In April, the US Government shut down three of the largest Poker Web Sites—Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, and Absolute Poker—and indicted the owners of all Websites. We all thought that the shut down was a little fishy, but as more details began to emerge, we discovered that maybe there was justification for the shutdown. All three websites were required to return money to users. PokerStars was able to return money to its players, but Absolute Poker and Full Tilt Poker did not. Phil Ivey, one of Full Tilt Poker’s players, decided to skip the WSOP in protest until all the money was repaid. It wasn’t and Ivey missed the WSOP. This week the US District Attorney in Manhattan provided a clue as to why Full Tilt Poker did not repay the Money. In short, the charges against Full Tilt Poker state that it was a Global Ponzi Scheme in disguise and that it’s four largest shareholders, including “The Professor” Howard Lederer and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, were getting huge amounts of cash from the scheme. The indictments were the manifestation of Poker Announcer and Newspaper Columnist,Norman Chad’s worst nightmare. Chad had always feared a Poker Ponzi-like scheme that could spell the end of the Poker Boom. His column next Monday should be very telling on how bad the problem could be for poker.
As it is, it is becoming clear that “The Professor” and “Jesus”, if convicted, will be spending time in jail. They also have pretty much played their last professional Poker hands. How many other Full Tilt Poker players are in the scheme as well? Is Ivey, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Erik Seidel, Jennifer Harmon, John Juanda, and others involved? What about Greg “Fossilman” Raymer? He switched from PokerStars to Full Tilt Poker this year—talk about bad timing. Did he switch because he was promised money? And does this Ponzi scheme extend to PokerStars and how many other players in PokerStars were involved?
So who are the losers in this situation and who will emerge for the better. Here’s a quick rundown:
LOSERS:
ESPN-My guess is ESPN Programming on Poker will start to fade because of this crisis. Sure, it’s cheap to produce, but how many people will still tune in?
Clients of Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker-I will guess that the Poker Players that were members of these Websites will never see their money returned.
Poker Pros of Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker-The professional players of these Websites will likely be villified and many of them will probably never be allowed to see the inside of a poker room again. Many of them are some of the biggest names in Poker.
Those wanting Online Poker to be legalized in the US-This setback has probably cost Online Poker legalization nationally in the short run. Ultimately, Online Poker could be legalized, but it could be sometime.
WINNERS:
Phil Hellmuth-Although the “Poker Brat” was loosely associated with Full Tilt, he left them years ago to work with Ultimate Bet. So, it appears he is in the clear for now. And two of the biggest threats to Hellmuth’s WSOP Bracelet record could be in the middle of the controversy.
Mike Sexton-The Poker Ambassador has taken advantage of the legal issues to try and draw people to Club WPT.com. The question is whether Sexton’s Web Site is legal. If so, the World Poker Tour may be one of the few Poker Games to survive.
Las Vegas-How does Las Vegas win if Poker loses? Well, Poker does not build the Casinos in Vegas, other games do! So, if Poker goes away, more people will go to the games and betting that bring in money to Vegas.
In short, this Scheme may end Big time Poker as we know it, but Vegas will survive are grow. It may be a long time before Poker gets over this Crisis.
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