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It was revealed in recent days that the once popular online gambling trading site Intrade.com is facing a $700,000 cash shortfall and could end up in liquidation. Not good news for the hundreds of customers worldwide affected by last month’s abrupt closure.
“We have now concluded the initial stages of our investigations about the financial status of the company, and it appears that the company is in a cash ‘shortfall’ position of approximately US $700,000,” said Ronald Bernstein, a director at Intrade, on the company’s website. “If the company is not able to rectify this cash shortfall position very quickly, the Company will become insolvent and therefore is very likely to go into liquidation.”
The Dublin-based company shut down without warning last month after discovering financial irregularities.
Intrade was accused by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission last November of violating its ban on off-exchange options trading.
“By Tuesday, April 16, 2013, we expect to be able to inform our members if sufficient forbearance has been achieved,” Mr. Bernstein told the Wall Street Journal. “If so, we will then resume limited operations of the Company and we will be able to process requests for withdrawals as agreed. If sufficient forbearance has not been achieved, it seems extremely likely that the Company will be forced into liquidation.”
Customers owed in excess of $1000 have already been asked to settle for pennies on the dollar, though a precise settlement amount is not yet determined.
The company’s colourful founder, John Delaney, died in 2011 while trying to scale Mount Everest. He was paid millions of dollars just prior to his death, it was later revealed.
This is the second major online betting firm based out of Dublin, Ireland to face liquidation in two years with Full Tilt Poker closed down in the summer of 2011. The one time second largest real money Web cardroom was later purchased by PokerStars, however, customers in the US still await payment to this day. The US Government, as part of a settlement agreement, have begun to implement a sysem for payouts to affected customers of Full Tilt Poker.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
