Full Tilt Alderney license is suspended

The news just keeps on getting worse for (former) online poker giant Full Tilt.

With their US operation shut down in April and senior officers of the company facing bank fraud charges things were looking bleak.  But at least they had the non-US operations up and running to help pay the legal expenses.

Not any more.

Their regulator, Alderney Gambling Control Commission announced on Wednesday that it was suspending Full Tilt’s license to offer online poker…anywhere!

The Commission’s executive director issued a statement saying, “the decision to suspend the eGambling license was in the public interest and, because of the seriousness and urgency of the matter, it required that immediate action be taken…”

According to PokerScout, which monitors action across various rooms, the number of Full Tilt users playing with real money on Wednesday evening was zero. Doesn’t get much lower than that!

But there are winners in this story, and they are of course all of Full Tilt’s competitors.  Shares in bwin.party soared on the news.  Playtech, 888 Poker and just about every other EU based major player in the online poker industry would be popping the champagne corks this week in anticipation of ex-Full Tilt players paying them a visit in the near future.

Full Tilt will no doubt be looking to re-locate and re-license as soon as possible so that they can get their games up and running again…rumour is they are already in talks with the Kahnawake Gaming Commission.