermes.
Pappas claims there are a further 3,800 people who are still awaiting news of payment. When you consider that PokerStars set aside $184m for FTP payments, after settling with the Department of Justice (DOJ) in the summer of 2012, that leaves $74m left in the bank to pay the remaining 3,800 people – far too much if you ask me.
The next round of payments will be the seventh since the GCG starting handling the affair. The biggest release of cash came in Feb 2014 when $76m found its way back to the bank balances of 27,500 players. So far over 40,000 players have received close to $110m.
Experts such as Chris Grove, at OnlinePokerReport (OPR), and Alexander Dreyfus, at Global Poker Index (GPI), believe Full Tilt and PokerStars will not be launching their New Jersey suite of products until 2016 Q1 at the earliest.
Full Tilt Player’s Club: The Deal – Second Progressive Jackpot Breached
In other Full Tilt news, their new progressive jackpot game: The Deal, has seen it’s jackpot popped for the second time since the games inception.
Brazilian based player Skipshot383 hit the jackpot on October 6. The jackpot had reached $90,019.44 at the time of the breach. 50% of that ($45,009.72) goes to the Brazilian, with a further $45,009.72 being divided between the 6,587 players that competed in the game within 12-hours of the jackpot being spun. Each player will receive $6.83 for supporting the game created to help drive more recreational players to the site.
The second jackpot is a lot lower than the one won by the part time hockey coach from Canada. Dbecks23x won the jackpot when it reached $233,852 and pocketed $116,935; 7,321 players also earned $15.97 each.
