Full Tilt Repayment Process to Start Mid-September

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Monday, August 19th, 2013 | Written by Lucy Brown

The Garden City Group – the company tasked by the United States DoJ with reuniting former Full Tilt Poker customers in America with their balances, revealed a major update regarding the process last week.

Just as Friday was drawing to a close, the GCG announced that the remissions process (the official name for the process by which Americans will seek to have their Full Tilt Poker balances returned) will begin on September 16th, 2013.

At that point, the GCG will begin to contact players with outstanding balances at Full Tilt Poker via email. The email will contain information regarding how players can file a remission petition – basically a request to get the Full Tilt bankrolls back.

But if you don’t still have access to your Full Tilt Poker email, don’t worry – you’ll be able to access the same information via the official website for the FTP remissions process, FullTiltPokerClaims.com.

Details of process have yet to be made public

Players were certainly happy to receive this latest bit of information from the Garden City Group, as it’s easily the most significant announcement since the remissions process formally kicked off with the selection of the GCG back in early 2013. They were especially so given the negative rumors regarding the slow pace of the process that circulated in May of 2013.

But after the initial positive reaction came the valid questions regarding what poker players still don’t know about the process.

For example, there has been no word from the Garden City Group on what steps the remissions process involves. Nothing has been mentioned in terms of the options players will have should they wish to dispute the findings of the Garden City Group. And the lingering questions regarding the value of promotional points, tournament tickets and other non-cash items of value connected to Full Tilt Poker accounts are of great importance to some players, who may have hundreds – if not thousands – of value that remains in a strange purgatory in the status quo.

Will players see 100% refunds?

The official policy of the Garden City Group and the DoJ on this issue was articulated in an earlier update released about two weeks ago.

In that update, the GCG said that they would look to the total amount available for payout and the total amount of balances. As long as the amount available for payout exceeded the amount needed to cover the balances, all players should expect to get a complete refund of their balance.

The only scenario in which players would receive something less than a 100% refund of their Full Tilt Poker balance is if the amount of available funds for distribution was exceeded by the the total amount of balances owed. In that case, the GCG would apply a pro rate deduction to all balances, which simply means that all players would take the same proportional hit to account for the shortfall.

Returning player funds could still stretch into 2014

While the Garden City Group has declined to provide a target date for repayments, the general attitude of observers seems to be that a 2013 payout is unlikely.

Why? Primarily because of the timing involved. Players still have to go through the initial petition process, which will no doubt involve some paperwork and no small amount of back-and-forth. Even if that process – which must be completed for thousands and thousands of players – goes as smoothly as possible, it could easily stretch into the holidays. At that point, the process could slow down dramatically.

Add in the complexity of securely acquiring payment information and issuing payments to all of those players, and it’s not hard to see how the calendar could turn over to 2014 before players are actually reunited with their Full Tilt funds.

Whatever the eventual date of return, it will be interesting to see what impact the return of FTP bankrolls has on the general liquidity at sites that continue to offer US online poker.

PokerStars not involved in payback process

A common question we get from readers involves the role of PokerStars in the Full Tilt repayment process.

While PokerStars did purchase Full Tilt in the summer of 2012 and now operates the online poker site, PokerStars is completely separate from the remissions process for Full Tilt Poker’s U.S. customers – as is Full Tilt Poker. At this point, the issue of Full Tilt account balances for American players is completely between those players and the DoJ / Garden City Group.