April 15, 2011 sounds like any other day, but it was not. This was the day the online gambling industry was shook to its core, and is now referred to as Black Friday. Black Friday was the day the U.S. Department of Justice cracked down on online poker sites that were illegally operating in the country. One of these poker sites just happened to be Full Tilt Poker. Besides illegal operations, the U.S. Department of Justice also came down on poker sites for other criminal activities, including money laundering, and bank fraud.

Since Black Friday, Full Tilt Poker has suffered blow after blow, and it is surprising that they have even made it this far, considering everything they have had to go through. From their site being seized, to losing their licenses, to being in some serious financial problems, to multiple lawsuits from players, Full Tilt Poker has been through the wringer. To add to their problems, they searched for an investor for months, but there was very little interest, after all, they were a train wreck still in motion.

It looks like the dust has finally settled on Full Tilt Poker, and French investors have come to an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice. With just a little over four months before the one year anniversary of Black Friday, will Full Tilt Poker be up and running properly before then, or will there be more delays?

At this point, anything is possible!

The latest news from the Full Tilt Poker front is that they have a buyer. Apparently French business tycoon, Bernard Tapie agreed to buying the company last Friday. Despite all the legal issues, financial problems, and overall problems that have plagued Full Tilt Poker, it is a miracle that they have a buyer.

Full Tilt Poker’s descent into the abyss started back in April, on a special day now referred to as ‘Black Friday’. It got to the point where player accounts were frozen, players as well as pro players starting suing, Full Tilt Poker lost their licensing along with many loyal players, and things were looking very bleak for the online poker site.

The French buyer has agreed to buy the poker site company on the condition that they settle their legal problems with the U.S, and do so in good standing. That’s where it gets tricky.

If Full Tilt Poker can pull off Tapie’s demands, then the deal will go through. Once the deal goes through, that’s when players can really rejoice, because a plan will be put into action to pay back all the players that were stiffed out of their player accounts because of Black Friday. Hopefully Full Tilt Poker’s luck is changing, because for the first time in months, they have good news.

The Full Tilt Poker saga continues. Last week, Full Tilt Poker had their hearing in London with the Alderney Gambling Control Commission, and no surprise here, it really didn’t work out in their favour. It was way too quiet last week, as the hearing went on, the gambling industry held their breath in anticipation of what would come to be. It was not just the gambling industry sitting on the edge of their seats, it was also former Full Tilt Poker players, especially the jilted ones, that are owed quite a substantial amount of money. The Alderney Gambling Control Commission most have known how curious the public was, because they posted on their website that they would soon post information open the end of the hearing.

After what seemed like eternity, the six days of hearings are done and over with. No surprise here, but Full Tilt Poker didn’t come out on top. The Alderney Gambling Control Commission determined that Full Tilt Poker knowingly misled regulators about their operations, and since they don’t have any operating integrity, they do not deserve to have their licenses. The Alderney Gambling Control Commission announced today that all of Full Tilt Poker’s licenses were revoked.

That really is a kick in the head for Full Tilt Poker, but is it really that surprising? Full Tilt Poker’s licenses were all put on hold back at the end of June, and it made as much sense then as it does now.

Black Friday is a day that will not soon be forgotten, and as time has gone on, the effects of Black Friday continue to roll out the punches to the poker sites that were affected, as well as poker players everywhere who played online and offline. The United States Department of Justice cracked down hard on online poker sites operating in the United States, and as a result, domains were seized, and funds were frozen. Not only were financial bank accounts frozen, but so were player accounts, and with them, their funds.

Since Black Friday, only PokerStars have been able to be consistent, and pay their players back. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about Full Tilt Poker, which has been standing in quicksand the last little while, sinking slowly.

More goods news that PokerStars can share is that they have managed to work out a deal with the United States Department of Justice, and will be able to retrieve some frozen funds very soon from one of their bank accounts.

The bank account that will be released from the freeze won’t actually get a full unfreeze. $5.5 million will remain frozen in the account, and it has not been disclosed how much is actually going to be released from the account itself. Either way, it’s a step in the right direction, which is better than nothing, and a lot better than what Full Tilt Poker has been able to do.

There has been talk in the news about several legal bills in the UK and the US that are government versus online casino operations against companies such as Full Tilt and other popular online gambling organizations. So what are these companies doing wrong to gain this bad reputation? Well the funny answer is that they aren’t really doing anything at all… at least anything different from the way that they have been operating for years now.
 
There are several government bodies that seem to want to put a stop to online gambling of any sort altogether. Many have their own reasons. Some are for the sole purposes of taxation. Others say that it is a corrupt industry altogether and some cities and countries simply have an issue of the money leaving their comfy abode and going to destinations unknown.
 
So what is the Verdict? Well it seems that this online gambling issue and issues have been a wild chase for quite some time now. Every time that something changes in the law a new unruly issue arises and there is similar huff and puff surrounding the new issue as there was the time before.
 
Many people (which we should mention are the ones spending their hard earned money) are in favour of online gambling. Many people work for these companies and online casinos are the reason that they pay their bills at the end of the day and those people should get a say as well. So if you ask us, we think that online casinos will be around for quite some time but I guess all we can really do is wait and see!