Absolute Poker and UltimateBet Players Are Still Waiting For Their Money

It’s been over a year and a half since the compensation program for former Absolute Poker and UltimateBet players has been announced, yet still many haven’t received their money due.

The Cereus Poker Network, home of Absolute Poker and UltimateBet closed down back in 2012. Even while in operation, these rooms weren’t free from scandals - whether it be smaller issues like a misawarded pot involving Phil Hellmuth; or the “potripper” story, one of the biggest cheating scandals in online poker history. Now, six years after their closure, Absolute Poker and UltimateBet are still in the news for all the wrong reasons.

The two late poker rooms were forced to shut down after the “Black Friday” lawsuits; and unlike the player funds on Full Tilt, which were seized by the US Department of Justice, the money on the AP and UB accounts was completely gone.

Things seemed to be getting on the path to resolution in April 2017 when the Manhattan US Attorney announced the compensation program for Absolute Poker victims. In three installments, 12,500 poker players have received a total of $38.2 million. 

That is a great development for sure, but far from a complete solution since originally 1.2 million eligible victims were contacted and the overall debt owed to them was estimated to be around $50 million.

LegalUSPokerSites.com recently published a troubling update. When they contacted the Garden City Group, the company in charge of handling the payments, GCG refused to give out any new information, rather referred them to their website for new developments - even though new updates haven’t been posted there since March 15th.

On the Two Plus Two Forum, the thread dedicated to the Absolute Poker/UltimateBet saga is still getting multiple posts a week, players anxiously waiting for their rightly owed money fishing for any new piece of information. 

Looks as though this story will take a long while to be completely resolved.