Last month, many US online poker players rejoiced when it was announced that former Full Tilt members will receive $82 million in repayments. The Garden City Group, which is the firm tasked with facilitating these payments, will finish the process by the end of March. But as great as this news is, some players were very unhappy to find out that the US government is keeping some or all of their funds.
Players were sent an email from the GCG which explained that their Petition for Remission had been approved and they were set to receive old Full Tilt funds. However, unlucky individuals also received this nasty little line in the middle of their email:
It has been determined that you have a delinquent debt that qualifies for collection and, accordingly, your remission payment will be reduced in order to satisfy your debt in part or in whole.
Those who are in this situation need to fill out a Unified Financial Management System Vendor Request Form and return it to the GCG before February ends. Obviously this is a major blow to those who were expecting to receive all of the money back from their old Full Tilt balance. However, it’s something that many players were bracing for, given how there was once no guarantee that the US Department of Justice would give anything back.
In other news regarding the remission process, former Full Tilt affiliates are also set to receive some money. This is a pretty big update because the DOJ originally said that affiliates weren’t getting anything back. However, the Poker Players Alliance met with DOJ officials and convinced them otherwise. The big catch is that affiliates will only get the money back that was earned through playing poker; not any cash that was made through affiliate-related activities.
As for FTP Red Pros who are still owed money from their old contracts, the GCG is still trying to figure out how to handle this. So players like David Benyamine, David Chiu, Melanie Weisner and Carlos Mortensen will have their fingers crossed while hoping for some money back.