$3 Million in Full Tilt Disputed Funds Set to Be Returned to Americans

Americans with disputed claims from the old Full Tilt Poker are set to receive about $3 million in payments from the U.S. government this month.

A few million more as the process enters fourth year

Garden City Group, acting on behalf of the United States Department of Justice, announced the payments on the official Full Tilt Poker Claims Administration web site, www.fulltiltpokerclaims.com. 

The amount to be distributed will be about $2.8 million, to approximately 3,500 people.

The coming round of payments will bring the total amount of funds paid to Americans to nearly $100 million.

The announcement continues the multi-year process of returning Full Tilt Poker funds to Americans since online poker’s Black Friday in 2011:

• The site blocked Americans in April 2011 after its domain was seized by the U.S. government.
• Full Tilt later lost its gaming license and eventually a massive shortfall between Full Tilt’s money on hand and balances owed to players was discovered.
• PokerStars later bailed out Full Tilt in an agreement with the U.S. DOJ, paying non-American players back in 2012.

The largest distribution took place about a year ago, as $76 million was returned to former Full Tilt players in the U.S.

What GCG said

Here is part of the announcement from the claims website:

GCG has been informed that the Department of Justice Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section has approved a new round of payments, which will mark the commencement of payments to Petitioners who have disputed their FTP Account Balances. In addition, payments will be made to Petitioners who have confirmed their FTP Account Balances and recently cured deficiencies. In all, the distribution will include approximately 3,500 Petitions totaling approximately $2.8 million.

Disputing Petitioners who are being paid this month met one of the following established criteria approved by the Department of Justice: (i) a dispute of $500 or less, or (ii) a dispute between $500.01 and $2,000, if the difference between the FTP Account Balance and the disputed amount is 20% or less. All other Petitions with disputed amounts are still under review and, if found to be valid, will be paid in upcoming distributions.

As noted by Poker Players Alliance executive director John Pappas last month, about 3,100 of the disputed claims arose from “inaccurate information” provided to GCG.

Not done yet

This apparently does not bring to an end the saga of the old Full Tilt Poker, as the announcement noted that there will be “upcoming distributions.” Pappas said there are about 1,200 petitions still under review, and no timeframe has been established to complete those reviews and make further distributions.