Checking the news today I’m coming across some bad news for those who used to play at Full Tilt Poker — it looks like the negotiations may have fallen through.
Okay, so Full Tilt players will probably know what that sentence means all by itself, but for those who haven’t just put their fist through a wall, I’ll provide a little background. Prior to April 15, 2011, Full Tilt Poker was among the most active poker rooms in the world. Then on April 15th, the FBI seized the domain names of 4 online poker rooms operating in the United States and Full Tilt poker was one of those four. Now, the seized poker rooms couldn’t continue to operate in the United States, but that didn’t stop their Canadian or European operations. However even with the non-US operations unaffected, only PokerStars seems to have emerged from the shut down in working condition.
After the April 15th shut down, Full Tilt was unable to return the money held in the accounts of players in the United States. But they continued operating in the UK and EU. Until the Alderney Gambling Control Commission pulled their license because they weren’t able to pay back their US customers. So, now Full Tilt Poker is unable to operate. But there was a single ray of hope when a group of mysterious European investors showed interest in acquiring the poker room.
But now the poker room has announced that they’ve ended the “exclusive negotiation period” with the mysterious investors and said they’re entering negotiations with another potential investor. Which most are interpreting to mean that the investors are having second thoughts. After all, to keep Full Tilt operating, they’ll have to pay back all the money the poker room owes.