Full Tilt Poker being sued in Canada

Canadian patrons had between us$ 5,009,920 million and us$ 10,019,800 million withheld when Full Tilt shut down its online card rooms to all players on June 29, lawyer Jeff Orenstein said Friday. Orenstein, of Consumer Law Group, filed the class action with the Quebec Superior Court.

In April, Full Tilt held about us$ 150,298,000 million of its players' money, the court documents said. Orenstein estimated that about 10 % of the company's players were Canadians. He said he has already been contacted by one Edmonton man who claims Full Tilt was holding us$ 250,496 of his funds when it pulled the plug while a second gambler said he had us$ 10,019 in his account. The average patron probably had much smaller accounts, Orenstein said.

The lead plaintiff in the class action is a Montreal man, Mitchell Schnurbach, who had between us$ 1 and us$ 5 in his player account. Key executives of Full Tilt and related companies are also named in the suit. One of the third-party payment processors for Full Tilt - Terricorp - has bank accounts in Canada, the class action notes.

The U.S. only allows bricksand-mortar casinos because of a law passed by Congress in 2006 making it illegal for business and banks to knowingly accept payments related to Internet gambling.

On April 15, the US Justice Department charged Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker - the world's three biggest online gaming sites - and their founders with illegal gambling and fraud. As of that day, U.S. players were unable to access their accounts with those sites.

Canadians were still able to play, but on June 29, the gaming commission of Alderney suspended Full Tilt's licence and the site shut down its rooms to all players.