To a loyal customer of ‘Full Tilt’ poker, who has regularly played the site for more than a year, it had always appeared to be a legitimate
gambling enterprise. The only problem I had with the company was I felt the cards did not go my way and I lost far too much trying to find an easy way to make money. Instead of becoming the next big superstar I was contributing to his sponsorship.
That is to say, I believed it to be an honest site, until my misguided attempts at fame and riches recently necessitated another deposit from my bank into my poker account, using the site’s pre-approved payment method named ‘ideal’ for transferring funds. An error report registered it as a ‘failed deposit’, however, so, being the gambler that I obviously am, I decided to try again, following the on-screen instructions to do so. Lo and behold, no problem – my
€41 deposit went through and I continued in my efforts to fulfill impossible dreams of wealth beyond measure. Again, I failed miserably and decided I could try one more time, depositing
€22 which, needless to say, also went the way of all cash. Thus, I emerged
€63 worse off, or so I thought.
However, upon checking over my bank statement later in the week, I noticed that two
€41 payments had been deducted from my bank account, in spite, as previously recounted, of me receiving only one in my poker account. Normally not being someone who scrutinizes his bank statements unless there is a major problem (a laziness that has, if anything, been accentuated by internet banking) this discrepancy would usually have passed me by.
But Full Tilt made no attempt to contact me – so where does money like this go when it is unaccounted for? How many other people have seen an on-screen message declare a ‘failed deposit’, accepted it as such and never checked their bank accounts?
I contacted Full Tilt concerning the discrepancy. They were very helpful as long as I followed their strict security measures but took no regard for my security by placing the last four digits of my bank account in the e-mail. I might add that homeland security in the USA does not require as much proof to enter the United States. Their e-mails, which I still have for those who doubt the validity of this story, became increasingly more hostile, culminating in the suspension of my account and any other account used from the same IP address. When informed that I was a journalist, they told me to contact their legal department without having the courtesy to provide contact details. So, in short, Full Tilt take money from my account unauthorized, and, to have any hope of retrieving it, I need to meet
their demands. Money I might add, that has not been recovered.
So, my advice to anyone who has had dealings with Full Tilt poker is check your statements and make sure that your deposits have not been twice removed. When contacted, Full Tilt refused to comment on their policy for dealing with unaccounted-for deposits.