Matt Glantz: The Silence of Full Tilt

Player Forum

Topics: Epic Poker League, Player Forum, Player Columns, Matthew Glantz, Full Tilt Poker, Black Friday [+]

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Matt Glantz posted this on his site, MattGlantzPoker.com, on February 11. In the spirit of encouraging responsible viewpoints on current issues in poker, we accepted when Matt offered it for reposting on EpicPoker.com.

We are coming up on a year now since we hit Black Friday within the online poker world. Since then, PokerStars has done everything right with regards to its players. In contrast, Full Tilt Poker has been nothing but a black hole of silence. For almost a year now, we have heard nothing from Full Tilt Poker as it continues to imprison a significant portion of funds from the worldwide poker economy.

To my friends at FTP:

Through your tough times I have been one of your few defenders, both publicly and privately. I find it impossible to take that stance any longer. Your continued public silence is a disgrace. It is not only irresponsible, but also thoughtlessly unfair to the thousands of poker players who have money tied up in your ongoing debacle. Friendships aside, I feel it would be disingenuous to defend the persons involved any longer. At this point, there is nothing short of full disclosure regarding player funds that would change this opinion.

Look, I get it. Things happen that are out of our control. We all make mistakes. I can understand losing money. I can even fathom someone in the operation deceiving the rest of you and causing this massive meltdown. What I can’t understand is this continued disrespect to all the players who helped build your business to what it was just a year ago. The complete lack of information coming from the owners of FTP to the player base is shameful.

To make it clear, I don’t have any funds personally tied up on FTP. I feel very fortunate about that. But I know from many poker players in the community that this lockup has forced changes in their lives that are no fault of their own.  What makes it worse is that with no communication coming from FTP, these players are being held hostage – not knowing if they will ever be receiving their money back in full. In some ways, by not releasing any statements at all, it is worse than if you just tell these players not to expect anything back. At the very least, if you produced some concrete guidance to what is going on with the money these players could move on with their lives in one direction or another.

It is obvious that your lawyers are advising you to say nothing publicly and that is totally understandable, but you should be directing your lawyers to make a public statement with regard to the players’ funds. How you or your lawyers have not done that by now is astonishing. For the sake of the players, you need to make a statement or direct your lawyers to make a statement for you. To see that the players get paid is most likely out of your control at this point. But the deafening silence is a choice each one of you individually continues to make. You have given your company and your friends more than enough time by now to do something resembling the right thing. I am hoping that one of you reading this will realize that breaking ranks to speak out is the honorable thing to do. Just a little statement to direct the players on the situation will give them the necessary info they need to proceed.

To my friends at FTP, I am embarrassed for you and I am ashamed of you – not due to the player funds being lost or held. I am embarrassed and ashamed because of the continued lack of communication to the thousands of players who have been waiting hopefully for this increasingly long amount of time.