Interesting rumor – Binion to buy in to Full Tilt? [Update: FT loses gaming license]

[Talking Poker]

Yeah, this latest news is unsettling to say the least. I don't even know if this is a good thing or a bad thing (the shutdown, I mean), but it sure doesn't seem good.

Then again, maybe it forces FT's hand... maybe Binion gets a reduced price and bails them out. Maybe all they money they have (globally) is pooled and everyone is paid out on some sort of percentage basis, depending how far short they are.

I wish I had been smart enough to keep less money on there before Black Friday. *sigh*

[sjay2k]

This is amazingly terrible news.

As a recap, Full Tilt now:
* Is under indictment from the US government
* Holds insufficient funds to meet player balances
* Is being sued by its spokesman, probably others
* Has lost its licence
* Is currently offline, losing money by the hour

I think the business is now dead, if it already wasn't.

FTP's equity owners were paid distributions of profit on a monthly basis. Now I am curious if these distributions continued when FTP started experiencing problems receiving deposits from players in the months prior Black Friday, when their financial black hole developed.

If so, the owners were essentially stealing the players' money (rather than withdrawing profits). Legally it would probably be fraud and/or breach of a constructive trust.

What is also pretty sick is that I know the owners of FTP anticipated legal action from the US government, and the owners will be very difficult to pursue. One of the equity owners joked to me that he/she spent all their time plotting his/her escape from the U.S. for when the government came after FTP.

I foresee a messy class action against the individual owners of FTP.