What Happened To Full Tilt Poker Owners
- Full Tilt Poker Download
- What Happened To Full Tilt Poker Owners Play
- What Happened To Full Tilt Poker Owners 2019
Full Tilt Poker’s player pool was fully integrated into PokerStars on May 17 and the poker platform was officially retired. In the wake of the final closure of what was once one of the largest online poker sites in the world Howard Lederer, a former board member of the now defunct business, has opted to put out a statement through Daniel Negreanu’s poker blog.
Lederer has been a persona non grata in the poker world after the fiasco that followed the U.S. Department of Justice’s actions on April 15, 2011. Players with money in accounts on Full Tilt Poker looked as if they might not ever retrieve their funds after poker’s Black Friday as a result of the site’s failure to segregate player funds from the money used to operate the business. Players only received any form of relief when PokerStars announced that they would buy the company and pay out player’s balances.
Negreanu posted Lederer’s statement and also gave his own commentary, saying it is, “the kind of apology people would have liked to read five years ago.” Lederer’s full statement can be found below. For more of Negreanu’s thoughts on it, check out his blog post which can be found here.
___________________________________________________________________
I am writing to apologize to everyone in the poker community, especially to all the players who had money on Full Tilt Poker on April 15, 2011. When Full Tilt Poker closed in 2011, there was a shortfall in funds, a distressed sale to recover those funds, and a long delay in repaying players. Throughout this period, there was little explanation for the delay, and no apology. Players felt lied to. They trusted the site, and they trusted me, and I didn’t live up to that trust.
I take full responsibility for Full Tilt’s failure to protect player deposits leading up to Black Friday. The shortfall in player deposits should never have happened. I should have provided better oversight or made sure that responsible others provided that oversight. I was a founder in the company that launched Full Tilt, and I became the face of the company’s management in the poker community. Many of our players played on the site because they trusted me.
Soon after, on April 15, 2011, the Department of Justice seized the domains of PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker and indicted the owners, charging them with mail and bank fraud. This sent the whole industry into a panic; players found themselves blocked from accessing the sites that housed hundreds of millions of dollars of their funds, with no.
- Many in the poker world saw as a preemptive move by Lederer to try to smooth things over and pave the way for a return to the WSOP this year. But before Lederer even had a chance to show his face at the WSOP, it was Ferguson, the 2000 main event champion and former Full Tilt Poker owner, who turned up at the Rio.
- In 2009, Full Tilt Poker had signed 7 players of that year’s WSOP November Nine to Team Full Tilt. That same year, Full Tilt Poker underwent another revamping, adopting a contemporary look and feel, a host of new features, including support for other languages besides English, new games like 7-Game Poker, H.O R.S.E., and Razz, and the poker.
- The real beautiful game. It’s even more beautiful when you play it with Full Tilt. Sit down in the presence of the greats, like Texas Hold’em and Omaha.Play at lightning speed with Zoom, the fastest poker game in the world, or mix it up with one of our many other poker variants.Whatever way you like to play, be like thousands of other poker players all over the world and play harder.
Even though I was no longer overseeing day to day operations, my inattention in the two years leading up to Black Friday imperiled players’ deposits. My involvement in Full Tilt from 2003-2008 put me in a unique position of trust—a trust that I disappointed by failing to ensure that Full Tilt was properly governed when I stepped away in 2008. My failure to make sure proper oversight was in place when I left resulted in the situation that began to unfold on Black Friday. Players were not able to get their money back for a minimum of a year and a half, and, for many, it has been much longer. I’ve been a poker player my entire adult life. I know the importance of having access to one’s bankroll. The lost opportunity, frustration, and anxiety many of FTP’s customers experienced in the intervening years is unacceptable. I cannot be sorry enough for what happened.
During Full Tilt’s rise, I received a lot of praise. I couldn’t see it at the time, but I let the headlines change me. In the first couple of years after Black Friday I made lots of excuses, to my friends, my family and myself, for why I wasn’t the bad guy or big-headed or wrong. In the months immediately following the crisis, I focused a lot of energy on trying to refute allegations that were factually untrue. I convinced myself that I was a victim of circumstance and that criticism was being unfairly directed toward me instead of others. I was missing the bigger picture.
At a wedding in the fall of 2014, I was sitting with a friend, talking about Full Tilt. I was grumbling about how unfair my lot in life had become. My friend didn’t let me off the hook. I’m paraphrasing here, but he said, “Howard, it doesn’t matter whether you knew about the shortfall or what you did to help players get paid. These players feel like you lied to them. You were the face of the company in the poker community. Thousands of players played on the site because they trusted you. Many pros represented the site because they thought you were in control. And you happily accepted the accolades while falling short of their trust.”
At the time, my friend’s response felt like a slap in the face, but it is clear to me now that it was fair. An apology is not enough, but it is what I am able to offer to the poker community in the wake of a travesty that I should not have allowed to happen. I am sorry.
_____________________________________________________________
Following Black Friday Lederer settled with the U.S. Department of Justice. In exchange for the opportunity to admit to no wrongdoing in the civil complaint that stemmed from Full Tilt’s failures Lederer forfeited at least $2.5 million in cash and assets, including several pieces of real estate property and vehicles. He also handed over the contents of a bank account, although the settlement didn’t specify the amount of the funds in that account. Lederer was paid at least $42.5 million by Full Tilt over the course of his involvement with the company, which he helped in founding.
