Full Tilt Refusing to Pay Affiliates for US Based Player Revenues

It seems that Full Tilt is “ripping off” affiliates by not paying them for revenues generated by US based players. This follows the recent events of “Black Friday”, where poker domains were seized by the US DOJ, and some funds were frozen.

Not paying affiliates seems like a bad move for FTP, as clearly they have other funds (since they are still allowing non US players to play on their site), and can readily transfer funds to non-US affiliates and players. Interestingly, they had no problem allowing US players to cash out their funds after their domains were returned by the DOJ.

This is the email I received:

Dear Affiliate,

We regret to inform you that due to recent actions by the U.S. government, Full Tilt Poker is still unable to facilitate real money play, deposits, or withdrawals by players based in the United States. Unfortunately, this includes the processing of any affiliate commission payments generated by your United States based players.

Rest assured that our technical and legal teams are working towards a solution that would allow us to return this commission to you as soon as possible. As always, all affiliate and player accounts remain safe and secure, and we apologize for any inconvenience caused by these actions.

Please note that affiliate commission payments for your Non-United States players will take place as normal this month.

We will keep you updated with any information as it becomes available. Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

Full Tilt Poker Affiliate Team

I’M NOT IMPRESSED.

As Pauly @ TaoOfPoker blog says (in response to a similar email from PokerStars) :

Yeah, yeah, yeah… blame the DOJ. It’s easier to pass the blame than to accept responsibility for your actions. So here’s my counterpoint — you’re not going to pay affiliates because the DOJ said you had to cease US operations, but why are you not using the same argument to withhold payment to real money players who requested cashouts?

Just because the US government froze your cash doesn’t mean you can’t pay non-US affiliates on the MGR revenue FullTilt.

Do you think FTP should make good on their affiliate agreement and pay affiliates for the MGR their players generated from their other coffers?

Are you affected by this decision by Full-Tilt? if so, will you continue to push them on your site(s)??