Alderney Revokes FullTiltPoker License

The Alderney Gambling Commission announced on Thursday that it would be revoking Full Tilt Poker’s gambling license, after the commission concluded that the beleaguered online poker room had misled them about its funds. As such, Full Tilt Poker was found to be in serious breach of the commission’s regulations, including the failure to report material events and the unauthorized provision of credit.

The industry had been waiting for the results of a closed door meeting held between the Alderney officials and representatives of Full Tilt Poker, especially since on the same day that the meeting took place, the US Department of Justice issued allegations against the company and its executives, accusing them of running a Ponzi scheme and defrauding players of $444 million.

“At a hearing held in London over six days, it emerged that FTP had fundamentally misled AGCC about their operational integrity by continuously reporting as liquid fund balances that had been covertly seized or restrained by US authorities, or that were otherwise not actually available to the operator,” said the Commission in a statement. “Serious breaches of AGCC regulations include false reporting, unauthorized provision of credit, and failure to report material events.”

Full Tilt Poker responded to this latest AGCC statement with a statement of its own posted on pokerstrategy.com that Alderney’s decision “makes it more difficult to execute the sale of the company and hence replay its players.” The group, however, said that it “remains committed to repaying its players in full and continues in active negotiations.”

Also on Thursday, the Department of Justice issued a statement saying that it was still attempting to collect money from Full Tilt Poker but it could not give its guarantee that all players would be paid out. “We cannot predict the duration of proceedings in this case, other than to state they will last for many months at the least,” said the Justice Department.