The bulk of the Full Tilt Poker Black Friday mess was resolved a month ago, but some issues still lingered. Yesterday, we drew even closer to putting this whole thing in the rearview mirror, as another large chunk of change was distributed to players who had been without their Full Tilt funds for almost three years.
On Tuesday, April 1st, the Garden City Group (GCG), which is the United States Department of Justice authorized Full Tilt Poker Claims Administrator, issued a notice on its website that the second round of payments has been made to former U.S. customers of Full Tilt. The first round of payments was made on February 28th via electronic funds transfer. In that round, over 27,500 players who had been approved received approximately $76 million.
Some people were left out of that first round, though, even if the Petitions they had filed were approved and reimbursement amounts confirmed. These ex-customers had incorrect or incomplete information on their Petitions, resulting in the ability for the Claims Administrator to reliably send their funds electronically.
Those people with faulty bank information were given the opportunity to make the necessary corrections until March 13th; those that did were included in the second round of payments yesterday. All told, the GCG reports that about 2,200 payments were sent, totaling around $5 million.
Anyone who still did not correct their information despite an otherwise valid claim will not be left out in the cold. For those people, the GCG will mail a physical check to the address it has on file.
The GCG also notes, “As a reminder, if you received a notice because you have a debt qualifying for collection through the Treasury Offset Program, please send your completed Unified Financial Management System Vendor Request Form to GCG as soon as possible.”
Those who fall into this category are people who owe money to the government that needs to be taken out of any Full Tilt reimbursement they may be due.
It is not quite clear if any of the latest payments include refunds to Full Tilt Poker affiliates, though we are guessing they did not. Affiliates were originally pronounced ineligible for any refunds, but the Poker Players’ Alliance went to bat for them and eventually the GCG saw the light. Affiliates were allowed to file claims for refunds for any money earned through actual poker play, but affiliate income was a no-go. That probably didn’t make affiliates too happy, but all things considered, it was likely a fair ruling.
