Full Tilt board members sign waivers of service
Bitar, Ferguson, Furst and Lederer all agree to save expense of serving summons and complaint in Black Friday case.
The four Full Tilt Poker (FTP) board members named in the amended Black Friday civil complaint have signed waivers of service in relation to the respective cases against them.
Ray Bitar, Chris Ferguson, Rafe Furst and Howard Lederer (pictured) all received the relevant documents on 18 October, with the filings returned executed by US Assistant Attorney Jason Cowley on Friday.
The filings mean the quartet are not required to appear in person to acknowledge the complaints against them.
Meanwhile the US government has issued a lengthy response to the motions to dismiss filed by indictees Chad Elie and John Campos last month. The 52-page document states that “The defendants’ argument that poker is not “gambling” under [The Illegal Gambling Business Act] finds no basis in IGBA’s statutory language and runs contrary to extensive case law applying IGBA to poker.”
It adds that: “Tellingly, the defendants have not cited a single case decided in the 40 years since IGBA was enacted that adopts this reading of the statute, nor have defendants offered any evidence at all to support their claim that every court to apply IGBA to date has simply read the statute incorrectly.”
The response also cites PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker’s business in New York as justification to disregard the duo’s argument that “[T]he IGBA does not apply to gambling businesses that operate legally offshore and “conduct” business in a state or states via the internet or telephone,” with the government citing law which states that IGBA “can be applied to a gambling company that operates legally offshore and accepts bets from New York.”
Furthermore, it addresses the claims from Elie and Campos with regards to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), arguing that “ contrary to the defendants’ claims, UIGEA does apply to internet poker.
It says: “The defendants’ argument has no basis in the language, structure or legislative history of the UIGEA,” adding that “In operating, for profit, websites where players wager against each other in poker games, the poker companies are unquestionably engaged in the business of betting or wagering [required for them to be classed as “in the business of betting or wagering].”
Earlier this month the three poker sites named in the civil complaint were given a further extension to provide their response. Their deadline is now 30 November.
(Photo courtesy of Ralph Unden; obtained under Creative Commons licence)