Quote:
Originally Posted by TeflonDawg
wtf is this "FTP rolling" business? They were operating 100% exactly like every other site on the planet until the DOJ came in and literally shut them down within days. After BF, they were processing withdrawals to ROW players. During all this BS, they've been seeking buyers for the company. What part of that makes you think there was some devious scheme to rob players?
Last question first - the evidence gathered by the DOJ strongly suggests they made payments to themselves in the forms of dividends and loans in excess of their actual profits. Hence they only had $60M on real cash to cover well over $300M in player accounts. That is pretty "devious".
After BF they tried to stay open for the ROW, but they were inadequately financed to even do that. They might have been generating revenue, but they were bleeding cash, and more and more complaints from ROW players were piling in. Alderney had no choice but to pull the plug.
Seeking a buyer so that we can get paid ... I wish someone would buy it. But I seriously,
seriously,
seriously doubt there is anyone in their right mind who would layout the kind of money needed. US players - gone for good; 80% of the ROW hits the cash out button ASAP. The only thing left is the software, which, while it is the best of any site around, is NOT worth $300M. Even Rush Poker is gonna lose its value once PS introduces the "Fast Moving Ring Game Product" they are testing now.
In the likely event they cannot find a buyer, what is "plan B"? Does it even exist at this point? How can our funds be "safe and sound" (the exact words still on their web site), when they have no definitive means of paying (let alone a time table)?
100% like other sites ...
For starters, they couldn't even fulfill their FTP Store orders. Dozens of people ordered things they never got, even after waiting for months. Hard to believe they could possibly be out of everything for that long a time period. And I somehow doubt the DOJ was making it difficult to process t-shirt orders. It's no biggie, but it is a good example of how FTP was not operating like PS was.
More importantly, when UIGEA really kicked in mid/late 2010, both PS and FTP found it impossible to process electronic deposits from players in certain states. PS did the sensible thing by simply informing players "sorry, but we cannot accept e-checks from players in your state". FTP chose to float these players. Rather than speculating on why they chose to do this, please try to accept that this represented a significant policy shift for a site "operating 100% exactly like every other site on the planet".
The assumption that most people made was that the sites would pay out the US so as to keep their "modestly successful" business in the ROW (that is a joke - FTP could still rake in at least $100M in revenues - nothing to sneeze at). Clearly this is exactly what PS planned for and carried out.
FTP had a different end in mind.