If you have ever watched online high stakes poker, you will know that players built legacies from the nosebleed cash games that used to run on Full Tilt Poker in the early 2000s. Players such as Tom Dwan, Daniel Cates, Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonious are all names who have battled at the highest ever stakes played for online. But what ever happened to Full Tilt really?
By: James Currie
The Beginning of an era
In the early 2000s, with online poker now at the forefront of the internet. Day trader at the time Ray Bitar, and former WSOP Main Event winner Chris Ferguson, decided to launch Full Tilt Poker. The site started off with having the big names constantly show up to play the highest stakes, giving amateurs a chance to sit down with the pros – this only drove traffic. Not to mention the vast amounts of promotion that had been built around television advertisement on High Stakes Poker.
The site had quickly become a massive success by the end of 2005 and the money was rolling in, seeing Bitar and Full Tilt regularly hosting big parties.
Bitar and the site had overtaken the online poker scene and PokerStars and partypoker had taken a backseat. The site was doing so well that Bitar decided to give back dividends to the original founders of the site, though many disagreed and thought the money could be saved for their high marketing expenses, Bitar went along with it.
Trouble Looming
Following the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in October 2006, Full Tilt had managed to stay in it’s market but complications started to arise in the midst of 2007. A board member had quit due to the unforeseen magnitude of what the site had become and Full Tilt was consistently in the cross hairs of serious lawsuits.
One previous sponsored player, Clonie Gowen, had said that she had been promised a 1% share in the company during the course of 2008 for her promotional efforts and endorsements for the site. However, the lawsuit was not taken anywhere.
Other accounts during 2009 suggested that Chris Ferguson was involved in unlawful business practices averse to the UIGEA. A former employee Jason Newitt also sued the company for unfair dismissal and for his distribution payments being halted.
The Breakdown of Full Tilt
2009 was the beginning of a car crash for Full Tilt. Players had started suing the company for unlawfully taking funds from their account, again lawsuits were not given much attention, but Full Tilt was starting to get a bad name for itself. Meanwhile, the company was releasing their pros from their sponsorships which was seen as a clear breakdown of the site from the eyes of the public.
The story that really showed the financial struggle of the company was when a player had won $1 million from the site yet Full Tilt had withheld the payout with no explanation. They were obviously broke by this point
Out in the open
After eventually being charged with fraud by the DOJ, alongside PokerStars, FullTilt was exposed for having $60 million in bank accounts but a near $300 million of it was resting in players accounts. At this point, many players were very angry with Full Tilt and were not able to withdraw their money from the site. This cause huge controversy among the poker world. Big pons like Tom Dwan were left furious. Tom discussed how he was largely affected by Full Tilt’s actions on Fox News.
It was clear that Full Tilt was no longer to be associated with and many global news sites were starting to call it a ‘Ponzi Scheme’. Players were helpless and left stunned at the actions taking place, but there was nothing they could do. Many are still being paid out to this day! Estimated figures show that since 2014, around $110 million of the original $390 million has been paid back to players, $160 million in total for US players.
Who’s In Charge Here?
Howard Lederer and Rafe Furst were also other supporting board members that were in the spotlight for Full Tilts actions. Lederer tried to explain years later the reasons for the downfall of the site, but people described the explanation video as delusional and were not convinced with his statements adding up.
Furst took a different route to his colleagues and paid his fines up front, asking the poker community for feedback and also admitting to his wrongdoings. Bitar on the other hand, had paid his $40 million in fines but was meant to receive a hefty sentence. He avoided jail time and reasoned that he was on the brink of heart failure and that his time left was limited.
But then someone reached out.
Last year (seven years after the massive controversy), Chris Ferguson released an apology video. Chris admits that he is doing everything in his power to reimburse players still to this day.
This video did not go down well and the response from the poker world was anger for the most part.
To the Rescue
On the 31st of July 2012, PokerStars reached a settlement worth $731 million with the US Government which agreed PokerStars to claim control of Full Tilts assets. $184 million of this was said to be paid back to Full Tilts non US customers. The US government had then repaid Full Tilts US players with a remainder of the settlement they received from PokerStars. Part of the agreed pledge was that US online poker was banned and that Full Tilt Poker was shut down, and since April 11th 2011 is still the case. There are currently four states that govern the use of online poker in America.
Forbes article believed that Full Tilts annual revenue would have been close to $500 million, with Full Tilt taking in $100 million in profit yearly also. It’s frightening to think what the company would have been worth over the years had the scandal not taken place, given that it was bought in an included settlement for just over $700 million.
By 2014, Rational Group, owned by Mark Scheinberg sold PokerStars and Full Tilt to Amaya Gaming Group for $4.9 billion. Amaya Gaming Group is now known as the Stars Group and is the biggest publicly listed gambling company worldwide.
