Full Tilt bought?

Full Tilt Poker is closed for now.

Long delayed, the decision of the Board of Control Gaming Alderney, which housed the servers of Full Tilt Poker, fell and the site's online gambling license was removed. The possibility remains of the involvement of a group of French interests led by the Tapie family moved away a little, as the prospect for the players of ever seeing their money seems less likely. This is the opinion of counsel for the company who thinks that the decision to revoke the Full Tilt Poker license makes it harder to sell the company and the repay his players.

In recent weeks, the Department of Justice in charge of the case described the company as a Ponzi scheme, accusing the shareholders especially Ray Bitar, Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson of having paid huge dividends and exorbitant salaries, drawn not from the profits of the company but from the deposits of the players.

The prospect of a refund at least partial of U.S. players now seems related to the amount of fines and seizures that will be levied against these key executives. Although in form, the last official release of Full Tilt was optimistic, saying they remain committed to fully repay their players and to continue negotiations, any type of surprise can happen.

For the French players, the hope is even thinner. The only answer to the Regulatory Authority of Online Games (Arjel) to this crisis was to suspend the Full Tilt's French license, an exemplary sanction taken while the servers were already closed. But nothing indicates the possibility of a return of French players. The more we learn about Full Tilt, the more it seems that their French license was granted lightly. More questions about the safety of funds on other sites and therefore the usefulness of regulation, from the point of view of players in any case, make is still a good deal for the state to license them.

For lovers of online tournaments, the Pokerstars FCOOP and latest edition of the Winamax Series are scheduled, with a much more attractive series of tournaments, with a real effort on the prize pools, and a commitment to provide excellent tournament structures, with slow progression of the blinds, and large tournaments often scheduled over two days. Bwin launches Super Series at the same time, directly competiting with Winamax, an odd choice that does not bode well and illustrates the growing gap between the duo Winamax Pokerstars and other operators in France.

If FullTilt actually closes its doors as is likely to happen, it will really be a huge scandal for the cheated players and this for a long time will ruin the reputation of the other clean poker sites. Can a complaint against the ARJEL be filled? This agency was created to protect players (among others), and obviously it serves no purpose, and have players who find themselves swindled. Already there are fewer players at the tables and the only interest for the State is to fill their pockets.

It would be good to know if there is a group of French players to lead a legal action to recover their money.