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Last week, we were told for the umpteenth time that a deal was about to be finalized (the next day, supposedly) for the purchase of “dead weight” Full Tilt Poker, a company that has not paid its US customers in almost a year.
Days later, no announcement.
A French company, Groupe Tapie, was expected to acquire the firm (what’s left of it). Some of the ASSets (no typo with the CAPS) include the very folks that ran Full Tilt Poker into the ground in the first place - Raymond Bitar being one. We say this because he is still said to be actively involved in the sale of FTP.
Last week’s news even caught our attention here at Gambling911.com, whereby we normally do not report on “the latest Full Tilt Poker acquisition news” since the 50 previous announcements of “big news coming” failed to materialize.
Apparently there is a “new investor” in town who is willing to pay back all the players the couple million owed.
We'll believe it when we see it but the FTP camp seemed especially confident in releasing that information, hence our reporting on it.
We would like to take a moment to caution everyone. The next big announcement might be something along the lines of "Full Tilt Poker Deal Done: Everyone to be Paid".
Do not be surprised - and we are not saying this will happen - to see an announcement that follows along the lines of "Full Tilt Poker Deal Not Official Until After Trial Ends" or "Further Full Tilt Deals Forthcoming". Just sayin...
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Poker pro Daniel Negreanu has called Bitar a “weasel” in a video released last week. Bitar and another executive of Full Tilt Poker were indicted nearly a year ago for money laundering and bank fraud. The company Negreanu represents, PokerStars, also found itself caught up in that very same criminal investigation. Two of Stars executives were charged with similar offenses as Bitar. Only difference – and a big one to be sure – Stars paid all its players within a month following the indictments.
As we await the next announcement from Full Tilt Poker, be sure to catch Negreanu’s video rant appearing below. He’s not just a great poker player but some top entertainment and his videos are becoming quite popular here at Gambling911.com. The one below received more than 33,000 views on YouTube and we suspect Gambling911.com will deliver another 8.9 million (in our dreams)
Negreanu incidentally managed to get himself banned from the popular TwoPlusTwo.com posting forum this week for fighting with a moderator? Kudos to him on that!
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
