Full Tilt Poker: from bad to worse

Things seem to be going from bad to worse for Full Tilt Poker who seems unable to recover since the events of Black Friday on April 15th and the federal indictments filed against its founders. Full Tilt Poker has yet to pay any of its US-based players any of their money held in Full Tilt Poker accounts.

Even following the unfreezing of Full Tilt bank accounts in Ireland at the end of May did not see it meet its commitment, like PokerStars did, and return monies that rightfully belong to US players. This caused rumors of Full Tilt bankruptcy to start circulating.

All statements that were released from Full Tilt kept assuring players the funds will be released soon and that the company is merely reorganizing in order to make funds available for refund. That has yet to happen and followed strong criticism from Full Tilt professional poker players such as Phil Ivey.

Last week Full Tilt had its interactive gaming license suspended and all players have not been able to play poker or access their player accounts holding their money since. The Full Tilt website states that the servers are down for maintenance and will resume operations soon.

Now a lawsuit was filed as a class action against Full Tilt by four plaintiffs that include Todd Terry a professional poker player and former lawyer. Their legal action is on behalf of all of Full Tilt US players that have yet to see a single penny of their own money returned to them.

The lawsuit names Full Tilt co-founders Nelson Burtnick and Raymond Bitar that were also named in the federal indictments filed back in April, and also include several businessmen and corporations associated with the company.

The lawsuit also names 13 professional poker players who were part of “Team Full Tilt” and promoted the company and played online using its software. The lawsuit claims they were all at some point shareholders in Full Tilt and includes Phil Ivey who himself sued Full Tilt over not paying US players but withdrew his suit this week.

In addition the lawsuit names up to 100 “John Does” employed by Full Tilt but whose identities are known to the plaintiffs.