Full Tilt Poker was, to quote Obi Wan Kenobi, a wretched hive of scum and villainy. Under the stewardship of Howard Lederer and his squishy sidekick, Ray Bitar, Full Tilt Poker was a company that was, at best, horribly managed or at worst – according to the US Department of Justice – a criminal enterprise.
An enterprise that, instead of quietly sitting back and printing money for the long-term with a lucrative business model, decided instead to raid its player’s poker accounts for a short-term windfall. And what a windfall it was. The ever clever Howard Lederer enriched himself to the tune of 42 million in distributions, and the payments by the Directors of the company to themselves were in the hundreds of millions.
They sat back and fiddled with themselves while the Full Tilt Empire burned.
Instead of segregating the player’s accounts from the operating costs of the company – as every good poker site does – the poker player’s wealth was thrown into a giant honey pot that was squandered in a free-for-all by a handful of incompetent owners. In the end, before the US Department of Justice shut down Full Tilt Poker, the balance sheets showed they owed the players 330 million dollars in deposits. In reality, they had only 6 million.
The Full Tilt scandal made news headlines all over the world. It became known as a ‘Ponzi’ scheme. Again, the name of poker was blackened and again, online poker became associated in the minds of the public with cheating, dishonesty, and illegality.
So believe me when I say, fuck you Howard Lederer.
I’m restating all this because some morons out there are already saying that the scandal is in the past and should be forgotten, and Howard should be forgiven. Recently Lederer cut a deal with the Department of Justice over the charges against him and some out there are saying that should be it. He did a couple of long, meandering interviews where he accepted no blame and couldn’t remember – well – anything apparently from his time managing the company, and that’s meant to be ok now
Well I call bullshit on all that (as an aside, I wish Samuel L Jackson had interviewed Lederer for Pokernews, “say ‘I don’t know’ again motherfucker. I dare you. I double dare you.”)
Let’s be clear on a couple of points – the US Government didn’t take Full Tilt’s money. Full Tilt had no money. Shutting down Full Tilt saved further potential depositors from losing their stake.
Non-US Full Tilt players have been paid back by PokerStars. The money that American players will eventually get via the Department of Justice will also be largely money forfeited by PokerStars when the settled the case against them with the DoJ. PokerStars has in essence paid back the money to poker players taken from them by Full Tilt. Howard Lederer didn’t pay back shit.
Full Tilt’s Directors and a couple of shady payment processors took Full Tilt’s money. Don’t ever forget that Full Tilt was accepting player deposits when they damn well knew they couldn’t cover any large withdrawals.
Yet, unbelievably, it appears Lederer got out largely unscathed. While charged with money laundering and a range of other offences, informed estimates say that in the deal he made with the Department of Justice he forfeited only about 2.5 million in penalties. Meaning he is up 39.5 million. It looks to me like blowing up a poker company has a positive expectation.
Well, something has to be done. It can’t end this easily for the supercilious ‘Professor’ of poker. He has to be banned from the poker world. For me, that seems obvious.
But there are those who say that you can’t ban Howard from poker, that it is a ‘slippery slope’. They argue that if we ban Lederer for being the central figure in the biggest poker scandal of all time, then we can start banning other people for other reasons. You know, like if someone was arrested for drug use or driving under the influence or some other illegal act. Maybe they’d get banned next.
Daniel Negreanu is one of those using the slippery slope argument. Which is particularly strange: Negreanu is, after all, the guy who called Lederer a straight up liar who should be beaten in the testicles with a baseball bat. Yet now Negreanu has gone strangely soft, saying Howard should be allowed back at the table. So which is it Daniel, whacked in the nuts or waiting for the nuts?
There’s no slippery slope. There’s no fucking slope. There’s a line in the sand. On one side is the people who play poker, on the other side is the people involved with massive cheating or fraud in the poker world. That’s the fucking line.
If you cause a major scandal in the poker world, if you are part of a cheating conspiracy or steal millions of dollars from the poker community, the consequence of that course of action is that you don’t get to be a part of it anymore. In exchange for all the money you’ve taken, you get to fuck off and not come back.
Outside of the poker world whatever you have done – drugs, sex, worked for a political party – it doesn’t matter how bad it is, all that is forgotten at the table (or more precisely, no-one’s business). You don’t need a background check to play poker; everyone from every walk of life is equal. That’s the beauty of the game.
But people who cheat, who make the game unequal, and who through their actions make it more difficult to play legally online or live – they forfeit their right to play.
We need to crowd-source some justice here. Not vigilante justice. Not punching him in that smirking fat mouth of his, but calling Lederer out anytime he goes near a poker table. By demanding to know why he allowed Full Tilt to accept player deposits when the company was more than 300 million dollars in the hole. By asking him how he can sleep in his palatial Vegas mansion while American grinders are still waiting for their money. By talking to the room manager or the tournament director and asking what the hell they are doing letting a scumbag like Lederer at the table. That’s what the poker community can do.
Beyond the crowd, the poker industry also needs to step up. The Aussie Millions is just around the corner. Lederer should be politely requested not to turn up by Crown Casino. From a business and image perspective, he does nothing for the tournament. While some superstars, such as Phil Ivey, are a drawcard for players and certainly add to the excitement of an event like the Millions for poker players, Lederer does not. He’s done nothing in tournament poker for a decade; the game has completely passed him by. As for image – well, Lederer’s image is mud (by the way Crown – he won’t gamble big on table games either). The Aussie Millions has an excellent reputation as a world-class poker event, one it rightfully deserves. It does not need to taint that prestige by allowing Lederer to play.
In fact, I’d argue that Crown Poker asking Lederer to ‘fuck off’ (I’m paraphrasing here) would enhance its standing among poker players. Given there is no downside to saying no to Lederer, it’s a risk-free way for Crown to raise the reputation of the tournament.
Here’s the thing: if major tournaments never ban Lederer; if Negreanu continues to let him sit at the same table without a word; if the other pros sit in silence while he returns to the game; if you say nothing while this son-of-a-bitch takes his seat, well he’ll never leave. He’ll bide his time and get back into the poker business. Some people will grumble, and some nasty articles (like this one) will be written, but that won’t change a thing.
The thing is, if we don’t say no to Lederer, we’ll never say no to anyone. Howard Lederer has arguably done more damage to poker’s reputation and to the poker economy than any other individual in the history of game. Are we ready to draw a line yet?
I fear that Howard Lederer will end up as the invincible man of poker: If a nuclear bomb landed on the industry, he will still be there, standing strong.
The arsehole at the end of the poker world.