Tony G Finds Fault with Alderney Gambling Control Commission

 While most of the heat in the Full Tilt Poker saga has been squarely aimed at the company itself, some have found fault with other entities as well, such as the US government. This week, popular professional poker player Antanas Guoga – better known as Tony G – pointed his finger at another major actor in the ongoing situation: the Alderney Gambling Control Commission.

According to Guoga, the group failed to do its regulatory job of protecting players by allowing Full Tilt Poker to operate long after it was apparent there were problems at the site.

“[The AGCC] had an obligation to those players and people,” Guoga said. “They are there to protect the young and the vulnerable and in my opinion they have failed to do that.”

However, the AGCC maintains that they acted as quickly as possible given the circumstances.

The AGCC first suspended the operating licenses for Full Tilt Poker in June. This came approximately two months after the Black Friday indictments, and was in reaction to Full Tilt Poker’s inability to pay back the account balances of their American players. As the weeks drew on, it became apparent that FTP was having serious troubles – particularly in comparison to their competitor PokerStars, which paid back American players almost immediately.

After holding an investigation and a hearing with FTP, the commission eventually decided to revoke the operating licenses indefinitely in September.

Andre Wilsenach, the executive director of the AGCC, told the BBC that the commission did everything in its power to protect players.

"We do have an obligation to protect players and we do so by keeping the industry free of crime to ensure the games the players play are fair,” he said. “As far as players' funds go, we have never set ourselves up to underwrite these funds - no regulator in the world does that.”

Wilsenach added that, unfortunately, FTP’s efforts to hide their problems inevitably slowed down the investigation.

“The problem is that if an operator wants to deceive you deliberately, he may be able to do so and may well succeed to do so for some time,” he added.