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Full Tilt Poker, the world's second biggest online poker provider as of April 15, 2011 has finally released a statement concerning their situation since the DoJ closed the site. FTP basically blamed the U.S. Government and few of its payment processors for their financial problems. As Full Tilt Poker haven't been able to repay their customers since April 15, when the United States Department of Justice seized the domains of PokerStars, UB/AP and Full Tilt Poker [3]. Then, as they were unable to do so, the AGCC (Alderney Gambling Control Commission) suspended their operating license [4], because they operated contrary to Alderney legislation.
Ever since, Full Tilt Poker remained silent, upsetting their costumers greatly. They tried to communicate with the public through poker forums and their lawyers [5], withouth much success. Now the company broke the silence releasing a long-awaited statement, which was published by Forbes.com yesterday. You can read the release in its entirety below.
"As is obvious from the events that have transpired since April 15th, Full Tilt Poker was not prepared for the far-reaching, US government enforcement effort of Black Friday.
The events of Black Friday came on the heels of prior government enforcement activities and significant theft. Over the two years preceding Black Friday, the US government seized approximately $115M of player funds located in U.S. banks. While we believed that offering peer-to-peer online poker did not violate any federal laws - a belief supported by many solid and well-reasoned legal opinions -- the DOJ took a different view. In addition, as was widely reported, a key payment processor stole approximately $42M from Full Tilt Poker. Until April 15th, Full Tilt Poker had always covered these losses so that no player was ever affected. Finally, during late 2010 and early 2011, Full Tilt Poker experienced unprecedented issues with some of its third-party processors that greatly contributed to its financial problems. While the company was on its way to addressing the problems caused by these processors, Full Tilt Poker never anticipated that the DOJ would proceed as it did by seizing our global domain name and shutting down the site worldwide.
Over the last four months, Full Tilt Poker has been actively exploring opportunities with outside investors in order to stabilize the company and pay back our players. At least six of those groups, including hedge funds, operators of other internet businesses and individual investors, have visited Dublin to inspect the operation. We have recently engaged an additional financial advisor through an investment banking group to assist us in our search for an infusion of cash as well as a new management team to restore the site and repay players. While any deal of this nature is necessarily complex given the current regulatory environment, our players should know that Full Tilt Poker is fully committed to paying them back in full and restoring confidence in our operations."
What Full Tilt Poker basically revealed is that they have been facing serious financial problems 2 years before the Black Friday, after one of its key payment processors stole $42 million from FTP [6]. However, they did nothing to protect their assets, neither did they inform their users, whom they entrusted their money.
Furthermore, FTP blames the U.S. government for their interpretation of federal laws, and also the payment processors, who stole money from them.
It was also rumored that if Full Tilt Poker opens ever again, it will do so under a new management.
The statement raised much controversy throughout the poker community already; FTP promised to release more information on the company's past to clarify some important points. What do you think?