Full Flush Poker Goes Offline, Players Fear Balances May Be AWOL
Full Flush Poker, the flagship site of the Equity Poker Network, is mysteriously offline. SafestPokerSites.com first reported that the site flat-lined on Friday, and it remains offline at the time of this writing on Monday.
Withdrawal payments at Full Flush Poker had almost ground to a halt anyway, and now the site’s outage since last Friday has left many fearing the worst. (Image: Full Flush Poker)
No explanation has yet been forthcoming from the operator, leaving players who have funds on the offshore US-facing site fearing the worst. Posters on the TwoPlusTwo forums, including one who has a balance of $21,000, have reported a slowing of withdrawal payments throughout the past year.
It appears that Full Flush Poker has processed just a handful of withdrawals in 2016, mostly cash payments, which appear to be capped at $360. Withdrawal requests using other payment processing methods have been pending, in some cases, for up to a year.
Domain Name for Sale
Players contacting the site through social media have received no response. But Safest Poker Sites reported getting through to a live customer support agent on Saturday afternoon, who claimed that the site was undergoing maintenance following a software update. There was “no estimated time for it to be fixed,” said the site representative at that time.
But the report also notes that the Fullflushpoker.com domain is up for sale for $1,500, which would suggest something a little more serious than a software glitch. It suggests that Full Flush is no longer “flush” at all, and may be selling off its assets, and at fire sale prices at that.
The last scrap of correspondence from the operator was a September 27 tweet which reads, somewhat ironically:
“Our main goal at Full Flush Poker is to provide you with the best possible support. Our customer support representatives are available 24-7.”
Negative Equity
Launched in 2013, the Equity Poker Network operates as a “poker cooperative,” in the sense that it charges its skins a flat fee per month, rather than a percentage of their revenues. Profits are collected across the network and redistributed according to the volume of traffic generated by each skin.
The idea is that the model guarantees a level playing field for all, and gives each skin the opportunity to flourish, with more profits coming back to the operator. But it doesn’t seem to be working out that way. Equity initially grew quickly, as a network attracting 12 different skins, but these have since either left or were subsumed by Full Flush. Now there are only three, one of which is now offline.
Should Full Flush prove to be in trouble, the site’s US players will have little recourse to retrieve their funds. Like the infamous Lock Poker, Full Flush is regulated on the tiny Caribbean island of Curacao, which has a “relaxed” attitude towards player protection.
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