Further Delays Expected in U. S. Full Tilt Poker Players’ Reimbursement

Even though it has been well over two years since the indictments of “Black Friday” and almost two years since the shutdown of the site, further delays are expected for those players in the United States who have been expecting repayment from Full Tilt Poker.

According to Bob Pajich of CardPlayer.com, the Garden City Group – the organization that has been tasked with the arduous task of handling those reimbursements – is still having issues with reaching even the first step of beginning that task. Pajich, citing an unnamed supervisor with the Garden City Group, reports that the organization has yet to sift through the player information that they have obtained from the U. S. Department of Justice regarding the case. With this in mind, Pajich’s source states that it will take “longer than a year” and could take more than two years until players begin to see the funds that were part of the seizure by the federal government.

There are other issues that will slow down the process further, according to Pajich. Garden City Group is working through two government agencies – the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section of the Department of Justice and the Asset Forfeiture Unit of the U. S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York – in trying to determine the appropriate settlement for players. Furthermore, there are complicated issues for Garden City Group in determining which players – and how much – will be paid out.

Pajich explains quite well what the delays are on that issue. Garden City Group must determine, through a complicated formula, the “estimated recovery” that each player would receive. That “estimated recovery” amount may or may not be the full balance that players had in their accounts when Full Tilt Poker shut down operations in September 2011. With an estimated $184 million in the reimbursement pot, there are approximately 1.3 million players who have a stake; Garden City Group, waiting for further information from the federal government, has yet to even reach the point to where they can start doing those calculations.

Add into these delays is the factor of the involvement of the courts. Even if the federal government was to give Garden City Group all of the required information, the organization would still have to receive a court order to begin the process of reimbursement of players. When that will happen, according to Pajich’s source, is still unknown.

The saga began back in April 2011 after the SDNY and U. S. Attorney Preet Bharara filed the indictment against the three major online poker rooms facing American players – PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and the CEREUS Network rooms Absolute Poker and UB.com – that became known as “Black Friday.” Soon after the indictments were unsealed and the websites in question seized by the federal government, PokerStars negotiated a deal to allow for U. S. players to immediately receive their funds in full. The other rooms were offered the same deal, but were unable to come through.

Following the April seizure, both Full Tilt Poker and the CEREUS Network lacked the capital on hand to be able to facilitate repayment of American players. The inability to pay back funds led to the collapse of the CEREUS Network sites and, in September 2011, Full Tilt Poker had its online gaming license revoked by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission, which led to its closure.

Since then, PokerStars negotiated a settlement with the federal government that allowed them to take over the Full Tilt Poker brand. Reopening it in November 2012, PokerStars reimbursed the international players who wanted their money back from the Full Tilt Poker brand. U. S. players, however, would have to seek their reimbursement from the federal government, per the settlement between PokerStars and the Department of Justice.

Although it is expected to take much longer, there is some information for American players that is useful. Players who are expecting to receive reimbursement from Garden City Group must register at a website, fulltiltpokerclaims.com. Once the final determination has been made and the calculations have been done, Garden City Group will contact players that have registered on the website as to the next steps in the repayment process.