For a 2nd evening Full Tilt is closed and rumours are rife as to what could be going on. The simple facts are that Full Tilt have lost their gambling licence with the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) and were told to cease trading yesterday (June 29th). Players can’t connect to Full Tilt software and are faced with a simple ‘trying again’ message, when visiting the website it states “System Update. We apologise but the system is down. Please check back later.”
How much later? When will they be open again? How can they just be shut down like that? How can I get my bankroll back? Have Full Tilt released any info at all? Where else can I play Rush Poker? These are all questions we’ve been asked over the last 24hours and this blog will attempt to answer them for you.
When will Full Tilt be open again?
Quite frankly nobody knows, there have been rumours that Full Tilt are in talks with the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC) and are hoping to open again very soon under their licence. Full Tilt used to be registered under Kahnawake so you would think the process to reinstate the licence would be pretty straight forward. Normally it takes at least 6 weeks to process a licence, but maybe they will be able to expedite this process.
Other rumours have been that they may just reopen as a rogue site and operate without a licence, I feel this is highly unlikely, for one payment processors would be reluctant to deal with an illegal casino, but more importantly this would damage Full Tilt’s public image so much that it would probably signal the end for them within weeks if not days anyway.
They may never open again under the same management, as more comes to light about the mismanagement of players funds and the financial problems Full Tilt are currently facing, it may just be better to close up shop, or sell on to a large company with the personnel and resources the manage the site correctly. Whoever does take this on though will have to have deep pockets as FTP owe US players alone approx $120million and those players can no longer play at Fulll Tilt.
How can they just be shut down just like that?
Full Tilt must have known this was coming. It is inconceivable that they weren’t in talks with the AGCC over their licence. This is what grates – players were mid game when they were cut off, players had only deposited 10 mins before, others were still working towards various promotions. Let’s hope it’s because FTP were fighting for their licence up to the last minute and thought they could rescue the situation, rather than they simply didn’t care. The ARGC released a statement :-
Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) has today issued Hearing Notices under Regulation 46 of the Alderney eGambling Regulations, 2009 to the above named companies who collectively trade as FULL TILT POKER.
In addition, AGCC has issued Suspension Notices under Regulation 47 of the Alderney eGambling Regulations, 2009 to the above named companies requiring them to immediately suspend operations.
The above named companies must, until the Suspension Notices are cancelled or the Commissioners of AGCC have reached a determination at the conclusion of the hearing convened in accordance with Regulation 46 of the Alderney eGambling Regulations, 2009 cease to exercise their eGambling licenses, which means that these licensees must from today cease to:-
Register new customers;
Accept deposits from existing customers;
Allow existing customers to withdraw funds that are held in their accounts; and
Permit customers to participate in any form of poker game play or gambling transaction.
The Alderney Gambling Control Commission will hear the matters contained in the Hearing Notices at a Regulatory Hearing which will commence at 10.00am on Tuesday 26th July, 2011 at the Victoria Park Plaza Hotel, 239 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 1EQ. In the event that there is a change to these details this notice will be amended. In the interim period, AGCC can be contacted by using the following email address: info@agcc.gg
How can I get my bankroll back?
At the moment we just don’t know. Of course if they open up again we can all make requests as normal, but what if they don’t. The only advice we can give at the moment is to contact the AGCC and ask when and how you can withdraw your funds. As soon as we hear anything about our missing bankrolls, we will let you know.
Have Full Tilt released any info at all?
No. Some responses from Full Tilt customer support have been reported on poker forums, but they can’t be verified. We ourselves have tried to contact them repeatedly and have heard nothing.
What should I do when / if FTP do open?
Hmm, here’s the tough one, I’ve played at Full Tilt for years and wasn’t really ready to never play there again, but with all their financial problems I’d be really cautious with leaving any significant amount of money on there. If you really must play at Full Tilt again then make sure your bankroll doesn’t mount up, cash out regularly and if payments are late play somewhere else until you have your cash in your hand. Simply put, until we know they are on a stable footing again don’t have any more on Full Tilt than you can afford to lose.
Where else can I play Rush Poker?
The thing that made Full Tilt really special (you can find high stakes games, slot pros and high traffic at Pokerstars) is Rush Poker. Unfortunately for us Rush Poker is trademarked so we won’t be seeing any other site offering it any time soon under the same format. If FTP don’t re-open hopefully they will sell the concept.
So there we go, I’m sure there will be plenty more to say on the subject over the coming weeks, but for now this is all we know. Hopefully Full Tilt will release a statement telling us what is going on soon.
In the meantime, if you’re looking for a safe room to play at, check out our Top 10 Poker Sites, sure to be something there to please you 🙂
