We are coming up on a year now since we hit Black Friday within the online poker world. Since then, PokerStars has done everything right with regards to its players. In contrast, Full Tilt Poker has been nothing but a black hole of silence. For almost a year now, we have heard nothing from Full Tilt Poker as it continues to imprison a significant portion of funds from the worldwide poker economy.
To my friends at FTP:
Through your tough times I have been one of your few defenders, both publicly and privately. I find it impossible to take that stance any longer. Your continued public silence is a disgrace. It is not only irresponsible, but also thoughtlessly unfair to the thousands of poker players who have money tied up in your ongoing debacle. Friendships aside, I feel it would be disingenuous to defend the persons involved any longer. At this point, there is nothing short of full disclosure regarding player funds that would change this opinion.
Look, I get it. Things happen that are out of our control. We all make mistakes. I can understand losing money. I can even fathom someone in the operation deceiving the rest of you and causing this massive meltdown. What I can’t understand is this continued disrespect to all the players who helped build your business to what it was just a year ago. The complete lack of information coming from the owners of FTP to the player base is shameful.
To make it clear, I don’t have any funds personally tied up on FTP. I feel very fortunate about that. But I know from many poker players in the community that this lockup has forced changes in their lives that are no fault of their own. What makes it worse is that with no communication coming from FTP, these players are being held hostage – not knowing if they will ever be receiving their money back in full. In some ways, by not releasing any statements at all, it is worse than if you just tell these players not to expect anything back. At the very least, if you produced some concrete guidance to what is going on with the money these players could move on with their lives in one direction or another.
It is obvious that your lawyers are advising you to say nothing publicly and that is totally understandable, but you should be directing your lawyers to make a public statement with regard to the players’ funds. How you or your lawyers have not done that by now is astonishing. For the sake of the players, you need to make a statement or direct your lawyers to make a statement for you. To see that the players get paid is most likely out of your control at this point. But the deafening silence is a choice each one of you individually continues to make. You have given your company and your friends more than enough time by now to do something resembling the right thing. I am hoping that one of you reading this will realize that breaking ranks to speak out is the honorable thing to do. Just a little statement to direct the players on the situation will give them the necessary info they need to proceed.
To my friends at FTP, I am embarrassed for you and I am ashamed of you – not due to the player funds being lost or held. I am embarrassed and ashamed because of the continued lack of communication to the thousands of players who have been waiting hopefully for this increasingly long amount of time.:
Matt, thank you from myself and the rest of the loyal X-FTP players. Very well written and you are correct, it is due time that we are given details on this situation and explanation. I lost almost $6,000 bucks.. and to most of these pro’s is a drop in the bucket.. but to me it was my bankroll that I used to make money.. it set me back but I am now building it back on Poker Stars
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If you stole 400 million, would you tell anyone?
Thing that really peed me off was they knew what they were doing and they kept taking deposits till the very end i never got to play with my deposit thats how bad they treated people , i feel really sry for the players who lost there bankrolls
lol there was sugestion that there is going to b a company taking over ftp and that as yet is not confirmed as they still bitching bout the debt most of which actualy belongs to the pro players. i think it a disgrace they dont let there members build any debt but the pros can owe millions with out a thought bout it
As I understand it the deal that would take over FTP unraveled pretty quickly. Not unusual once the buying entity exercises their due diligence and looks behind the curtain to see what’s really happening.
Matt, that was perfectly written. It is a shame that so many people have took such huge losses which really affects them in their everyday life. It is very unfair and unacceptable that no one has come forward to make any kind of statement. Hopefully something changes. Once again, very well written. Good job
Sorry to be dense, but… what could someone at FTP say now that would be of help to players with funds there? Could you maybe give an example of something that might be said that isn’t already generally known by people interested in the situation?
Well, some players are waiting for their funds to be returned, and might have put their lives on some kind of hold, maybe borrowing money from others and keep thinking they can postpone debts because of this.
This may sound dumb as fxxk to you, but some people (even those with logics not to this extreme) need some kind of confirmation or message to”move along”. Also, an apology would be in order to the thousands of players they owe money to.
There is a company who are in deals to take over and wants to start the site again with new owners. The problem is to resolve who is going to pay back which players with what money. The DOJ has some money, some players owe FTP like 18 (i think) million usd (including B. Greenstein who has confirmed this on 2p2
I can not say for sure that i will get my lousy 40 dollars back, and it doesnt matter for me. But if i – like some players – had siz figured numbers locked up on the site, i would surely NEED a confirmation that i am not going to get my dollars back so i could restart my life properly.
Great article by the way
Amen! What comes around goes around…
I have no “horse in this race” but I do know an old fashioned theft when I see it, and perhaps and old fashioned lynching might be the only recourse for getting any justice for the ones who have been wronged.
FullTiltPyramidScheme.com……….. guys, your money does not even exist anymore so deal with it, get over it, move on.
People who deposited and played on the site from the USA did so at their own risk. You knew it was illegal yet you continued to “beat the system”. You lost deal with it! Their is no money to return cause the owners and their legion of “pros” used the players money like their own personal ATM do you really think you are going to get nose bleed games without the players knowing that they can recoup their losses by siphoning some from the company? The real crooks are the owners not the government. The government did the owners a favour, makes them look innocent. Not likely, those scum bags. Ivey, Benyamine, ferguson, lederer and the rest of the scum minions. Guess Clonie Gowan was tellin the truth!
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A very well written paper Mr Glantz. Thank you for publicly put your personal friendships aside and do what you can on your end to ensure that players are being repaid. I’d like to thank you as well for your appearence on the 2+2 pokercast, it was a very good interview/discussion.
Keep up the good work, and thanks again for what you are doing. I’m sure that more profiles in the poker community will follow your lead on this. What FTP has done is nothing less than a disgrace to every single pokerplayer (including myself) on FTP.
Thanks again,
Jake
FTP was my favorite site to play but as Matt has so beautifully said, this silence is a disgrace.
I know lawyers are always telling their clients to make no comments but I can tell you it really pisses me off that NOTHING has been said by FTP. NOTHING!
PS paid me my money.
I will play there if they ever get a U.S. site going.
FTP – Never!!!
Very nicely written Matt and right on point. There is only 1 word that i know that can describe the FTP situation and that is Clusterfuck. Say something guys!!! Anything!!!! so that there can be at least closure for those that have been effected by this through no fault of their own and were only trying to make a living playing the game we all love.
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Nice post Matt. I will not hold my breath waiting for a reply from FTP.
Spot on. I can understand that they can’t get into details of agreements or admit any wrongdoing but why is it that they can come out guns blazing when Ivey sues them or when they’re called a Ponzi scheme by the DOJ but they can’t say a thing otherwise?
Not speaking to the customers is a choice. It has nothing to do with what their legal advisor’s instructions. It’s about not wanting to admit they messed up. Some, including board members, are even trying to play the victim in all of this.
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