Full Tilt laid off some 200 people on the Pocket Kings staff in Dublin last week — leaving pretty much just the head honchos, who apparently believe that ole Chris Ferguson bit about \”a chip and a chair\” too much and somehow still think they can salvage the company something.
Sucks for the Dubliners, but for the rest of us, that means 200 or more employees with insight into FTP operations over in Ireland, no real reason to necessarily protect certain information anymore, and access to 2+2.
Sure enough, at least two former employees from two different departments are posting away and answering questions. Check it out … worth the skim.
Nothing earth-shattering (yet … gotta figure anyone with the uber-goody dirt probably would go to the DOJ requesting immunity before turning informant) but the virtual deposition one former employee goes through provides plenty of color to paint a decent picture of what life was like in the middle of a corporate collapse … not to mention how the nouvea-poker-riche behave without the cash (and TV shows) that previously formed the foundation of their power.
For example, I learned:
- Ray Bitar drives a Range Rover.
- For the past couple months much of the staff literally clocked in to work with nothing to do; literal thumb-twiddling ensued.
- The staff cafeteria — long the envy of Irish workplaces — began cutting back the high-end goodies, though Bitar did supposedly ship in lobster recently, which was carted past the cafeteria, which that day was serving employees spaghetti and gruel.
- Much of the buzz is still just rumour and heresay, but still …
- The big-money parties back in the day were indeed legendary … some might even say \”Epic\”.
- Full Tilt once supposedly flew in Cubans (from Cuba) to roll cigars.
- The fight against bots and cheating rings was more active than most knew.
- Full Tilt took game security very seriously (except for that part about protecting player funds, lol), despite claims to the contrary.
- Full Tilt overlords supposedly kept a very close eye on what the blogs and forums were saying.
- Full Tilt did supposedly turn down offers to buy the company, apparently believing it was worth more money and/or because principals such as Bitar and Lederer wanted stock in the new company.
Much more, obv … but its a good start for some 200+ potential witnesses. If you have reason to care about how things looked at Ground Zero for the once venerable online poker site, it makes for one of those 2+2 trips that\’s worth wading through all the 2+2.