With those forfeitures in mind and this apology made, has Lederer even begun to mend the bridges burned by the Full Tilt fiasco and his failure to take responsibility for the site’s mismanagement?
“The choice to accept his apology is a personal one,” says Negreanu. “For what its worth, I personally believe the apology to be genuine.”
Genuine or not, Lederer likely has a long way to go before he is able to play in poker’s biggest events without facing hostility and contempt.
The first week of the 2016 World Series of Poker had its fair share of big stories.
That included Colossus I vs. Colossus II, developments (see below), and grumblings of controversies (Top Up Turbo satellites and Allen Kessler-unapproved structures). But stealing the show was the return of Chris Ferguson to the WSOP for the first time since 2010.
Ferguson wasn’t in a chatty mood, telling PokerNews three times, “I’m just here to play poker,” when they questioned the five-time WSOP bracelet winner about his return.
Ferguson may not have wanted to discuss his return, the poker community certainly did, as social media lit up, as did the 2+2 forums.
RIP Poker Twitter
— Rich Ryan (@RichTRyan) June 5, 2016
Not in a million years did I think Colossus wouldn't surpass last year's number, nor that Ferguson would show before Lederer.
Full Tilt Poker Download
— Donnie Peters (@Donnie_Peters) June 5, 2016
Did Ferguson beat Lederer to the punch?
In the run-up to the WSOP, Howard Lederer issued an apology statement to the poker community. Many in the poker world saw as a preemptive move by Lederer to try to smooth things over and pave the way for a return to the WSOP this year.
What Happened To Full Tilt Poker Owners Play
But before Lederer even had a chance to show his face at the WSOP, it was Ferguson, the 2000 main event champion and former Full Tilt Poker owner, who turned up at the Rio.
Ferguson and his trademark look — complete with cowboy hat, long hair and beard — showed up for the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship without any foreshadowing and sans apology.
His return seems to have caught the poker world off guard, as the disgraced former Full Tilt owner was treated more as an object of curiosity than a returned exile and object of scorn.
The likely reason for the apathetic response to Ferguson is the poker community’s decision to place the two men in different levels of hell. Neither is in the ninth level with Russ Hamilton, but by and large the poker community sees Lederer as the bigger sinner of the two.
Still, judging by the tepid response Ferguson’s return garnered, Lederer could very well follow suit at some point this summer, and deal with whatever amount of criticism comes his way.
Lederer’s return will definitely be more salacious, considering Ferguson fell off the map following Black Friday, while Lederer (along with former Full Tilt CEO Ray Bitar) tried to do damage control and became the face of the poker world’s anger. Most notably, there was the cringe-worthy performance of Lederer in hislengthy sit down interviewwith PokerNews.com’s Matthew Parvis. In that chat, “The Professor” turned into the absent-minded professor when trying to recall certain details.
Settlement agreements add to the level of outrage
The government also seemed to believe there was some daylight between the two men in terms of their roles in the FTP debacle.
Ferguson — along with Lederer, Rafe Furst, and Ray Bitar — reached a settlement agreement with the U.S. government in the aftermath of Black Friday. But, despite a lot of similarities, when you contrast the settlement agreements of Lederer and Ferguson there are several notable differences.
- Lederer’s future involvement in U.S. online poker and gambling was far more restrictive than Ferguson’s.
- Both men forfeited a substantial amount of funds, but only Lederer paid an additional civil money laundering penalty of $1.25 million.
- Ferguson was cited in the settlement agreement as having forgave $14 million in dividends owed, which were supposed to go towards player payments.
What Happened To Full Tilt Poker Owners 2019
In the end, the settlement agreements paint the picture that Ferguson and Lederer had different levels of culpability (at least in the eyes of the government) when it comes to their role in the demise of Full Tilt Poker, as well as how they tried to deal with it.
These differences, along with the public comments (or lack thereof) following Black Friday, have led to the court of poker public opinion seemingly being more accepting of Ferguson’s return than Lederer’s.
Of course, it’s been five years, and most Full Tilt players have been made whole at this point. If Lederer returns it won’t be pretty, but it probably won’t be over the top either.
Some final thoughts
Truth be told, I’m pretty ambivalent to either man showing up at the Rio to play in WSOP tournaments at this point.
I’ve moved on from Black Friday; but then again, I didn’t have five- or six-figures stranded in an inaccessible online poker account for five years.
Even before Black Friday, I questioned the safety and security of online poker funds. And while it doesn’t excuse what occurred, what happened at Full Tilt Poker was partly a byproduct of the situation.
That situation was one players helped stoke. U.S. customers wanted to play online poker, and Full Tilt Poker did everything they could to facilitate that, even if it meant cutting corners or engaging in behavior that turned out to be wrong.
We all “knew” what was going on with those overseas checks (especially when they started bouncing with some regularity). However, we chose not to care, in much the same way Full Tilt’s board of directors chose not to poke around too deep into the company’s financial situation.
Featureflash Photo Agency / Shutterstock.com