Fund loss resulting from the Absolute Poker scandal back in 2007 may finally be compensated, the Garden City Group (GCG) has revealed. More players will be offset for the poker fiasco that took place over a century ago.
Absolute Poker and the Existence of the Master Account
The Garden City Group (GCG) is the organization in charge of overseeing the refunding procedure involving Costa Rica-based gambling company Absolute Poker. The operator has been sentenced to refund users who participated in an event over a decade ago as allegations of the existence of a master account surfaced.
Working with the Department of Justice (DoJ), GCG has announced that 494 players will be reimbursed for the total of $133,000 nearly 11 years after the tournament has been concluded and Absolute Poker was charged with cheating.
It started in 2003 when Absolute Poker started as a small Costa Rica-based website for online poker. The platform accepted customers from all over the place and the fact that it didn’t need a license was an indicator of how easy it was to navigate any legal complications.
Later, Absolute Bet merged with Ultimate Bet, and the company sought to patch up its software to meet the standards that its reputation and popularity entailed. However, during a tournament in September 2007 things got rather complicated.
It had emerged that a master account by the name of User 363 and display name “Potripper” had in fact known the hole cards of all his opponents throughout the competition. More suspiciously, though, there was an observer from Costa Rica who moved tables with the player in question, leading to the eventual conclusion that Absolute Power had been cheating.
The platform did concede to the existence of a Master Account that was purposed to cheat users out of money. However, they refused to agree that such an account belonged to insiders.
Payments Are Finally Honored
Last year, 7,400 payments were made to affected players. The sum was quite staggering, with $33.5 million being forwarded to all affected parties. Two months after the initial period, $3.7 million more were forwarded to another 4,600 payers. Lastly, the year was topped off by honoring unpaid winnings to 450 players more.
Any payment delays were incurred because of screening processes that had to do with reviewing Absolute Power’s past and practices. The upcoming payments will be made in the form of direct deposits for those plaintiffs who currently reside on the territory of the United States while overseas parties will have to expect a foreign currency check in the form of a wire transfer.
The Absolute Poker/Ultimate Bet history is one of a heist gone right, it seems. After the poker industry in the United States was shut down, as much as $60 million was left locked in the accounts of the websites, not letting users claim back any of that money.
With the added injury of having the flagship platform openly admit wrongdoing, this was less than a palpable scenario for poker aficionados. Even if $40 million are paid out, there may be more than $15 million left in the coffers of the websites. Though that sum might have disappeared over time, the initial numbers were solid.
