Chances are FTP gave DOJ all the player info including their current balance.

That last paragraph is an insane statement, IMO. The UIGEA was the reason PokerStars and Full Tilt started committing fraud in the first place -- to evade the law and retain their massive US customer base.

In fact you could argue that that was the whole reason for the UIGEA -- to do the casino lobby a huge favor, by setting a trap, fully expecting the two biggest companies to walk into it and incriminate themselves, which they did.

Then wait 5 years, build a case, let them hang themselves, and then sweep the competition out of the way so that the casinos can eventually come in and corner the market, without any interference from offshore, quasi-untaxable competitors.

Even with their awful business practices, which of course they should take 100% of the blame for, they were still printing money. If Full Tilt wasn't forced to operate in the oppressive environment of the UIEGA, which was expensive and time consuming, they may never have been forced to go under, even with the company engaging in such shady practices (they certainly wouldn't be the first poker company to do so).

I'm not sure how anyone say these things are not connected.

where's Eli when you need him ??!

For those interested there is still significant activity in the civil case, mostly to do with settling with AB, but some activity related to HL, RB, CF and RF as well.

You can follow it here:

http://dockets.justia.com/docket/new...v02564/377900/

You can view many of the docs in the case by clicking on the docket number next to the date.

Also, before anyone gets too excited, the synopsis of the case at the top is from just after BF when the DOJ and PStars and FTP agreed to allow the sites to refund player accounts. This was before everybody figured out FTP did not have the money to pay its players back.

i just dont understand. black friday hit and Stars paid back players the next week INCLUDING USA players. so why the hell cant FTP/stars pay back USA players now? what makes this different?

^DOJ had them by the balls and they obv want money

The only way we could have gotten anywhere close back to the land of the free is if we got Ron Paul for pres. Problem is the american people are just too plain stupid.

What can I do to help?

Ron Paul wants to shut down the IRS and cut government to the point that you pay taxes only for the basic things like roads and maintenance. Yet people are so dumb they can't even comprehend that. People in my state actually voted against repealing our sales tax!! Can't get more brainwashed to love government than that.

Legislature would have just ignored it like they did with the income tax reduction passed in 2000.

The bank fraud (assuming any occurred - no one has claimed to have been damaged) had nothing to do with their problems either, those charges were the risks the processors were getting paid to take, and without the IGBA charge there is no money laundering predicate (UIGEA is not an SUA).

The UIGEA made it expensive for them to operate in the US (deposit processing fees/thefts), but they chose to continue to operate in the US because it was still profitable until 2009 when the Holder/Obama DOJ reinterpreted the IGBA to allow them to target withdrawal processors.

It wasn't until player funds (withdrawals) were put at risk, thanks to that ridiculous interpretation of a statute specifically written to justify Federal jurisdiction over illegal gambling activity with no interstate nexus, that it was no longer profitable to offer poker to the US.

Of course that doesn't excuse FTP for continuing to take their profit distributions as if that player money had never been (unjustly) forfeited, and the fact that the PPA (before FTP even admitted being insolvent) proffered the idea of using those prior forfeitures to to repay US players via remission makes one wonder if that wasn't FTP's (PPA board member's) doomsday plan for US players all along.

As gambling prohibitions go, the UIGEA couldn't have been less intrusive, it targeted only the businesses and their profits, made gambling less of an impulse purchase due to the inconvenience, yet never prevented (and still doesn't prevent) individuals from jumping through a few hoops to gamble online.

Black Friday and it's aftermath is entirely attributable to the prosecution of a statute (IGBA) the DOJ knew had no extraterritorial application when they asked for the UIGEA to be passed - but the UIGEA they passed has no teeth, so Holder invoked a statute designed to shut down intrastate mafia operations.

The biggest government failure of all is the judicial branch, no judge should have ever signed an IGBA seizure warrant for player funds from an internet (interstate by definition) offshore gambling site - the courts effectively signed off on a license to steal.

just so u guys know, even if u reloacted out of the U.S., u still gotta go through the DOJ to get your $ back

beat the Steelers this weekend!!

So I just logged on to Full Tilt for the first time, and I am a US player. My account balance shows as $0.00. Is that the case for every US player for now? If so, when will US players be able to view their balances?

Apparently so.

They don't HAVE any balances. In essence, FTP gave your money to the DOJ. At some point, a third party hired by the DOJ will be in touch with US players to let them know how to apply to get it back.

God only knows how long its going to take if you dispute what they say your balance is. From reading all the people that have been able to log on already that seems like it might be quiet common to

Points will be worth ZERO. Give it a rest. It is over on that issue. Now, if you cannot prove that you are a NET LOSER with Full Tilt Poker, then you are about to get the shock of YOUR LIFETIME.

I have tried to tell you what was going to happen. Enjoy!

Well, that depends on when you moved out of the U S. Anyway, for us that have moved out after june29th(i think) we have known about this for almost two months. Way to stay current.

i was never aware of such an email. so you say US players were suppose to get this on april ~16-17?

I'm not sure what world this happened in, but it wasn't ours.

FTP sent me an account history in an excel format that details all actions on my account. I was told to do this via email, I think they sent an email saying that if you wanted to request it you could, but it definitely was an email they initiated to make us feel safe that our balances were in tact. In retrospect it's a little surprising they did this.

But the excel document that they sent shows my balance every time I bought into a table, reloaded at a table (which with auto rebuy was a lot, so the document is very long), and also shows any withdraws or deposits on my account EVER. So I'm not worried about my balance being known by the DOJ, because I know it exactly and FTP was able to supply this to me. But I am concerned on what the DOJ thinks I should get back and when I should get it back.

Your first post implies that FTP sent this to all users, and you took the opportunity to snipe at the person you were talking to. Your 2nd post shows that you got a very detailed, personalized email that you requested specifically for your own account.

I don't know how you made the jump from getting something like that to assuming that FTP sent it out to all users. That flat out did not happen.

FTP does not have your money anymore. DOJ has it

FTP sent you an account history after you requested it. 'Account History' is a feature in one of the drop down menus. You were able to request it directly from that. Currently, in the new client the feature is still there but it takes you to an under maintenance page.

If this feature is active on the 6th, then I assume Americans can find out their account information by requesting it in this way.

I apologize if that has already been addressed as I haven't read through the thousands of posts/threads on here but this is the response I got about my 992,000 FTP Points (I'm American obviously). I was hoping that they'd be worth something especially since Stars converted all of our points to $, but the response I got was about what I expected.

Hello Matthew,

Full Tilt Poker is not currently open for real money play or activity to
players from the United States or Territories.

Play Money play however is allowed and access to your account is available, but
you will only see your Full Tilt Points (FTP) balance.

Unfortunately, these points will only be available to you for use, should you
ever be fully verified as residing outside of the United States or Territories,
or should regulation change in the United States at some point in the future.

Regards,

Justin
Full Tilt Operations