Full Tilt Traffic Down, Dropping Room to Number Five Rank

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Thursday, October 24th, 2013 | Written by Lucy Brown

Full Tilt Poker, which last year briefly enjoyed the status of the second-busiest online poker room in the world, has now dropped down to number five, according to poker room rankings released by Poker Scout last week.

Relaunch represented best time for Full Tilt

Full Tilt’s traffic was at its peak shortly after the relaunch of the site in the Fall of 2012 in regulated markets outside of the United States.

Full Tilt, having been taken over two summers ago by former rival – and world’s largest online poker web site PokerStars – has seen its numbers continue to decline ever since, with one of PokerStars’ country-specific poker rooms performing better, traffic-wise, than once-dominant Full Tilt.

According to Poker Scout, one of PokerStars’ European online poker rooms outranked Full Tilt in terms of players on site, that being their Italy-facing room.

U.S. remissions will exclude points, other rewards

In other Full Tilt Poker news, as the remission process set up to repay U.S. based accountholders who saw their funds seized by the federal government on Black Friday continues, the latest update by Justice Department-appointed claims administrator Garden City Group advises that Full Tilt points and other non-cash incentives offered by the room will not be refundable.

The news, as reported by poker news web site pokerfuse.com, likely angered some of the so-called victim players, some of whom had accrued a significant amount of non-monetary rewards on Full Tilt that, at least prior to Black Friday, held some value and could be exchanged for various prizes on the site.

“Full Tilt Points were a marketing tool and have no monetary value. They will not be refunded and are not reflected in account balances. Iron Man Medals and similar bonuses will also not be redeemed for their cash value and are not reflected in account balances,” the Garden City Group said via its Full Tilt claims web site.

Though irking some, the news that points and other non-cash rewards were to be omitted from the total value of player accounts came as little surprise to many, as those who have closely been following the Full Tilt saga long estimated that players were unlikely to realize a return on every single asset in their FTP accounts on April 15, 2011, the day that government officials shuttered Full Tilt – and other online poker rooms open to U.S. players – amid a crackdown on unregulated offshore gambling operations that continued to offer real money online poker to Americans after the 2006 passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, a law that severely restricts the processing of financial transactions relating to Internet gambling.

In a previous announcement, however, Garden City Group made it known that affiliates, a group that had been earlier noted to be barred from realizing a return of their accounts, would in fact be able to be considered for refunds, though only of player funds. Any affiliate money representing payment for services or other affiliate work are to be excluded from remissions, though just how GCG plans to calculate those totals has not been clarified.

Full Tilt accountholders who believe they have a valid claim are encouraged to visit the Full Tilt Poker claims site linked above to submit an application for remission, even if they have not to date received email or mail contact from Garden City Group. The application deadline is November 16.