FullTiltPoker.fr Down Also and ARJEL Orders Them to Restore Service or Face Consquences

Both the FullTiltPoker.com poker client and FullTiltPoker.fr client have not been connecting since early July 29th, and both websites' System Status still say "System Upgrade." Today the ARJEL who regulates the FullTiltPoker.fr site, released statements ordering them "to find technical solutions to continue to serve the French players who need to access the site." They were ordered to restore play for the .fr site "without delay" and that if Full Tilt "failed to address these issues" related to the availability of its service in France "it will draw the consequences."

Kahnawake Gaming Commission released a statement saying Full Tilt held a secondary license there, and they are reviewing information of the Alderney license suspension to decide the status of their secondary license.

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Full Tilt Shutdown by Alderney Gambling Commission

The Alderney Gambling Control Commission released a press release announcing effective immediately Full Tilt's AGCC License has been suspended, and the plug was pulled on all their gaming operations. A regulatory hearing will be held in London on Tuesday, July 26th, and they will be unable to operate in any form prior to then.

Andre Wilsenach, the Executive Director of the Alderney Gambling Control Commission says: ‘The decision to suspend the eGambling licence was in the public interest and, because of the seriousness and urgency of the matter, it required that immediate action be taken ahead of the regulatory hearing.’

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Poker After Dark Returns; Update: No It Didn't

Black Friday was the day poker on TV in the US died, but some already-taped episodes of Poker After Dark will be shown over the next couple of weeks:

June 13, 100K-buyin cash game part 1: Mike Matusow, Jean-Robert Bellande, Peter Jetten, Brandon Adams, Chris Ferguson, Michael Mizrachi.

June 20, 100K-buyin cash game part 2: Brandon Adams, Peter Jetten, Chris Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matsuow, Jean-Robert Bellande.

Update: new episodes of Poker After Dark never.

See also the originally-planned Poker After Dark schedule. Among shows not expected to return are High Stakes Poker, Poker After Dark, The Big Game, and Million Dollar Challenge. The WSOP will survive, and some others may too.

Live streams of the WSOP have also started: see our poker on TV schedule.

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Most Profitable Online Poker Rooms, May

May stats for some of the offers on our 10 Most Profitable Online Poker Sites list:

Network/Room	Profitability	Biggest Winner
ITA	0.93	€1,750
U-Poker	0.79	€3,530
DBGPoker	0.41	€4,869
Enet Poker	-0.09	€3,485

Profitability is the win/rake ratio for all of our our customers at the network/room.

The greatest challenge has been to get customers to try the small networks like U-Poker: they take one look at the traffic and immediately dismiss the room. That's where the money is however: multisiting small, soft sites. DBGPoker is the rare exception: a large, soft site. U-Poker didn't start to get significant traffic till I put it in the #1 spot on my 10-softest-sites list.

The big loser this month has been Enet Poker, which almost fell off my top 10 list. It's become much more well-known in recent months and they started writing hand histories to hard drives and converters became available (and PT now supports it natively). I still believe Enet is one of the most profitable rooms in the world for mid-high-stakes players however.

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MyPaylinQ Quickly Restores Withdrawals for US Customers (UPDATE)

UPDATED June 3: MyPaylinQ was able to quickly restore withdrawal service for US customers. Withdrawal availability is confirmed in MyPaylinQ accounts. Support also verified they are available, and said the company simply moved to safe non-US processing. MPL remains available for deposits and withdrawals on Bodog, and sister-company, PICClub is still available to the Everleaf skins.

Payment processor MyPaylinQ has ceased taking withdrawal requests from US customers, though it will honor those already initiated. They say "We will continue to work diligently on your behalf to restore our U.S. market capabilities as soon as possible." It was an option on Bodog. Related company PICClub (available on Everleaf) is still processing withdrawals.

MoneyLineWallet (available on Cake and Eveleaf) is operating as normal but Digital Pin's site (used by Bodog) has been down for days.

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Phil Ivey vs Tiltware Full Lawsuit Details, and Full Tilt's Response Statement

Phil Ivey's full lawsuit is now available, and centers around a "Non-Competition Covenant" he has been unable to unable to negotiate out of, and belief that this plus the negative PR caused by Full Tilt since Black Friday has caused him over $150,000,000 in lost revenue. The suit currently only names Tiltware LLC and Defendants, DOES I through X, and/or ROE CORPORATIONS I through X. The suit also estimates there is about $150,000,000 owed to US players by Full Tilt. Ivey had made his announcement on Day 1 of the WSOP.

Full Tilt Poker has responded harshly with a statement they issued to PokerNews.

"Contrary to his sanctimonious public statements, Phil Ivey’s meritless lawsuit is about helping just one player – himself. In an effort to further enrich himself at the expense of others, Mr. Ivey appears to have timed his lawsuit to thwart pending deals with several parties that would put money back in players’ pockets. In fact, Mr. Ivey has been invited -- and has declined -- to take actions that could assist the company in these efforts, including paying back a large sum of money he owes the site. Tiltware doubts Mr. Ivey’s frivolous and self-serving lawsuit will ever get to court. But if it does, the company looks forward to presenting facts demonstrating that Mr. Ivey is putting his own narrow financial interests ahead of the players he professes to help."

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WSOP Live Streams Begin

The World Series of Poker online live streams began tonight on WSOP.com and begin tomorrow afternoon on ESPN3.com.

