Full Tilt Poker Dealt Another Blow
First it had its US operations halted with the clampdown on online poker sites by the Department of Justice in April, now Full Tilt Poker has been dealt another blow with the news that the Channel Isle gambling regulation, the Alderney Gambling Commission has ordered the site to suspend all operations, effective immediately.
Full Tilt Poker learned that its subsidiary group, Pocket Kings, was visited by Alderney authorities in Dublin and advised to halt all operations, including software support, marketing and maintenance to the site.
According to Alderney, "the nature of the findings [by the US DOJ] necessitated the taking of immediate action in the public interest."
The site's license has been suspended until July 26th, when a hearing will be held in London regarding the future of Full Tilt's licensing.
Industry sources say that Full Tilt Poker was surprised about the sudden shut down of operations and believed that they would receive fair warning on these actions. However, others say that Alderney expressed its concerns to Full Tilt Poker that players had not received their money, estimated to be around $150 million.
Traffic Down 48% since Black Friday
According to PokerScout, traffic at Full Tilt Poker dropped by nearly 50% since Black Friday in April, with the majority of those who stopped playing being US online poker players. The site had around 9,000 people playing at any given time last week, excluding tournament players.
However, players are still angry with Full Tilt Poker due to the fact that so much money is still owed.
"There's a lot of anger out there, said Dan Stewart. "I think a lot of that comes from the uncertainty of having your money locked up for an indefinite period of time with no guarantee you're going to see it again."
