Early last year, the Garden City Group (GCG) began reimbursing players who had lost their account balances when Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet went under following the events of Black Friday. But while thousands of players have successfully gotten their money back, it seems some players remain entirely in the dark about the status of their claims.
According to a report by LegalUSPokerSites.com, many players with disputed claims have gone months without hearing anything about the status of their money, and efforts to get information on the ongoing process has become increasingly difficult.
Thousands Received Refunds Starting Last Year
The refund process for Absolute Poker (AP) and Ultimate Bet (UB) began in April 2017. About 1.2 million eligible victims were identified and contacted by the GCG, and refunds moved fairly quickly. Using funds that were left over from the US Department of Justice’s repayments to former Full Tilt Poker players, victims from UB and AP started getting their money back in the summer of 2017, with $33.5 million being sent to about 7,400 players.
Months later, a second round of payments was completed, and an extension of the initial deadline allowed for hundreds more petitioners to receive their account balances from the poker sites in a third wave of refunds. In total, about 12,500 people have recovered money through the process administered by GCG.
But some players say that they’ve never gotten their money, and worse still, they have never been given an explanation as to the delay or an idea of when they might see their cases resolved. Based on comments in a thread on the TwoPlusTwo.com forums, some players have been waiting since the very beginning of the process with little or no information coming their way.
“Was recently told by GCG it could take 2-3 years to process my claim,” wrote a player posting under the name WaitingOnAP. “They have no explanation why my claim wasn’t initially processed despite it being claimed the first day it was available.”
Players Feel Left in the Dark
Other players shared similar experiences. A poster by the name of fsn said that GCG initially only sent him a check for his UB balance in February – as opposed to his much larger balance on AP – and that after check expired, he was approved for a wire transfer that has yet to be processed.
“Been emailing them every 5 weeks or so to get a status update and always get generic replies,” fsn wrote. “In May there were in the final stages of reviews, in June the bank was testing my bank information, in July my transfer was still processing, and in September they were, again, in the final stages of reviews. So not holding my breath and won’t be emailing them again for a while.”
LegalUSPokerSites.com reported that a phone call to GCG was answered by someone who provided no new information, and who referred the public to the GCG claims website for more information. The site also contacted the Poker Alliance, which expressed surprise at the lack of information.
“It is concerning that AP/UB customers who had filed their claim with GCG have still not been paid,” the Poker Alliance told LegalUSPokerSites.com. “It was our understanding that all valid claims had been processed and were paid.”
