AGCC Heightens Player Fund Rules

July 26th, 2012 | 10:50 pm

The Alderney Gambling Control Commission has increased its licensing requirements in response to what happened with Full Tilt Poker.

By Matt Kaufman, Rakeback.com Poker News Editor

Perhaps the biggest issue with the accounting procedures that allowed Full Tilt Poker to end up in the situation it is currently in (insolvent and unable to return player funds unless an investor steps in) was the fact that the site's player funds and operational funds were never segregated.

Basically, this means that the money that players deposited to the site was mingled with the money necessary to run the business. Therefore, when certain problems arose and the site was spending more money than it was making, player funds depleted.

All of this happened under the watch of the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC), the gaming authority which issued Full Tilt's licenses.

In an attempt to ensure something similar never happens again, the AGCC has released new regulations making it necessary for funds to be segregated.

According to the new amendment to their regulations, all Category 1 eGambling licensees will have to hold funds in a bank which "(a) exists solely for the purpose of holding, and holds only, funds standing to the credit of the licensee's registered customers, and (b) is separate from any other bank account which does not satisfy the requirements of pargrapgh (a)."

This is certainly good news for the online gaming industry, and especially for customers of poker rooms which continue to hold licenses with the AGCC. Perhaps the online gaming world has learned from the mistakes which led to Black Friday and will not repeat them again.