September 01, 2011: Yet another class-action lawsuit has been filed against an online poker card room, Full Tilt Poker. The Montreal Gazette on September 10 reported that Fill Tilt faces second lawsuit from a Consumer Protection Company in Canada on behalf of Canadian Poker players. It is to be noted that the first class-action lawsuit was filed against them in America.
Jeff Orenstein, an attorney for the Consumer Law Group has filed the lawsuit in front of the jury of the Superior Court in Quebec claiming that the company has been withholding $5 to $10 million from poker players in Canada. Not only the Canadian players are annoyed by the Full Tilt Poker room’s behavior but many American players are also irritated. Due to this reason, the first lawsuit was filed against it in America.
Consumer Law Group Canada Statement
According to the statement published on Consumer Law Group’s website, the class action lawsuit involved Full Tilt Poker’s illegal freezing of player’s money that was kept in their Internet poker player’s accounts. Jeff Orenstein, an attorney for CLG has estimated that the Canadian players have an amount between $ 5 and $ 10 million currently being withheld at the online poker room after the censure on Black Friday last May by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Although Canadian players are not restricted to opening their accounts on the website and playing online poker but the issue is that they have been affected by Full Tilt’s inability to honor cash out requests. The players have not been able to withdraw funds and bonuses from their accounts since June 29. It has been happening since the Alderney Gambling Control Commission closed down Full Tilt Poker officially by revoking its gambling license.
In Canadian class-action lawsuit, the owners of Full Tilt Poker including Ray Bitar and Nelson Burtnick, associated business entities under the online poker room umbrella and all the celebrity poker pro members of Full Tilt have also been named. This is the second class-action lawsuit against the company while the first was filed in America representing the Southern district of New York in July seeking repayments for American players.
Jeff Ifrah and David Deitch of Ifrah PLLC, the attorneys in America filed the first lawsuit against it but they continue to state that continued representation of the defendants would create unreasonable financial burden to the law firm. They have been planning to withdraw from the lawsuit as according to them it would bring unnecessary financial burden on their firm.
Currently there has been no update regarding the first lawsuit. However, facing two lawsuits in two different countries, the online poker room cannot get help from the owners of Full Tilt to find enough capital through buyers and investors as it is already struggling financially.
Full Tilt faces second lawsuit on behalf of Canadian poker playersclaiming that around $5 to $10 million is being withheld by it. Although players are allowed to play poker online but they cannot withdraw fund from their accounts.
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