A Full Tilt review and the Alderney Gambling Control Commission’s (AGCC) role in the whole Full Tilt Poker fiasco will be reviewed in an external independent review ordered by the AGCC.
The Full Tilt review will look at what happened that meant Alderney had to suspend then revoke the gaming licenses for the companies that combined to operate as Full Tilt Poker.
The Full Tilt / Alderney independent review should be finished by the end of March 2012 and Peter Dean – who was the Chairman of the British Gambling Commission (BGC) from 1998 to 2007 – has been appointed to run the FTP review.
There are lots of questions that need or people want answering but the review will be concentrating on the Alderney (AGCC) actions and NOT what happened fully behind the Full Tilt Poker scenes.
The poker industry and players should get to find out more information about the role of Alderney and what they did or did not know. What people will be especially interested in is when exactly Alderney knew of various issues and non payments.
Full Tilt review - Alderney (AGCC) order independent and external review of the Full Tilt Poker fiasco and their role in it
Full Tilt review – Alderney press release
Copied below is the official Press Release from the AGCC and you can read the full Press Release including notes and contact information here.
Media Release – 7th December, 2011
Alderney Gambling Control Commission launches independent review of its actions and response in relation to Full Tilt PokerAlderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) has announced that it is to establish an independent, external, review of its actions and processes leading up to the suspension, and eventual revocation, of licences belonging to Vantage Limited, Filco Limited, and Oxalic Limited together trading as Full Tilt Poker (FTP). This decision has been taken in order to provide full transparency and therefore AGCC has appointed Peter Dean CBE – former Chairman of the British Gambling Commission – to conduct the review.
André Wilsenach, Executive Director, stated:
‘As soon as we became aware that there were possible irregularities in relation to FTP’s operational integrity AGCC acted to discharge fully our statutory obligations.
‘We believe we acted appropriately and fairly at all times but, following our own internal assessment and the inevitable questions that have been raised by third parties, the Commission decided that it is in the best interests of players, licence holders and AGCC itself to commission an independent review and to make the outcome public.
‘I am delighted that Peter Dean has agreed to conduct the review. He has many years of experience at the top of the British Gambling Commission and commands wide respect from operators and regulators alike. He has been asked to review fully the actions taken by AGCC in respect of FTP and to focus specifically on the appropriateness, timeliness and fairness of those actions.’Mr Dean has been asked to present a final report and recommendations to the Commission by the end of March 2012.
Review of what and when did Alderney know things?
The external and independent of Full Tilt will hopefully reveal more details of what the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) knew and when.
For example during the Full Tilt hearing back in the summer it appeared that Full Tilt were able to blackmail Alderney by promising to pay licence fees due to Alderney. The sum owed to Alderney was over GBP 400,000 and this had obviously not been paid in the past.
Was this one of the signs that Full Tilt was in financial trouble and know how matter the external appearance of Full Tilt they were in grave financial trouble. if you can not pay your gaming licence fee – that means you can operate to make money – then you must be in trouble. Of course gaming jurisdictions always give their sites lee way and grace with paying licence fees but for how long did Full Tilt not pay the fee?
Hindsight is a great thing and all signs like this will appear obvious now. What other things will be revealed? Will some still have the power to shock after all that has happened already?
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