Home / Poker News November 2011 / The Poker Grapevine – PokerStars Goes After US Players
The Poker Grapevine – PokerStars Goes After US Players
Posted by: Randy Williams - Tue, 2011-11-01 16:20
In the wake of the Black Friday events, PokerStars have made a deal with the DoJ and it was a part of that deal that they would not allow US players to engage in real money poker at the site. Sure enough, US IPs were blocked right away and players lost the possibility to access their accounts. Some of the nosebleed stakes pros moved out of the country, to locations where playing real money poker online was legal. Many of these players have since returned to the online scene and they continue pretty much where they left off, in perfect legality. Others, of more meager financial means, unable to make the move but resourceful nonetheless, have resorted to a different ‘solution’. They set up a program known as VPN (Virtual Private Network), which allowed them to use foreign proxies to hide the actual location from which they were playing. Thus, apparently many of these players were able to access PokerStars and to play real money games there. According to PokerStars VIP manager Steve Day, while some of VPN players may have gotten away with the deed, others were tracked down and their accounts were suspended.
The funds in the concerned accounts were frozen, but PokerStars officials aren’t quite sure yet what will become of these monies. According to Day, they’re currently waiting for word from the DoJ-appointed independent moderator. At any rate, the prospects for the owners of those accounts are bleak. PokerStars’ terms of service clearly state that US-based players aren’t allowed to engage in real money play at the site.
Apparently, some of the VPN players were by no means dime-a-dozen: there were even Elite Supernova candidates among them.
Day took the opportunity to get the word out: using VPN and hoping that one wouldn’t get caught isn’t a viable solution for US players in any shape or form. The site is obligated to suspend these accounts and to freeze the money in them.
