RE: Yet Another Full Tilt Lawsuit (Bots on Trial)

Here\’s the actual Kennedy vs. FTP lawsuit, 19 pages, filed by Cyrus Sanai, a lawyer out of Beverly Hills.

And here\’s the 2+2 thread from 2007 when the key plaintiff — Lary Kennedy (aka \”pokergirl_z\” on Full Tilt) — first spelled out her beefs that led to this lawsuit … mostly stemming from a series of heads-up matches against a Full Tilt player known as \”TheComplainer\”.

Kennedy is the real plaintiff. Greg Omoroy is just a guy who owned another account she used (which is a whole-nother issue altogether). And though they aren\’t formally seeking class-action status, they do seem to be laying the groundwork for such a possibility — an aggressive legal play for sure.

Essentially, the allegations are that Full Tilt — with unfettered ability to label a player a bot, confiscate her money, and smear her name by calling her a bot — constitutes organized crime … being perpetuated by Californians against Californians, in violation of all sorts of California business and gaming laws.

They also say that \”Playing Against the Pros\” is tantamount to gambling against the \”house\” … there\’s an added boogeyman with allegations that Full Tilt is running its own bots on the site … and a new-to-me company gets discussed, too: Verta Enterprises, out of St. Kitts.

On the surface, that seems less shakedown/extortion-y than other California lawsuits against Full Tilt. But the class-action possibilities suggest this suit is really looking for penalties in the hundreds of millions or more — you know, the kind of money the Feds have been collecting from longtime online gambling purveyors looking to get on the USA clean list.

If it turns out pokergirl_z was not a bot — and she claims to have video proof — it could be quite the expensive security goof.

Click below for further breakdown of the suit:

The defendants:
Full Tilt Poker
Chris Ferguson
Howard Lederer
Ray Bitar
Phil Gordon
Phil Ivey
Perry Friedman
John Juanda
Erick Lindgren
Erik Seidel
Mike Matusow
Allen Cunningham
Gus Hansen
Patrik Antonius
Tiltware LLC

The claims:
Fraud
Violations of the RICO Act
Violations of California Business and Professions Code
Unjust enrichment
Libel
Slander

Damages:
Without specifying an amount, they seek compensatory and punitive damages, to be determined by the court upon seeing the evidence of how much money Full Tilt makes.

1. FRAUD
Full Tilt misled her as a customer and did not deliver what they promised.

2. RICO
Racketeering=organized crime. They specifically finger Ferguson and Friedman for running an unlicensed card room.

3. BUSINESS CODE VIOLATIONS
In California, unfair competition and false advertising are illegal business practices … allegedly committed not just against Kennedy, but thousands of players in the state of California — and they\’ll need to see the books to figure out just how much money Full Tilt has made from said illegal business practices. Or in other words, Full Tilt being Full Tilt violates the law and deceives the public.

4. UNJUST ENRICHMENT
See above. Claim is that Team Full Tilt got rich in ways they shouldn\’t have.

5. LIBEL
Full Tilt postings calling her a bot are false statements that have done her harm.

6. SLANDER
Same as above, covering oral statements.