Home / Poker News May 2011 / UB and AP File for Bankruptcy?
UB and AP File for Bankruptcy?
Posted by: James Carter. - Thu, 2011-05-05 05:26
Apparently, when it comes to leaving players high and dry, one can count on UB and AP. Rumors have been afloat for a few days in poker circles regarding Blanca Gaming’s potential bankruptcy file. Based in Antigua, Blanca Gaming is the company behind AP and UB, the two Cereus network sites which have survived a withering cheating scandal a few years ago, only to apparently toss in the towel now, in the wake of the DoJ’s Black Friday ruling which not only pushed them away from the US market, but indicted two of AP’s founders too.
Should we be sorry to see two such landmark online poker operations go? Despite the above mentioned cheating debacle, probably yes. Even more so in light of the fact that a bankruptcy will probably mean player funds kept in accounts at the two
online poker sites will be lost.
How likely are the rumors to be true though? Apparently, Blanca Gaming have sent out an email to their shareholders detailing their plans for bankruptcy.
According to the company shareholders, represented by Madeira Fjord of Norway, Blanca Gaming will file for bankruptcy protection in Norway. Blanca Gaming has apparently already made it clear that it had no cash at hand to honor any of its financial obligations, nor did it have prospects for any sort of cash flow starting up. In a word: things are already belly up as far as they’re concerned. The fact that AP and UB have already laid off more than 95% of their Costa Rica-based employees (from their operations center no less) only adds to the certainty that they’re not working towards surviving this blow.
PokerStars and
Full Tilt Poker on the other hand have begun reimbursing their US players. PokerStars have pretty much gotten the issue out of the way, while Full Tilt Poker is currently in the process of handing US players their monies back. From the current bleak perspective, one would have to assume that AP and UB player funds will be lost for good.
