Home / Poker News November 2014 / Fragmenting Online Poker: PokerStars.co.uk to Launch on November 3
Fragmenting Online Poker: PokerStars.co.uk to Launch on November 3
Posted by: Jo Martin - Sat, 2014-11-01 09:48
The ongoing fragmentation of the
online poker market, which has thus far had some disastrous effects on the industry, continues on November 3, when PokerStars.co.uk is launched and when all UK-based players of the site will be required to move their accounts to the new domain.
The move is one required by the UK’s Gambling, Licensing and Advertising Act.
According to the new UK laws governing poker and online gambling, only operators fully licensed in the UK can offer UK residents such services. Needless to say, such licensed regulators are subject to some stringent legal requirements – which is great – and they have to pay a 15% tax, at the point of consumption, after the revenues generated by their UK-based customers.
Sign up to PokerStars now and become a member of the world’s best online poker tournament destination. PokerStars are also quite peerless in the abundance of live event qualifiers they offer.
What sort of problems will this migration cause for UK-based players? Fortunately, it is a process that should be fairly straightforward and seamless: UK-based players logging into their PokerStars accounts after November 3 will be prompted to download the new software automatically. Once they do, everything will be back to normal, with the exception of the branding.
When the move was initially announced back in September, it was thought that PokerStars.co.uk would not be able to retain some functionalities, but later it became obvious that that would not be the case.
The only actual, perceptible changes that UK players will encounter will be a slight increase in the rake and tournament fees, an increase meant to make up for the additional taxes levied upon the operation by the authorities.
Apparently, the 2015 VIP program will also suffer a bit, as it won’t be quite as profitable for UK players as it was before.
Register an account with PokerStars right now, and use the site as a springboard to possibly launch a career in live tournament poker.
