[Rek]

This thread is seriously interesting now. Beforehand, I was very understanding of how an investigation could take so long and I had no problem with the freezing of sillysal’s account whilst this was undertaken. Better timescales should have been given by FTP as to the length of time the process was to take but apart from that I had no real problem as you know.

There is now a resolution with FTP confiscating the $47K and redistributing the money to “wronged” players.

In all disputes there can never be 100% certainty otherwise it is not a dispute but fact. Decisions will have to be made on the old “beyond all reasonable doubt” concept and it seems as though FTP is acting in this way.

• Is this right? Yes I think it is.
• Should FTP now have to back up their evidence? Absolutely, IMHO.
• Should sillysal be able to challenge FTP? Absolutely.

What the online poker industry needs is an appeal committee made up of representatives from the sites themselves, some high profile pros and independent bodies such as 2+2, Pocket Fives, etc. In a situation like this, FTP should be compelled to send their evidence to such a committee for an independent review. If FTP’s actions are upheld then the only recourse would be court action on the part of the player.

I think the committee should be paid for by a proportion of the rake that each site takes. This would do a few things:

• Give a certain legitimacy to online poker that may indeed pacify a lot of the people that object to the game.
• Give players a degree of comfort that they can appeal if they feel they have a strong grievance.
• Any site not signing up to be bound by the independent review could be boycotted by players. If players continued to play elsewhere they do so with the knowledge they have no recourse - don’t come crying with unfair complaints.

My take on this matter is that I believe FTP has undertaken a thorough review and that sillysal was guilty of wrongdoing. Without concrete evidence my reasons are:

• Sillysal’s account was obviously flagged for attention to security at FTP for whatever reason.
• Sillysal must have been generating huge volumes of rake and FTP would not want to lose this kind of income for no good reason.
• $47K is a big amount for an individual. It is peanuts to a major site like FTP and the only conclusion I can draw is that they have serious issues surrounding sillysal’s account.
• They are certainly not doing it to gain an extra $47K profit. Probably her rake amount per annum came to more than this.
• With the flak being generated in the direction of FTP here at 2+2 it would have been easy to have said they had investigated and cleared sillysal. They haven’t taken that option.

Could FTP have made an error? Of course. I can only go on what is said on these forums but to me I would have to assume that sillysal is guilty of something.

However, FTP should give sillysal a way of countering any claims against her. Come on FTP stand up and do the right thing. Show us you care about your players and let us know how we can be sure our innocent accounts will not be blocked and our money taken. Although I would sooner trust FTP than an unknown poster there is always the possibility sillysal is on the receiving end of some very bad judgement.

As the old saying goes “justice must not only be done, it must be seen to be done”