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The Merge Poker Network Will Temporarily Stop New US Signups on June 3rd

The Merge Network will temporarily stop allowing new US player signups on Friday, June 3rd, "in order to catch up on a backlog of customer service requests but more importantly on poker transactions. As it stands now customer service has a 2 week backlog and cashouts are much worse. They simply were not prepared for the influx of players they’ve received since Black Friday and are feeling growing pains."

Merge is expected to re-open signups to US players in one to three months, once they acquire enough new processors and customer services employees to catch up. The move appears to be due to complaints by skins who are unhappy with the long cashout times of the last couple months. Merge had already stopped allowing rakeback for new players on June 1st. There is no effect on existing players.

UPDATE June 2nd: More details have become available and beginning on Friday, June 3rd, players from the US will be unable to create accounts at Merge sites until further notice. They estimate re-opening new signups in the US in 4 to 6 weeks. It's also mentioned that Merge should have an EU license soon, allowing EU residents to play tax-free.

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Online Poker Newsbites: Melita Network Loses LGA License, VictoryPoker Moves Players to Cake, Tzvetkoff Likely to Face Charges in Native Australia

This week's newsbites:

• The Malta Lotteries and Gaming Authority announced they have suspended the gaming licenses of the Melita Gaming Network and its TrueMoneyGames skin. Players with unpaid balances are to contact the LGA here to file a claim to recover funds. Another skin on the Melita Network, PlayWSOB, issued a statement reporting that the network went broke and players have to contact the LGA about their funds.
• VictoryPoker sent an email to customers notifying them that they will be migrated, along with their rewards, to CakePoker on June 1st. Victory will now become an affiliate site for Cake Poker.
• PowerPoker.com, BetUS.com, SportsInteraction.com and BestCasinoPartner.com have decided to stop allowing new new accounts from US customers.
• Nevada-based slots manufacturer, IGT (International Game Technology) is set to purchase Swedish publicly-traded Entraction Holding AB (home to the Entraction poker network and software) for $115M through their Swedish subsidiary Eagle One AB.
• Payment Processor Intabill's founder Daniel Tzvetkoff, whose snitching led to the Black Friday indictments, is likely to face serious charges and jail time if he ever returns to his native Australia. The Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) has been investigating Tzvetkoff and BT Projects, the Australian subsidiary of Intabill, over fraud and falsification of books. The investigation launched after Tzvetkoff's former business partner Salvatore "Sam" Sciacca sued him for $100 million
• Minted Poker has stopped taking new French players, and moved their domain to .eu. Pokerview and RPMpoker also moved to .eu.
• A settings error, after our name change from Fifth Street Journal, that led to intermittent problems reaching Online Poker Insiders without the www in front of its URL has been fixed.
• John Delaney, founder and CEO of InTrade.com, the leading online prediction market, died May 24th trying to climb Mount Everest. The InTrade statement says, "It is our goal to give his memory one of those wishes and will do all we can to ensure Intrade's continued success."
• OPI research turned up an article from September 2009 about US attorney Rod Rosenstein announcing that the Maryland office of the DOJ had setup up the Assets Forfeiture and Financial Crimes task force, and joined forces with the US Attorney Office out of NY, Louisiana State Police, and the US Customs Office to eradicate online gambling. They focused on eCheck and Credit Card payment processors.

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Phil Ivey Files a Suit Against Full Tilt Poker and Will Sit Out WSOP Until Players Paid

Phil Ivey has posted a statement calling out Full Tilt on his Facebook page, and stating he has filed a lawsuit against TiltWare. He also will not compete in the WSOP until players are repaid.

For many years, I have been proud to call myself a poker player. This great sport has taken me to places I only imagined going and I have been blessed with much success. It is therefore with deep regret that I believe I am compelled to release the following statement.

I am deeply disappointed and embarrassed that Full Tilt players have not been paid money they are owed. I am equally embarrassed that as a result many players cannot compete in tournaments and have suffered economic harm.

I am not playing in the World Series of Poker as I do not believe it is fair that I compete when others cannot. I am doing everything I can to seek a solution to the problem as quickly as possible.

My name and reputation have been dragged through the mud, through the inactivity and indecision of others and on behalf of all poker players I refuse to remain silent any longer. I have electronically filed a lawsuit against Tiltware related to the unsettled player accounts. As I am sure the public can imagine, this was not an easy decision for me.

I wholeheartedly refuse to accept non-action as to repayment of players funds and I am angered that people who have supported me throughout my career have been treated so poorly.

I sincerely hope this statement will ignite those capable of resolving the problems into immediate action and would like to clarify that until a solution is reached that cements the security of all players, both US and International, I will, as I have for the last six weeks, dedicate the entirety of my time and efforts to finding a solution for those who have been wronged by the painfully slow process of repayment.

WickedChops and Gary Wise, among others have confirmed through Ivey's manager and other pros the statement is from the real Phil Ivey.

UPDATE: PhilIvey.com now includes the same official statement.

June 1, 3:54PM Update: The civil filing vs Tiltware LLC was filed today in Clark County District Court of NV, and the complaint simply reads: "Complaint for Injunctive Relief, Declaratory Relief and Damages." The filing can be viewed by clicking here for records inquiry, and then search for civil case no. A-11-642387-C.

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