Reports Claim Prominent Players Owe $18 Million to Full Tilt Poker

According to a report by Card Player Magazine, a group of the top professional poker players who helped promote Full Tilt Poker still owe the site and its parent companies about $18 million.

Several outlets have noted that Behnam Dayanim – a layer working for Groupe Bernard Tapie, which has been in negotiations to purchase the company – has said that the money owed by this group could present “a serious obstacle to completion of the deal.”

“This isn’t the only issue with the takeover, and the deal won’t end on any one issue,” Dayanim said. “But this is a substantial item.

Readers with some familiarity with Full Tilt’s operations can probably guess who some of the players are who owe money to the site.

According to Card Player, their source says that both Phil Ivey and Erick Lindgren each owe about $4 million to FTP. Both David Benyamine and Layne Flack are reported to owe over $2 million, while lesser amounts are owed by Mike Matusow, Barry Greenstein, and others. The source was reported as saying that the money was loaned out in tournament buy-ins and, in all likelihood, direct transfers that were used for cash games as well.

Barry Greenstein responded to the report on twoplustwo.com. In the forums there, Greenstein posted that he had borrowed $400,000 to play on Full Tilt Poker years ago, during a time when high-stakes cash games were rarely run on PokerStars. Greenstein said that while he had been contacted by Groupe Bernard Tapie about repayment, he had concerns over whether his money would be used to repay US players.

According to most accounts, American players are likely owed around $150 million that was present in account balances on FTP on “Black Friday.” In addition, players outside of the United States have been unable to access their funds since the site had its operating license pulled last year.

The purchase of FTP by GBT would give GBT the responsibility over non-US players and their accounts. American players might get some respite from the US Department of Justice, which could use funds raised by the sale (as the US government would receive the proceeds of the sale) to help compensate American players.