[ttwarrior1]

It’s been one year today since the Feds swooped down to shutter America’s most popular online poker sites: PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and CEREUS Network rooms Absolute Poker and UB.com. On Black Friday, the US Department of Justice indicted these sites and millions of players have had to live with the aftermath of their actions.

For most poker players, the biggest impact is that Full Tilt never repaid money to their customers—money that did not belong to Full Tilt in the first place. To me, this is the biggest of the crimes resulting from Black Friday and its collateral damage. For all of the DOJ’s posturing in the days following the site seizures, only the five payment processors charged in the case have appeared in court, with each copping a guilty plea and a smallish sentence.

But what about guys like Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson? Both were actively involved in the management of Full Tilt Poker, yet saw no ethical issues in paying themselves with money that was never theirs, and never belonged to Full Tilt Poker. They simply took players’ money.

This is a criminal act. I’m not an attorney, but fraud and embezzlement seem to be good starting places for what might be a rather lengthy list of charges. Answers won’t be forthcoming until these guys are in court, under oath, and questioned about their activities by prosecuting attorneys. In my opinion, the enormity of their crimes and the impact of their actions on others far exceed any ill deeds done by the five payment processors.

If they are innocent, a day in court is a way to defend themselves and restore their reputations. But if they are guilty, they need to face justice, be held accountable for their actions, and be punished for it.

Although Poker Stars quickly moved to return player funds to them, none of the other online sites did. I don’t believe players will ever see all of their money, and the best they can expect is to have their deposits—but not their winnings—returned to them.

Even that’s iffy right now, although Full Tilt is advertising to fill jobs in Dublin, from which one would infer that their license will be reinstated soon. They are intent on hiring folks with language skills that suggest they are looking at expanding into Eastern Europe.

Even if you like their software and interface, would you play there? Some folks will probably argue that the new regime is not the old one, but as long as I had a choice of rooms, I’d play at PokerStars. They have a demonstrated track record of caring about customer interests—never mind the fact that the Isle of Man, where they are headquartered and regulated, requires them to “ring-fence” player funds, and not comingle them with company operating monies.

It’s been a year since Black Friday, and while so much has happened, there’s so much more that needs to take place to ensure that justice is done, that the guilty are held accountable for their actions and punished for it, and that poker can raise itself up from a year of disaster, anger, and angst, and regain its place as America’s—and the world’s—card game of choice.

Lou Krieger
ps: yes i know, it will be one year tommorrow, chill out trolls.

[Brock Landers]

where do poker players go since then to play?

[ttwarrior1]

your serious

merge poker sites

Brock's not an sbr pro Load up

[a4u2fear]

where do poker players go since then to play?

SB fukkin R baby

[Brock Landers]

SB fukkin R baby

yeah right, i mean where are players at these days for cash?

[ttwarrior1]

merge poker network, carbon, felt stars, lock, all the same network

true poker network , bookmaker, dsi, americas card room which is the old doyles

[paranoyd androyd]

Lederer and Ferguson should both be shot in the head.

[rm18]

i play sbr and jew poker

[playersonly69]

of course ttwarrior makes it seem that he wrote the article

[UntilTheNDofTimE]

What i dont get is how these poker sites like full tilt didnt have loads of cash when it was shut down. Shit Ferguson and lederer could of been blowing 10 million a day and they still shouldn't of had problems.

I never played much online i always prefered high limit live cash games but when i did play online i believe seeing it said there was something like 30,000 players and 7,000 tables. lets take only 1/3 of this number which is 2333 tables

2333 x $3(maximum rake for most tables and you get this max rake on most small games like 1/2) x 110 hands a hour x 24 hours.

= 18 million a day or 6.7 billion a year. What real overhead expense did this company have? From my predictions is one of the most successful business models you can have. Offers a service with no risk potential. All you have is overhead and profit.

[mynameismud]

where do poker players go since then to play?

i played at pokerstars for 7 years before black friday. a lot of the pro grinders that made their money online had to move to canada or south america to continue to make a living. most of the online pros i knew went to canada.

[rm18]

i think it was about 2 million a day in rake for poker stars tilt less than that but still a lot of money

[ttwarrior1]

good grief, can u read, it was from lou krieger

[ttwarrior1]

ps: i will be writing articles on poker sites and be on various poker shows soon. Not sure i can say where but you can find me in the rounders chat room if you want to know. I'll make various blogs to keep people up to date.

My fantasy football show will also be debuting in august.

[Ghenghis Kahn]

What i dont get is how these poker sites like full tilt didnt have loads of cash when it was shut down. Shit Ferguson and lederer could of been blowing 10 million a day and they still shouldn't of had problems.

I never played much online i always prefered high limit live cash games but when i did play online i believe seeing it said there was something like 30,000 players and 7,000 tables. lets take only 1/3 of this number which is 2333 tables

2333 x $3(maximum rake for most tables and you get this max rake on most small games like 1/2) x 110 hands a hour x 24 hours.

= 18 million a day or 6.7 billion a year. What real overhead expense did this company have? From my predictions is one of the most successful business models you can have. Offers a service with no risk potential. All you have is overhead and profit.

let's just say fulltilt was a mess starting 6 months prior to black friday. people would make deposits through echecks, ft would credit that amount instantly to the players but they had hard time collecting the debt from the players. imagine thousands of players depositing thousands of dollars for six months, this adds up to a great sum. also, phil ivey was a craps degenerate or something and borrowed from ft... ultimately though, they were a reputable company until uigea hit and that rascal from australia ratted them out on how the illegal processors worked. uigea ****** everything up...