Check Your Bank Account for Your Absolute Poker Refund
It seems counter-intuitive, but I think I was better at keeping track of my finances back before everything was online. Today, I can monitor all my accounts from one browser window, but for some reason, I have the attitude that since it is all listed there for me, I don’t really need to keep track of it. That’s not to say that I DON’T – especially with recent hacks all over the place, I certainly keep an eye on things – I just don’t comb through my finances as much as I should. Back in the day, I’d have all my statements filed nicely…hell, I even spent hours one day balancing my girlfriend’s checkbook to reconcile the basic arithmetic error she made (yes, that same girlfriend who is a disgusting slowroller – why did I marry her?). This is all to say that if you are like me and don’t check your bank accounts often enough, you might want to do so right now, as your long, lost Absolute Poker and UltimateBet funds might be sitting there.
That’s right, the six and a half years of Absolute Poker and UltimateBet bullshit we’ve had to put up with is over for many of us, as claims that have been approved by the Garden City Group (GCG), the Department of Justice-assigned Claims Administrator, have had their refunds sent to their bank accounts.
For reference, here is what the two line items look like on my account page (I redacted some numbers that may or may not be account-specific):
09/29/17 DOJ ABSOLUTE FD ABSFUNDPAY 092917 xxxxxxx Payment in connection with the Absolute Poker Cl $43.97
09/29/17 DOJ ABSOLUTE FD ABSFUNDPAY 092917 xxxxxxx Payment in connection with the Absolute Poker Cl $14.96
Now, don’t feel bad if you didn’t receive as much money as I did. I was quite the baller in my day. Not everyone can have a standing bankroll of tens of dollars.
Compared to the Full Tilt Poker refund process, this one has been moving along at light speed.
It began in mid-April, just a few days before the anniversary of Black Friday, that infamous day in 2011 when Absolute Poker and UltimateBet disappeared forever. Nobody really expected it – we thought our funds with AP and UB were gone – but it appears that, based on some things the Department of Justice said, that there was enough money left over from the Full Tilt player reimbursements to start a similar process with AP and UB players.
The first step for players to get their money back was to file a Petition for Remission, which involved going to the claims website, AbsolutePokerClaims.com, and filling out some basic forms. GCG e-mailed for Absolute Poker and UltimateBet players a Petition Number and Control Number to be used when logging in. Many, like me, don’t use their poker e-mail accounts anymore, but if we remembered our poker login info, we could use that, as well (fortunately, I did). From there, it was just a matter of entering and verifying personal information like name, address, phone number, and e-mail, and then seeing if the dollar amount GCG had on record for us seemed legit.
I didn’t remember how much money I had on AP or UB, but I knew it wasn’t much, so my figures seemed fine.
The main difference between the claims process for Full Tilt and the process for AP/UB was that GCG did not take bank account information during the initial petition step this go-around. With Full Tilt, it was all done at one time. For AP/UB, we had to wait for our claim to be approved. The first wave of approval e-mails went out in mid-August, instructing us to once again go to the claims site, login with our Petition Number and Control Number (which were given in the e-mail), and enter our bank account information so that an electronic transfer of payment could be made.
GCG said the payments would be made in four to six weeks and that estimate was dead-on accurate.
If you forgot to submit a claim or enter your bank account information, it is not too late, just know that you will be waiting in line. The filing deadline was September 7th and GCG said that once the review of on-time petitions was completed, it would begin looking at petitions for people who disputed their account balances.
“While these reviews are being conducted, GCG will continue to accept Petitions,” the website says, “but late filings will be subject to review at a later date and at the sole discretion of the Department of Justice.”
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