The Full Tilt Remissions process is now 80 percent complete, according to the Garden City Group (GCG), the claims administrator appointed by the US government to oversee repayments to victims of the Full Tilt fiasco.
Full Tilt Poker was shut down by the US Department of Justice on Black Friday, April 15, 2011, and its players’ balances frozen.
Prosecutors accused the management of Full Tilt of flouting federal gaming and money-laundering laws by deceiving banks into illegally processing payments for US players.
PokerStars subsequently bought the site out and agreed to repay the balances of players outside the US; meanwhile American players were left in limbo, uncertain that they would ever see their money again.
Many players sold their balances for well below their face value.
Around 3,500 claims were paid this month, totaling around $2.8 million. Since the remissions process began on “Green Friday,” February 28 last year, just under $100 million has now been paid out to around 36,000 US claimants in five separate stages.
7,200 Still Awaiting Payment
The vast majority of this month’s payments, some 3100, went to claimants who mistakenly provided incorrect information to GCG in their applications, such as inaccurate banking info or social security numbers.
The remaining 400 payments went to players who had disputed their balances on claims of $500 or less, and also to players with disputed claims between $500 and $2,000, where the disputed difference was no greater than 20 percent.
The revelation that 20 percent of claims still need to be processed comes as a surprise. This would indicate that there are still around 7,200 claimants waiting to receive their funds, a far higher figure than the Poker Players Alliance suggested recently.
John Pappas, Executive Director of the PPA, said that his organization believed there were around 1,200 former Full Tilt customers with disputes that needed review and remediation.
April 16 Deadline for Incorrect Banking Info
The GCG also says that an unspecified number claimants, who should have been paid in this wave, still need to update their bank account information. These claimants have until April 16 to do so, or presumably risk losing their funds.
In October last year GCG announced that over 2,200 claimants from the previous wave of payments had still failed to provide correct information to the administrator and had until a November 24 deadline to do so or their claims would be denied.
It is not known how many of these players failed to come forward and whether any such claims have now been lost.
The majority of the remaining 20 percent are customers whose claims of over $2,000 are in dispute; and customers with claims between $500.01 and $2,000 where the difference of the disputed amount is higher than 20 percent.
You don’t have to be a mathematician to realize that these final claims represent multiple millions of dollars, but, as yet, GCG has provided no timeline for the last wave of payments.
“All other Petitions with disputed amounts are still under review and, if found to be valid, will be paid in upcoming distributions,” said the GCG on its website.
