Black Friday and the aftermath: Online Poker Implications

[TightEnd]

Global egaming growth is set to slow to 4.4% this year, according to Gambling Capital, the slowest annual growth the industry has seen since the gambling data business began tracking the sector in 1998.

has, following the preliminary results season, revised its global egaming gross win forecasts for 2011 down to €23.76bn, from the €25bn and 10.2% year-on-year growth it projected at the start of this year.

The Manchester-based consultancy said the reason for the downgrade was due in part to the economic backdrop and slower-than-expected regulation, but in the main to the impact of Black Friday on the poker market and of the Japanese earthquake on the Japanese Racing Association, by far the largest interactive operator in the world.

said this morning: “Black Friday (and subsequent actions) occurring in the US that have decimated the scale of the Internet poker industry in that market. At this stage we have calculated that the impact will equate to as much as €765m of lost market value this year and a further €100m loss next.” It added that it expected the JRA’s interactive business to be down approximately 13% year-on-year in 2011.

In brighter news for the sector, global egaming gross win excluding the US and Japan is projected to grow by 12% year-on-year in 2011. The forecasts include the expected launch of cash poker and casino in Italy in the middle of this year, and not regulated activity in Greece, Belgium and Spain expected by to commence at some point in 2012.

[TightEnd]

Although Full Tilt Poker got into an agreement with the DOJ almost immediately after Black Friday to facilitate refund of US poker player deposits, they seem to have gotten into a financial mess that prevents it from processing payouts. Full Tilt Poker’s problem seems to be credit related. Although Full Tilt has credited millions of dollars to the gaming accounts of its US poker players, they have not yet received the funds credited. This has led to a $60 million deficit for Full Tilt although this does not seem to be the online poker site’s only problem.

The use of a payment option called e-check created this problem for Full Tilt Poker, which used to credit amounts immediately into the accounts of poker players who used e-checks to fund their accounts. This incredibly quick service used to delight US poker players no end. The truth is that e-checks are not instantaneous; they take several working days to clear, a fact that can annoy players who cannot wait to see their funds in their accounts. Full Tilt has been doing this from September last year to February this year. Players had already noticed the trend and started discussing it at blogs and forums. Although Full Tilt tried to rectify the error in March, it had already reached a deficit of $60 million.

Full Tilt Poker warned players that they would be receiving all the funds due to them by this March. Owing to the fact that some players cooperated with Full Tilt Poker completely, the online poker site was able to recover 70 percent of the deficit. But they might as well kiss 30 percent of it good-bye. This is because some players saw this as a great opportunity to eat their cake and have it too. They simply cleaned out their bank accounts before Full Tilt Poker could retrieve the funds due to them. As a result of this, Full Tilt Poker is in the red for nearly $18 million.

Some people in the online poker gaming community say that Full Tilt Poker got punished because it had become slack about processing deposits and withdrawals. The online poker site might have lost more than it claims it did. All this is disturbing for US poker players who had poker accounts at Full Tilt before the federal crackdown because the poker site could be delaying payments to US poker players for precisely this reason.

Source: Tight Poker

[TightEnd]

the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) has suspended Full Tilt’s licences, requiring the poker room to suspend all operations from the jurisdiction with immediate effect.

The AGCC said in a statement this morning: “The decision to suspend these licenses follows a special investigation prompted by the indictments unsealed by US Attorney General’s Office in the Southern District of New York on 15th April 2011, during which grounds were found to indicate that these licensees and their business associates were operating contrary to Alderney legislation."

[Karabiner]

the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) has suspended Full Tilt’s licences, requiring the poker room to suspend all operations from the jurisdiction with immediate effect.

The AGCC said in a statement this morning: “The decision to suspend these licenses follows a special investigation prompted by the indictments unsealed by US Attorney General’s Office in the Southern District of New York on 15th April 2011, during which grounds were found to indicate that these licensees and their business associates were operating contrary to Alderney legislation."

I just logged in with no problem.

Since their licence is now suspended/revoked are they now operating as some kind of "pirate" site?

[pleno1]

http://www.egrmagazine.com/news/1673787/breaking-news-alderney-suspends-full-tiltsoperating-licence.thtml

[AndrewT]

Tilt have just paused all games.

Looks to be game over.

[AndrewT]

Servers now down - can't even load up software.

Website says 'Scheduled maintenence in progress'...

[DaveShoelace]

  .

[The Lad]

Servers now down - can't even load up software.

Website says 'Scheduled maintenence in progress'...

gg FT

[Bongo]

Interesting, you'd think they'd just carry on though... Do you think they've had some connectivity tied to their licensing removed? Or do you think they thought that this would just see a run on funds and the end so they've taken what's left of the funds to a sunny country with no extradition treaties?

[wallysnooper]

Its says in the comment section at the bottom that players carn't log on. Any blondes struggling to log on? At work so obv carn't try my self.

[AlunB]

Interesting, you'd think they'd just carry on though... Do you think they've had some connectivity tied to their licensing removed? Or do you think they thought that this would just see a run on funds and the end so they've taken what's left of the funds to a sunny country with no extradition treaties?

They would have servers based in Alderney (well Guernsey) that would have to be shut down I presume. But i would expect they have servers (and likely another licence) in Kahnwake (where they were licenced before Aldnerney) they could use instead.

[AndrewT]

Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) has today issued Hearing Notices under
Regulation 46 of its Regulations to Vantage Ltd, Oxalic Ltd, Filco Ltd and Orinic Ltd,
collectively trading as FULL TILT POKER.

In addition, AGCC has issued Suspension Notices under Regulation 47 to the above named
companies requiring them to suspend all operations with immediate effect.

The decision to suspend these licenses follows a special investigation prompted by the
indictments unsealed by US Attorney General’s Office in the Southern District of New York
on 15th April 2011, during which grounds were found to indicate that these licensees and their
business associates were operating contrary to Alderney legislation. The nature of the
findings necessitated the taking of immediate action in the public interest.

The venue and date for the hearing will be announced in due course.

Issued by:

André Wilsenach (Executive Director)
Alderney Gambling Control Commission
Alderney,
Channel Islands

Date issued: 29th June 2011

[TheWhisper]

I cannot connect
Their website says it is scheduled maintenance

[mondatoo]

Its says in the comment section at the bottom that players carn't log on. Any blondes struggling to log on? At work so obv carn't try my self.

I've had it trying for the last 5 minutes, just says trying again.