Marketing Code for PokerStars

Lawyers for Full Tilt have responded to accusations by the U.S. Department of Justice that they have been running a “global Ponzi scheme.” Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, unleashed a verbal salvo at the ailing site, claiming they “were not a legitimate poker company.”

His comments followed an amendment to the DoJ’s original civil complaint against Full Tilt, adding in accusations that they had swindled $300 million away from their customers. Unlike PokerStars, Full Tilt did not have separate funds ring-fenced in order to pay back their customers. When the FBI froze the company’s operating assets, Full Tilt had no reserves of cash to refund player deposits. Turning many of their players away from cards and towards online video poker.

This is now agreed to have been bad business practice, but the more chilling claim is that, over the past few years, Full Tilt’s directors have used player deposits to pay themselves more than $444 million. Among those named are us friendly poker sites veterans Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer, who have now been added to the official court filing.

Iam Imrich, a lawyer for Full Tilt, argues that the company have been… READ MORE

Heavy users of download free poker sites will know the story of Jose Macedo’s rise to stardom and subsequent crash and burn. His reputation, along with those of his backers (Haseeb “DogIsHead” Qureshi and Daniel “Jungleman” Cates), has been ruined for good.

Macedo vowed to give back the $30k he recently scammed during some heads-up poker matches. But recently Lock Poker, a site that offers a myriad of poker bonuses, decided that they would sue Macedo.

Previous to the scandal, Macedo had gained a spot on Lock Poker’s Elite Pro team. This sponsorship was unsurprisingly taken away in light of the high stakes scandal. Once everything was made public, most people assumed Macedo would simply disappear from the online poker world.

Unfortunately for Macedo, Eric “Rizen” Lynch announced on a poker forum that Lock Poker would be filing a lawsuit against the former pro. Lynch stated that details on the lawsuit would be released in the future.

No one knows for sure what Lock Poker’s legal action will be hinged on. Some people think that he will be taken to court for his cheating during the Lock Challenge. This Challenge awarded prizes for the World Series of… READ MORE

A month after April’s Black Friday, it became clear that Full Tilt Poker weren’t going to refund their customers. Since then, it’s been hard to get a statement from the formerly buoyant online poker company. Missives that emerged were little more than reassurances and empty promises. Now, finally, the site has unveiled an announcement with a little more meat.

Sadly, it’s not to herald the arrival of new investors or to confirm that repayments are en route. Instead, Full Tilt offer to explain why they haven’t had the funds to pay back trapped money owed to their players.

“As is obvious from the events that have transpired since April 15th, Full Tilt Poker was not prepared for the far-reaching, US government enforcement effort of Black Friday. Full Tilt Poker never anticipated that the DOJ would proceed as it did by seizing our global domain name and shutting down the site worldwide.”

First in line for blame is the U.S. government. Fingered for not only the $115 million seized from us poker sites during Black Friday, but another unspecified sum taken from payment processors in late 2010. Full Tilt covered this lost cash with their own supplies, shielding the players… READ MORE