FTP Failed to Collect Up to $60 Million in USA Deposits

According to a report at Subjectpoker.com, Full Tilt Poker’s problems may have been compounded by the fact that they credited millions to the accounts of US poker players without even actually receiving the money those players attempted to deposit. This apparently created a $60 million shortfall between the money in FTP accounts and the money actually collected by Full Tilt Poker.

The shortfall came due to the fact that many players who deposited by EFTs or e-checks from the United States. Typically, an e-check deposit is immediately credited to a player’s account on FTP, but doesn’t actually clear (and thus, isn’t removed from the player’s bank account) for several business days.

Between September 2010 and February 2011, many players started to notice something peculiar was occurring – the money was never being withdrawn from their bank accounts, even though they were free to use the money to play on the poker site.

This, at least, was not a secret; many people noticed and discussed the trend, with the general consensus being that this was an error or oversight on Full Tilt’s part. However, it now seems as though this was actually done intentionally, with FTP not having a payment processor who could collect the money for most of that time period. According to Bradley Franzen – a payment processor who was indicted on Black Friday – the shortfall was massive, growing to as much as $60 million at the height of the problem.

While many would point to this as part of the problem FTP is currently having in repaying US players – and it could certainly play a role – Full Tilt did recover much of this money before Black Friday. According to the report, Full Tilt began attempting to finally collect those deposits in March, warning players a couple days ahead of time that they would be taking the money from their bank accounts (due to the delay, it was feared that some players may have forgotten, and would not have money to cover the deposits without any warning). According to an unnamed source in the Subject: Poker report, FTP was successful in about 70% of attempts in the early going, but this rate dropped as players began to attempt to avoid paying by emptying or closing bank accounts.

It is not clear how much money FTP lost in this process, or how it may have impacted their ability to pay US players after Black Friday. Full Tilt Poker has still failed to begin returning account balances to American players, and has yet to announce a date at which they expect to begin the process.