Goodbye, Full Tilt Poker!
Active since 2004, Full Tilt is no longer available from the end of February this year. PokerStars confirmed the transfer of the Full Tilt database, including player accounts, preferences, balances, tickets and bonuses. All players with a Full Tilt account will automatically receive a PokerStars account.
During the poker boom, Full Tilt Poker emerged as one of the largest online poker sites in the world. It was the home of the "Rail Heaven" cash games, the $ 500- $ 1,000 No Limit Hold'em game that featured gory legends such as Tom Dwan and Phil Galfond, who regularly played six-figure jackpots. After Black Friday, it is revealed that the company was insolvent and could not refund the balances of its players' accounts.
Full Tilt Poker’s history
The history of Full Tilt Poker dates back to 2004, when it was launched by a group of poker professionals as the first online poker room where players could sit at a table with poker celebrities they had seen on television. Names like Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer came together to create the company, along with Rafe Furst and Ray Bitar.
For years, Full Tilt Poker was the second largest online poker site in the world, with a large collection of notable professional poker players on board as ambassadors. The platform had great software and a quality player base. His Full Tilt team featured some of the biggest names in the poker scene with Phil Ivey, Jennifer Harman, Andy Bloch, Phil Gordon, Erik Seidel and Erick Lindgren. Others joined over the years like Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen, Mike Matusow, Allen Cunningham, John Juanda, Viktor Blom, Clonie Gowan, and Tom Dwan.
An investigation by the US Department of Justice concluded that Full Tilt Poker was guilty of numerous violations of the country's laws, including fraud and money laundering, which originated in the Illegal Gambling Enforcement Act in Internet 2006. The details of this investigation came to light on April 15, 2011 which led to Full Tilt's exit from the US market. The operator's accounts at the time looked bleak, although it had $ 60 million in cash on hand, player balances were $ 390 million, and US players accounted for $ 150 million of these funds.
PokerStars to the rescue of Full Tilt players
PokerStars ended up purchasing Full Tilt Poker's intellectual property assets as part of its $ 731 million settlement with US authorities promising to return the money to Full Tilt customers. Full Tilt Poker relaunched in November 2012, but did not reach its previous levels and in May 2016, it became part of the PokerStars network, sharing rewards programs and player pools.
Meanwhile, the company made its way back to the US market through New Jersey and then Pennsylvania. Recently, PokerStars became the first poker operator to launch services in Michigan after receiving approval from the Michigan Gaming Control Board.
However, in 2020, Flutter Entertainment finalized the acquisition of PokerStars and Stars Group for $ 6 billion and decided to begin the closure of Full Tilt Poker. The Full Tilt brand closure process began in October 2020 when desktop and mobile platforms were no longer available to gamers in Europe.
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