Target Full Tilt Poker: Feds, State Aim for Online Poker Room
It's bad enough having the Federal Government breathing down your back. On Monday, the Financial Times of London reported on how a Manhattan Grand Jury was supposedly investigating Full Tilt Poker and quite possibly some of the professional poker players connected to the world's second largest online poker room.
Now comes word that the Commonwealth of Kentucky, which has been trying unsuccessfully to seize the Full Tilt Poker domain name and some 140 others, is attempting one last ditched effort to go after the company. They are really grasping for straws it seems by referencing a ridiculous widowers and orphan statute. Basically, the commonwealth filed a complaint against Full Tilt's parent company hoping it can be paid via a statute that allows for family of deceased degenerate gamblers to recoup monies owed.
Only problem: There appears to be no orphans or widows, at least not on the surface.
Another problem is that, unlike the domain seizure case, which required little more than a registrar to turn over a website URL certificate, the latest complaint involves actual servicing. In the case of Full Tilt Poker, the owners are presumably living outside the US or have unknown addresses. Kentucky may attempt to go after the Team Full Tilt poker pros like Phil Ivey or Chris Ferguson.
The defendants in the latest case brought by Kentucky are Pocket Kings, parent company of Full Tilt Poker, and "Other Unknown Defendants". These are later listed as the 140 other domain names brought forward in the previous matter. The civil complaint mentions the establishment of shell companies and also specifies other "Unknown Full Tilt Defendants".
A rather bizarre entry in the complaint cites the following: 6) The Full Tilt defendants are shams and alter egos of their individual owners.
The specific complaint goes on to suggest that Full Tilt Poker knowingly accepted customers from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. During previous hearings it was established that approximately 13,000 residents of Kentucky play online poker, a "large percent of which play at Full Tilt Poker", according to the complaint.
The plaintiffs are claiming that monies lost by Kentucky residents can be recovered.....apparently not by the residents themselves but by the commonwealth.
"The Commonwealth sues to recover only for transactions involving persons located within the borders of Kentucky.....The Full Tilt defendants are liable to the Commonwealth for treble the amount of gambling losses sustained by Kentucky-based gamblers between March 25, 2005 and September 25, 2009."
So where do the widowers and orphans come into play you may be asking yourselves?
Throughout the complaint, reference is made to both KRS 372.010 and KRS 372.020.
That statute is as follows:
372.010 Gambling transactions void.
Every contract, conveyance, transfer or assurance for the consideration, in whole or in part, of money, property or other thing won, lost or bet in any game, sport, pastime or wager, or for the consideration of money, property or other thing lent or advanced for the purpose of gaming, or lent or advanced at the time of any betting, gaming, or wagering to a person then actually engaged in betting, gaming, or wagering, is void.
And then there is this:
372.020 Recovery of gambling losses from winner or his transferee.
If any person loses to another at one (1) time, or within twenty-four (24) hours, five dollars ($5) or more, or anything of that value, and pays, transfers or delivers it, the loser or any of his creditors may recover it, or its value, from the winner, or any transferee of the winner, having notice of the consideration, by action brought within five (5) years after the payment, transfer or delivery. Recovery may be had against the winner, although the payment, transfer or delivery was made to the endorsee, assignee, or transferee of the winner. If the conveyance or transfer was of real estate, or the right thereto, in violation of KRS 372.010, the heirs of the loser may recover it back by action brought within two (2) years after his death, unless it has passed to a purchaser in good faith for valuable consideration without notice.
Sources close to Gambling911.com suggest that the Commonwealth believes it can obtain names of principals involved with Full Tilt Poker through cooperation with other law enforcement agencies, specifically those acting out of Manhattan, hence the reason Full Tilt's parent company is the only party distinguished in this most recent complaint.
Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
