I played there too. How can a game be a Ponzi scheme? There's no guarantee of a return.
I agree with you, they're reaching.
Posted on 09/20/2011 5:09:21 PM PDT by JosephMama
The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday accused poker celebrities Howard Lederer and Christopher Ferguson among other executives of a major poker website of defrauding poker players out of more than $300 million.
Sorry forgot the link:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904106704576582741398633386.html
So Full Tilt Poker not a DNC donor? What non-Union?
Were the proceeds being used to fund Social Security?
>> executives of a major poker website of defrauding poker players out of more than $300 million.
Pikers. I’m being forced to participate in a giant Ponzi scheme that is defrauding MILLIONS of Americans out of a hundred TRILLION.
Actually, the term “Ponzi scheme” is a pretty good shorthand way of describing what was going on (it appears there are arguments about what makes something a “true” Ponzi scheme, but the technical aspects aren’t really relevant here).
FTP was saying that they held players’ money in a separate account. They didn’t. Players had stated balances of $390 million on 3/31/11; FTP had $60 million in the bank. The people who ran FTP and had ownership interests in the software company that “licensed” the software to FTP were pulling out $10 million a month, even after it was apparent that FTP was under water and they kept taking the money out all the way to the bitter end.
DOJ went after “illegal” online poker financial transactions and came across something else in addition - fraud, Ponzi scheme, whatever you want to call it. So crazy.
I played there too. How can a game be a Ponzi scheme? There's no guarantee of a return.
I agree with you, they're reaching.
They must not be letting the negros win. Go get em Eric. Those honkies are evil.
Then it was simple theft, not a Ponzi scheme.
That’s amazing! I read a book once but can’t tell you how the publishing business works or how much percentage the writer gets and how books are distributed.
“U.S. Alleges Full Tilt Poker Was Ponzi Scheme”
that’s just going to scare seniors
did you read the article????
it was a Ponzi Scheme the same as Madoff’s thieving was a Ponzi Scheme
I played at Full Tilt too, and liked them. I'm not sure about the government charges, but it's a bit naive to suggest that they might not have been engaged in fraud.
ML/NJ
The reason they would have to engage in such fraud would be the result of the unconstitutional Port Security Bill signed by Bushie, not by malicious strategies to bilk players. These guys make money whether you win or lose.
What? Are you supposed to read the article before posting? Dang.
Why would you believe that an online poker site was on the up and up to start with? I’m surprised they weren’t stealing identities too
I played there too. (Play money) Shame it shut down because it was superior to the alternate sites.
Because I have played many games on that site as well as others. I never had any problem cashing out with any site.
I also know a couple of people who run house games and they make plenty of money by having a game that is on the “up and up”. Otherwise no one would play.
Hmmm....if players have more money in their accounts than the company has in reserve then it’s sort of a Ponzi scheme. Now if nobody requests to cash out they’re OK. But now that charges have been filed, probably every player with money in their account is trying to cash out. The company doesn’t have enough to cover.
Maybe you would prefer to call it “fractional reserve banking.” (Although if the people running the company are pulling money out of the company every month, I think that comparison fails too.)
Although I really have to wonder about the business model.
You would think that the people running the company would have found a different way to extract their profit. Maybe a percentage take on every pot, or a buy-in for tournaments or something. Then once that was paid whatever the players won could be kept in individual accounts.
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