Full Tilt Poker’s licence revoked, hundreds of Dublin jobs at risk


30 Sep 2011

Poker website Full Tilt Poker has had its gambling licence revoked after it was suspended in June, putting hundreds of jobs in Dublin at risk.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Alderney Gambling Control Commission in the UK Channel Islands has revoked Full Tilt Poker’s worldwide licence. The commission said Full Tilt Poker had fundamentally misled the licensing authority about its funds.

It said Full Tilt Poker made numerous breaches in regulation, including false reporting, unauthorised provision of credit and a failure to report material events.

As a result, this makes it more difficult for the company to be sold to help repay more than US$300m owed to its players. The WSJ’s source says there is still hope that the business could be sold and that it would be contingent on a settlement with the US Department of Justice, which is looking for US$1bn in damages from the company.

If a settlement can’t be reached, more than 500 jobs at its operations in Cherrywood, Dublin, could be at risk.

Full Tilt Poker’s website was shut down since the licence was initially suspended in June.

Its US operations closed earlier this year, after its CEO Ray Bitay was one of 11 accused of illegal online gambling, money laundering and bank fraud. New allegations have been made, saying the company defrauded its poker players and took US$444m out of the company to pay board members

The Associated Press reports that these payments include a US$25m to 2000 World Series of Poker champion Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson and US$42m to Howard ‘The Professor’ Lederer.