Full Tilt and Absolute Poker Update U.S. Players
If you have money tied up on Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker, or UB.comin the wake of Black Friday, then this article will be of great interest to you. In a thread in the Poker Sites forumthat appeared on Thursday, Full Tilt Poker representative ftpdoug addressed a variety of member questions, several of which dealt with U.S. player cashouts. Separately, PocketFives.com sought comment from CEREUS Network officials, who have not yet announced a solution for UB.com and Absolute Poker players.
In the Poker Sites thread, ftpdoug gave Full Tilt faithful an update on the cashout process: “Full Tilt Poker is diligently working on the return of U.S. players’ funds, which is a top priority, and will have a further update for U.S. customers by early next week.” This week, PokerStars, the largest site in the land, began processing U.S. player cashouts by e-checks, paper checks, and bank transfers. As a result, several players have already been refunded their bankrolls.
Full Tilt players also have Tournament Tickets in their accounts, which ftpdoug noted would be “converted to their real money value before withdrawal.” The same will hold true for Ring Game Tickets, even if the ticket has expired since Black Friday.
What about players who have spent heaps of time piling up Full Tilt Points, or FTPs? Will they just be out of luck? While speculation on TwoPlusTwo had the U.S. Department of Justice working with Full Tilt Poker to reopen the FTP Store to Americans, ftpdoug asserted, “We’re still looking into this one. It’s unclear what we can do with FTPs, but they definitely won’t just ‘go away.'”
Unpaid rakebackyou may have will be paid out. In addition, ftpdoug updated Full Tilt members about their Iron Man medals: “We’re still looking into this as well. My guess is they will be converted to FTPs once we determine what will be done with FTPs.” FTP Academy Points will be treated exactly the same as Iron Man medals, and Take 2 earnings will likely be paid out on a prorated scale. The Take 2 promotion was ongoing when Black Friday struck.
We’ve had several U.S. members of PocketFives.com ask whether they’ll be able to play on the world’s second largest online poker site if they move out of the country. To that end, ftpdoug stated, “Yes, but your existing account and balance will not yet be available on logging in. You will be required to provide sufficient proof of relocation, including your photo identification and proof of residency at your new address. You can then use non-U.S. funds to play from outside the U.S. and, after return of your U.S. funds, you will be able to use those funds as well from outside the U.S.”
Meanwhile, the CEREUS Network sites UB.com and Absolute Poker have remained largely silent following the indictments of founder Scott Tom and payment processing head Brent Beckley two weeks ago. U.S. players had reported that they were able to compete for real money on the two sites following April 15th and so PocketFives.com asked CEREUS Network officials what the latest update was.
A representative of the CEREUS Network told PocketFives.com this week, “We can confirm that U.S. financial transactions have been completely shut down and that players cannot deposit, withdraw, or transfer at this time. Management has been alerted about the game play reports and we will provide an update on this shortly. We want to emphasize that the game play issue in no way represents any official statement from UB/Absolute Poker about the recent actions taken by the DOJ or the company’s position on this matter.”
About a week ago, Absolute Poker officials revealed that the site had entered talks with the U.S. Department of Justice for the return of player funds. At the time, the room issued a press release that read in part, “Absolute Poker’s counsel has initiated communications with the U.S. Attorney’s office and plans to continue proactively advancing those discussions.”
So far, only PokerStars players have been able to withdraw their funds after their accounts were frozen following the Black Friday indictments. We’ll have the latest for you right here on PocketFives.com.
