The sorry saga that is Full Tilt Poker continues to rumble on, with news that the company’s former star player, Phil Ivey, has withdrawn his law suit against the site. However, hot on the heels of that reprieve comes another class action filing, this time aimed solely at recouping the money owed the thousands of jilted Full Tilt customers.
Phil Ivey originally filed his complaint on June 1st, siting worries that his image had been irreparably damaged. He also claimed to be acting the behalf of his “fans” awaiting multi-million dollar cashouts. A stringent non-compete clause in Ivey’s contract was also the source of some controversy.
Full Tilt’s reaction was swift and furious, labelling Ivey a self-centred liar who owed money to the company he had yet to pay back. Quite descended following that opening salvo, until the reveal on June 30th that Ivey voluntarily dismissed his law suit without prejudice. Ivey’s lawyer, David Chesnoff, made a public statement, explaining that, “Mr. Ivey intends to dismiss his lawsuit as he believes Full Tilt is taking steps to see that the players are paid.”
In the wake of this retraction, another legal challenge has emerged. Brought by Steve Segal, Nick Hammer, Robin Houghdahl, and Todd Terry, the suit requests that Bovada pay out damages to their customers to the tune of $150 million. They claim to “represent a nation-wide class of Full Tilt account holders residing in the United States.”
The filing claims that, “U.S. players are wrongfully denied access to approximately $150 million (USD) in funds they deposited in their own Player Accounts. After deceitfully separating U.S. players from their money, Full Tilt Poker refuses to refund the U.S. players’ deposits, to reimburse U.S. players for the dollar-value of the contents of their Player Accounts, or to permit U.S. players access to their Player Accounts.”
Segal et al claim that many of the site’s big name pros have an equity interest in the company and, as such, are liable. Alongside company executives Ray Bitar and Nelson Burtnick, named poker pros include: Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, John Juanda, Jennifer Harman, Phil Gordon, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Andy Bloch, Mike Matusow, Gus Hansen, Allen Cunningham, and Patrik Antonius.
It is further alleged that Phil Ivey has a 5% stake in Full Tilt. The filing contains a clause that allows for further names to be added as the case continues and if successful, could lead to a full blown jury trial in the near future.