FTP class action claimant withdraws claim
Steve Segal references PokerStars' 31 July acquisition of Full Tilt's assets as reason for not wishing to disturb the settlement process further.
One of four individuals to have brought a class action claim against Full Tilt and related individuals on behalf of a number of poker players has officially withdrawn his claim against the operator.
Steve Segal and three others – including lawyer and poker player Todd Terry – originally brought the class action in June last year, naming Full Tilt Poker and multiple ‘Team Full Tilt’ members as defendants.
One defendant, Phil Gordon, was removed from the suit last July, while six months later Judge Leonard B Sand dismissed charges against the majority of the remaining named individuals including Tiltware board members Chris Ferguson and Howard Lederer.
At the time, the players’ attorney Jeff Ifrah told eGaming Review “The Court’s decision recognizes that relief for the players is being pursued by the United States. There is no compelling basis to open additional doors for private class action lawyers to pursue that very same relief.”
In withdrawing his claim, Segal cites the 31 July agreement which saw PokerStars take over assets of Full Tilt and settle overhanging civil charges with the US Department of Justice.
His notice of withdrawal explains: “Claimant Segal…recognizes that his interests and the interests of the Class are furthered and best served by allowing the process outlined in the Stipulations of Settlement to proceed unhindered by his Verified Claim.”
A small number of other claims against Full Tilt remain, however recent weeks have seen motions to dismiss issued by the US attorney’s office, most recently with regard to the claim of Cardroom International.
Software provider Cardroom International has brought its claim in October 2011, arguing the sale of its freeplay poker software was inhibited by Stars and Tilt attaching the sale of its own comparable products to airtime deals with major broadcasters including Fox and ESPN, and that financing for such deals “Came from funds illegally obtained from United States poker players.”
However the most recent motion to dismiss, filed by Assistant US Attorney Jason Cowley, references the fact that during talks around the Tilt-Stars deal, “Cardroom’s counsel never raised any purported ownership interests claimed by Cardroom in any of Full Tilt’s specific assets, including any ownership interests in software or copyright interests in software; and never raised any purported restrictions on the transfer of such software or copyrights.”