Apr 16, 2011  Not sure how many of you guys play online poker, but apparently the feds have shut down the 3 largest on line poker sights and frozen peoples money in their online accounts. United States v. Scheinberg, No. 1:10-cr-00336 (2011), is a United States federal criminal case against the founders of the three largest online poker companies, PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Cereus (Absolute Poker/Ultimatebet), and a handful of their associates, which alleges that the defendants violated the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) and engaged in bank fraud.

1. This is commonly used on poker forums to ask if the Full Tilt Poker site is up and running correctly.

F Full Tilt

Full Tilt Poker is down because they had their gambling license suspended, so now might be a good time to find another place to play online poker. Why not check out BankrollMob where you can find both FREE no deposit bonuses and the best signup deposit bonuses available, for lots of other great poker sites? Click here to learn more!

Correct Responses

Probably. -Anyone who has been around long enough to see Full Tilt go down all the time despite being a huge poker site that brings in millions of dollars per year

Dunno, but I *CAN* make a post titled 'FTP Doug: Is Full Tilt Down?' which will surely get the question answered quickly. -Clever poker forum posters

Correct Action to Take After Using Term

Load up PokerStars and use the bonus code FTPDOWN to sign up for an account. That way at least Howard Lederer and the other Full Tilt Poker owners will get paid when you play on PokerStars (that's Full Tilt's PokerStars bonus code).

An alternate course of action is to sit there and attempt to load up the Full Tilt Poker client over and over while cursing your life (see FML for more details). This method is popular for people who use this term while deep in a big tournament.

Google versus Full Tilt

Online Poker Full Tilt Shut Down Video

Could Full Tilt Poker be more like Google and never go down? The answer is yes. For more about why that doesn't happen, see the follow AIM log:

(10:03:20 PM) shaniac: does google ever 'go down'
(10:03:24 PM) shaniac: in the way that ftp might
(10:03:49 PM) GIFAFI: nah it can't
(10:03:55 PM) shaniac: sick
(10:04:00 PM) shaniac: why dont theyt make ftp like that?
(10:04:04 PM) GIFAFI: lol
(10:04:14 PM) GIFAFI: google is like... slightly more advanced technically
(10:05:16 PM) shaniac: interesting

Online Poker

BETS OFF: Australia has been urged to crack down on online poker websites. Picture: AFPSource:The Courier-Mail

TWO online poker sites have been fined $700 million for luring gamers into a Ponzi scheme to pay for board members' lavish lifestyles.

US authorities had alleged that Full Tilt Poker stole some $440 million from players around the world through a Ponzi scheme and failed to maintain sufficient funds to pay prizes.

Full Tilt Poker Download

PokerStars and another firm, Absolute Poker, had been accused of bank fraud, money laundering, illegal gambling and other offences.

The US operations of the companies were shut down when the government last year brought criminal charges against various poker company executives and those who helped the companies process money.

Prosecutors said Full Tilt Poker had only $60 million left in its bank accounts to cover the $390 million it owed its players. The company allegedly used $444 million in player money over a four-year period to pay board members.

The $700 million settlement will compensate consumers who claimed they were defrauded in online games, officials say.

Online Poker Full Tilt Shut Down Youtube

Full Tilt has agreed to forfeit virtually all of its assets to the US government. PokerStars agreed to forfeit $540 million to the US and to reimburse $180 million owed by Full Tilt to online players.

The deal announced by the US Justice Department allows PokerStars, a British-registered firm believed to operate the largest online card gaming site, to acquire the forfeited assets of Irish-based Full Tilt Poker.

While internet gambling has been illegal in the United States since 2006, online poker remains a multibillion-dollar industry with companies using a variety of ways to flout the law, including locating their operations offshore.

According to US officials, the companies arranged for money received from US gamblers to be disguised as payments to non-existent websites purporting to sell merchandise such as jewellery and golf balls.

On July 3, US authorities said they arrested Raymond Bitar, the head of Full Tilt Poker and charged him with a scheme to defraud banks and misleading customers about the security of their funds.

He had been charged last year with gambling, bank fraud and money laundering offences.

Bitar said in an email to employees that was posted on an online betting forum that he had 'returned to the US to deal with civil and criminal cases that are pending against me in New York' and to allow a deal to transfer the assets of the group to PokerStars.

Originally published asOnline poker's $700m fold