Less than a month before the expected rebirth of Full Tilt Poker, the beleaguered online poker room will officially be allowed to offer games once more. It was announced on Tuesday that the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission has granted Full Tilt a license to provide its services from the tiny island nation between Ireland and Great Britain.As we know all too well by now, 11 individuals involved with Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, and Absolute Poker were named in an indictment on Black Friday and charged with a number of crimes including money laundering, bank fraud, and violation of United States gambling laws. The U.S. Government seized the domain names of each poker room and each company ceased to offer real money games to U.S. residents.
Bank accounts containing player funds were frozen, which posed a particularly significant problem for Full Tilt. It was soon discovered that Full Tilt did not have the vast majority of funds that were supposed to be in its customers’ accounts. One of the reasons for this was that prior to Black Friday, Full Tilt had been having issues with some payment processors, resulting in an inability to transfer money from players’ bank accounts to their poker accounts when deposits were initiated.Rather than halting deposits, Full Tilt decided to go ahead and credit player accounts, assuming that the processing problems would be resolved in short order. When the U.S. Government froze accounts, it was found that Full Tilt was experiencing a $130 million shortfall after funds had been credited to accounts, but the money was never transferred. Compounding the financial mess was the fact that the company had been making distributions to owners from player funds, not company operating funds.
Full Tilt Poker had its gaming license revoked by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission on September 29, the result of its improprieties with player monies.
In August, PokerStars completed a $731 million deal with the U.S. Department of Justice in which it agreed to purchase the assets of Full Tilt Poker. $547 million of that amount was a forfeiture payment to the U.S. Government, while the other $184 million will be used to repay Full Tilt’s customers around the rest of the world. Part of the $547 million will go toward repayments of former Full Tilt customers in the United States.With new ownership and new management, the path was clear for Full Tilt to attempt to regain a gaming license.
Steve Brennan, Chief Executive Officer of the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission, said in a press release, “The Gambling Supervision Commission is confident that Full Tilt Poker will safeguard the interests of its players and adhere to the strict policies and procedures governing Isle of Man licensed gaming companies. Full Tilt Poker’s application was strengthened by the fact that their new owners and management team are known to us and have an impeccable record of compliance with the Isle of Man’s regulatory requirements.”
While the presence of PokerStars' ownership and management helped, Full Tilt was still evaluated on its own and still had to meet all of the Commission’s requirements for licensing. After all, PokerStars has been licensed in the Isle of Man since 2005.
One would probably assume that Full Tilt would not have gone back to Alderney for a license after everything that happened, but PokerStars General Counsel Paul Telford wanted to stress positives of being licensed in the Isle of Man: “In our view, the Isle of Man’s e-gaming regulations set the gold standard for the online gaming industry. Their attitude toward ensuring that operators provide a service that is safe, fair, and socially responsible is second to none. In particular, the Isle of Man leads the way in ensuring that player funds are protected under mandatory trust arrangements that are built into their regulations.”
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