Full Tilt Poker Lawsuit Details Released

The folks from Pokerati.com have obtained the latest lawsuit against Full Tilt Poker in its entirety, all 19 pages of it (as seen here).

The same site that was first to confirm Michael Jackson's death - TMZ.com - also broke the story of this lawsuit on Friday.

Lary Kennedy and Greg Omotoy claim they won $80,000 and that the funds were confiscated.

The company claims that plaintiffs used an automated play functions called "robots" instead of playing the game themselves. Since using robots violates Full Tilt's rules, the site's owners confiscated more than $80,000.

From TMZ.com:

"There are other gripes as well in the lawsuit, filed today in L.A. County Superior Court, including an allegation that fulltilitpoker.com manipulates the game through the use of robots of its own so it becomes more a game of luck than skill which is outlawed in California."

Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey and Mike Matusow all have equity interest in Full Tilt Poker.

From Pokerati:

"Kennedy is the real plaintiff. Greg Omoroy is just a guy who owned another account she used (which is a whole-nother issue altogether). And though they aren't formally seeking class-action status, they do seem to be laying the groundwork for such a possibility - an aggressive legal play for sure.

"Essentially, the allegations are that Full Tilt - with unfettered ability to label a player a bot, confiscate her money, and smear her name by calling her a bot - constitutes organized crime ... being perpetuated by Californians against Californians, in violation of all sorts of California business and gaming laws.

"They also say that "Playing Against the Pros" is tantamount to gambling against the "house" ... there's an added boogeyman with allegations that Full Tilt is running its own bots on the site."

None of this bodes well for Full Tilt Poker, which finds itself named in an investigation currently being conducted by the US Attorney's Office out of the Southern District of New York.

Costigan Media, which owns the Gambling911.com website, filed a Motion to Intervene with a US Circuit Court out of New York in an effort to uncover more information pertaining to seizures of funds from Full Tilt Poker's bank processors.  The Honorable Judge Laura Taylor Swain found in favor of Costigan Media and ordered information related to the seizure warrants unsealed.  And while some names mentioned as part of an ongoing investigation were permitted by Judge Swain to be redacted (remain undisclosed), the US Attorney's Office decided not to redact mention of Full Tilt Poker within the seizure warrants. 

Gambling911.com does not endorse Full Tilt Poker nor will it ever.

Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher