Home / Poker News December 2015 / PokerStars Stick to New VIP Scheme Despite Protests
PokerStars Stick to New VIP Scheme Despite Protests
Posted by: James Carter. - Mon, 2015-12-14 09:35
PokerStars' planned way to distribute their VIP benefits has raised the ire of their high stakes players, who have decided to boycott the site in order to force a policy reversal. Instead of doing an about-face on the matter though, PokerStars have doubled down on the issue, announcing the other day that they would stick to it through hell or high water. The sweeping changes were announced last month and the VIP Steps program will be introduced starting with January.
The changes will mostly impact high-volume players in a negative way: VIP Club rewards will be capped at 30%, and the biggest players/earners will see an approximately 10% decrease in rewards. Those who are at the BronzeStar and GoldStar VIP levels will not be impacted by the changes at all.
Sign up to PokerStars and take advantage of their new, recreational-player friendly VIP scheme.
The above said boycott saw more than 2,000 of the site's high stakes players stay away from the tables, but their protest fell on deaf ears with Amaya Gaming (the parent company of PokerStars), representatives of which are insisting that the old VIP program had to be done away with because it no longer "fit its purpose".
According to Amaya's vice-president of corporate communications, Eric Hollreiser, the overhaul plans will not be altered. Hollreiser said that as the skill-gap was getting bigger and bigger on the
online poker market, play experience was going from bad to worse for recreational players and beginners. Hollreiser also said that while communication with their player-base in regards to the changes could've been better, the overhaul was by no means some hasty decision that would be reversed on a whim. In fact, he said a tremendous amount of analysis went into the new program. The changes he said were sustainable and they were aimed at the long-term improvement of the online poker ecosystem.
Play at PokerStars and make use of their superb online qualifiers to make your way to one of the major live poker events like an EPT Main Event.
