Jun 30, 2011 15:03 GMT  ·  By

Full Tilt Poker, one of the largest online poker sites has had its eGambling license suspended after becoming the target of a fraud investigation in US.

Full Tilt Poker is based in Alderney, the northernmost Channel Island and a British Crown Dependency. The island's economy depends heavily on agriculture and tourism, but in recent years many e-commerce and online gambling moved their operation there because of the favorable taxation laws.

The Alderney Gambling Control Commission is the gambling regulatory authority and issues licenses to operators, including the American-owned Full Tilt Poker.

Two of the company's owners, Raymond Bitar and Nelson Burtnick, were named as defendants in an indictment unsealed back in April by the US Department of Justice.

They are charged with fraud, money laundering and gambling law violations as part of a larger case that also targets the owners of other gambling sites including PokerStars and Absolute Poker.

The United States introduced legislation in 2006 that effectively bans online gambling and prevents banks from processing payments destined for such activities.

US prosecutors claim that by late 2009, Full Tilt and other poker companies developed strategies to hide payments made by American online poker players via shell companies whose names did not imply any connection to gambling.

It seems that the accusations overseas were serious enough for the Alderney Gambling Control Commission to reconsider Full Tilt's licensing.

"The decision to suspend the eGambling License was in the public interest," said Andre Wilsenach, the commission's executive director, according to BBC.

"Because of the seriousness and urgency of the matter, it required that immediate action was taken ahead of the regulatory hearing," he said.

This suggests the suspension is temporary and a final decision will be taken at an upcoming hearing. Nevertheless, this is a serious blow to the company as its customers will probably rush to get their money out.