Poker Forum

OMFG! Is anyone really surprised?

"approximately $443,860,529.89 of players’ money." I don't think that's how you approximate!

I guess Bitar and Co will have the best poker team in the slammer ! - despite being the second biggest poker site in the world it looks like they just couldn't keep their fingers out of the cookie jar.

This is precisely why poker needs to be regulated. Why everything needs to be regulated. People cannot be trusted. These were 2 guys who were considered the "good guys" of poker. Sad (as in disappointing) day for the poker community, but hopefully we will get paid now. (Though I'm pretty blue in the face.)

throw the book at these white collar criminals! They should be doing at least 10 years in my opinion. Unfortuantely we all know that isn't how it works, these guys will never serve any time and the fines/punishment won't fit the crime. Just because they weren't physically in your home stealing from you doesn't mean that's exactly what they were doing. Scumbags! No regulation = people will always end up stealing, it's just human nature

shadowb0x wrote

"approximately $443,860,529.89 of players’ money." I don't think that's how you approximate!

had to chuckle at that one, too. im personally happy that ivey is part of only very few to none of the accusations, looks like he knew what's legal and what is not.

lock 'em up

This is HUGE!! Now that the shit has hit the fan, time to see who else gets splattered from this.

I would have preferred that the PPA say nothing. The fact is, if Black Friday was delayed until now, Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson would still be on the board. I want to stand by the PPA, but it could do better from saying nothing right now.

Jail time boys.

We contacted Epic Poker asking how today's events will impact Chris Ferguson & Howard Lederer eligibility. Here is the statement we got back: "Epic Poker League is aware of the action taken today by the Department of Justice to amend the civil complaint to name and seek assets of certain individuals. This matter has already been referred to the League’s Standards & Conduct Committee."

We expect to hear more later this week.

And who is the main supporter of the Epic Poker League, how much trust do you have in Lederer's sister, Annie Duke, `?!? Maybe Daniel Negreanu is so right!!

You won't see Ferguson or Lederer anywhere near a game anytime soon. There would be a line of people waiting for them in the parking lot. The next time they play, it will be for cigarettes. Scumbags.

Does anyone have any question now whether Full Tilt poker was rigged or not?

annie duke, the commisioner of the epic poker league with all of their standards, etc., is the sister of howard lederer...also, she was previously a spokesperson for absolute poker/ultimate bet...how does she not have a clue with what has gone on with her brother/full tilt or the site (ub/ap) she used to pimp out...basically, how can she still have a shred a respect in the poker community at this point, let alone have a position of importance/power...i think daniel negreanu's dislike/distrust of her is based on some legit facts based on her associations with some of bad people in the industry

Seems like the FTP owners were too busy lining their pockets with money then taking care of actual business. Have you ever wondered why FTP had terrible customer service and didn't have a contact number at all when you had questions before Black Friday??? Probably because the scam was already happening way before. How can they pay themselves when they can't even pay customers what is owed? If anything we have learned is that the Bernie Madoff case can be the precedent as to how to approach this situation. There is no way that 19 people can spend $450 million, so therefore there must be a crap load of remaining money in their accounts, so one piece of advice for them is to run as far as they can and hide in a good hole or they will be dealing with legal issues for sometime without a way out cause this looks really bad on their part (not that the FTP owners care). They've been trying to duck the poker community for quite some time now. BTW someone should make a site with pictures of the FTP owners and we should post their position on the globe so that they can't hide.

There were many pros and cons to playing at FTP........ also many pros and cons working at FTP !

This escalation of the complaint by the DOJ, true or not, is the last nail in FullTiltPoker's coffin ... FTP is unsalable now.

This means that any and all money that FTP has will go to the DOJ, one way or another, and that the DOJ has decided that FTP is going to be the poster child of their ongoing campaign in the U.S. to impose a Poker Prohibition.

If the numbers quoted are correct, the principals had the personal cash to step in, pay everyone off, & continue smaller outside the U.S.

They decided to keep the money and let nature take its course. Well ... "surprise" ... by not stepping up and using the money FTP paid them to re-float FTP, the DOJ has turned a normal distribution of profits into a Ponzi scheme.

It is possible that a DOJ deal later on will involve restitution of player balances as part of a plea bargaining but it looks like the DOJ has enough information to turn this bad financial picture into an extremely serious legal problem for Tiltware and its founders.

Sad but this highlights that tight regulations are absolutely required, similar to the ones that France erected for the online poker industry in France.

far out....thats a major disapointment. looks like those funds never will be comming back. i hope all involved high up in this do some prison time personally. they just stole the millions of others hard earned money so they can personally be rolled to play stupid high stakes games and buy big houses. disgusting...

@flintsword : The ragulations that france erected for the online poker don't protect the players. French players who have funds on "fulltiltpoker.fr" which was supposed to be distinct from the .com, are in the same situation that us players. French players don't have access to the french software of FTP since the fulltilt license was suspended by AGGC. Funds of the frenchplayers were supposed to be, according the french law, on a separate bank account from the .com in a country of the UE. The french license of FTP was suspended few days after that the FTP license was suspended by AGGC. French players, who according the french flaw were protected by the law and ARJEL (the french authority), are in the same situation than the players of the .com . The french regulation is a joke. ARJEL failed in his mission which is to protect players because they didn't suspend the license of FTP.fr after the black friday. They told the players that they could continue to play on the .fr and that their funds were safe on a separate account somewhere in the UE. Today, we (i spoke in the name of ftp.fr players) are like the players of the .com. We are still waiting for our funds. So do you still want a similar regulation that france erected for online poker?

JAIL if it is made on purpose!