Hello ,

I have played on pokerstars for a long period of time and never had any problems like this with any site before.

I was locked out from PS and received an email about if i had visit the US about a month ago and if I had been able to play from there?

So let me explain first, every year I go to the US to play the ladies event in the WSOP and everyyear i use VPN service that I have setup to play on all sites (connecting from Sweden like i normally do) to avoid any problems

Now this time the VPN disconnected for a slight period of time (altough i did not play any hands)

So after pokerstars inquiry I explained this to them and got my account locked and they tell me they going to hold on to the money pending legal outcome,

I would warn anyone to not have big bankrolls online as I feel more and more strange things happen .... I feel haven't broken terms of service of playing from the US or doing any financial transactions from the US as I am connected from Sweden (the vpn) and even if i have this is my first incident and the money on my account is from winnings while in Sweden.


Is there any advice how I should proceed? I have contacted a lawyer and he thinks best way is to file a report the license holder for mediation and after that file a lawsuit.

The problem you are going to have is that PokerStars is working very hard to make the US government happy by not allowing people on American soil from using their game site. And, in this case, you were on US soil using the PokerStars game. If they did not lock your account and do an investigation, any goodwill that PokerStars has with the US government is at risk.

Communicate with PokerStars. They have no interest in seizing your money, and if you only played a few hands (or none at all) it should be easy for them to see that it was just a dumb mistake, warn you, and unlock your account.

Next year, don't play on PokerStars during the WSOP unless it becomes legalized.

I am a bit surprised this post is being made in the last days of October, the ladies event at the WSOP was MONTHS ago.

Same here, i posted in the pokerstarsthread but got only ****ty reactions that it is own fault etc.

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My buddies account is frozen. He played during the wsop trough vpn on stars. After the main event, he went back to canada and is now residing in Thailand. Yesterday, like 4 months later, they blocked his account because he used a vpn. He admitted vpn use and said he was not aware it was for him as he was canadian.

Now they blocked his account indefinately '' pending further legal review of this situation.''.

Did anyone have this as well?

How long did it take to give back the account?

Did they give back the account?

Any further consequences?


The letter which was written from pokerstars upon his defence:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you for your recent email.

PokerStars has evaluated all the information available to us, including the information that you have provided, a variety of technical data, and other information available. It is PokerStars view that your account was operated from the United States.

In determining how to respond to this issue, the following extracts from our Terms of Service outline the relevant rules:

5.11. Residents of the United States and United States Territories are not permitted to make deposits into their accounts or engage in real-money play. They may cash out their existing account balances. Residents of other nations are not permitted to engage in real-money play while located in the United States. Any attempt to circumvent the restrictions on play by residents of the U.S. or U.S. Territories, and by residents of other nations while located in the United States, is a breach of this Agreement. An attempt at circumvention includes, but is not limited to, manipulating the information used by PokerStars to identify your location and providing PokerStars with false or misleading information regarding your residence.

8.1. Without prejudice to any other rights, if a User breaches in whole or in part any provision contained herein, PokerStars reserves the right to take such action as it sees fit, including terminating this Agreement, immediately blocking access to the Service to such User, terminating such User's account with PokerStars, seizing all monies held in the relevant PokerStars account and/or taking legal action against such User.

You may read the Terms of Service on our website, in full, at:

http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/room/tos/

Consequently, your account balance will remain indefinitely frozen pending further legal review of this situation.

We regret that we cannot be the bearer of better news. You will not be permitted to return to PokerStars in the meantime.

it happened 2 days ago here.

You Very clearly did. Read the Terms of Service again.

what's so hard abotu this? Don't play in USA through VPN if your not willing to take the chances of getting caught.

Yes it sucks, and it sucks even more that you have 24k locked up, but the truth of reality is atm poker in the US is in a **** situation, and trying to skirt around the law's and Pstars ToS will just get you into trouble when caught.

Don't break the rules if you cant handle the consequences.

This means "We have to check with our lawyers to see if they think we can unlock your account without getting in trouble from the US Department of Justice, who made us put that bit in the Terms of Service saying "Folks from other countries cannot play while in the USA", which you did.

Just communicate with PokerStars, it should go well. There is nothing anyone at 2+2 can do for you.

Pokerstars just recently going trough accounts and finding patterns, they started questioning me and my account about a month ago,

Well I have learned not to play from US for sure but I cannot feel PS is punishing the players for wanting to play on the site

thanks for the quick answer

Well....

at the time I signed up with pokerstars is when I briefly looked trough the terms and agreements,

Since then I think pokerstars could have told me simply that this was changed or informed the players. Because even years before I always used VPN not to get my account locked from using different locations than Sweden when travelling trough the ept tour etc.

And I could be fine with them banning my account for breaking whatever rule but money won while inside Sweden should be paid out as the VPN service has nothing to do do with the actual poker or the fairness of the play to do.

You're not going to get banned, and they're not going to keep your money. They just have to comply with the DOJ to try and remain alive. It sucks that you have to wait, but you'll get your money and account back.

+1. However I think the process is going to be tediously slow.

I don't usually say "it's your fault" in arguments against sites but here it is your fault.
PS can do nothing about this, it's about their deal with DOJ. They kept telling users not to play on US soil, not even using VPN because they will detect and lock accounts.
You will most likely be able to withdraw though, but it will take a little time.

All the information recently about PS not allowing people to play from the US and you still insist on doing it.

Consider the 24k a stupidity tax

You really need them to tell you that you can't play on PS from the US? Like really?

well accordingly its not 24k its actually 24 dollars

When did pokerstars officially tell or inform their NON US players not to logon from US or refrain from using VPN? (besides from changing the TOS without notifying of an updated TOS)

I for one have never heard of it and theres probably over hundreds of accounts locked because of this,

I don't think I have been stupid in this case but been not informed - regardless I don't think taking players money is the right thing to do in this spot but i guess you do....

the rule is"no play from within the USA at any time, no exceptions" so it doesnt matter where ur connected from, if you are on their software while on usa soil... you are breaking the TOS! and they gotta dishout penalty to set example

Ignorance really is no excuse, as much as you would like it to be.

Via Email to non-USA players

they should keep your money, call it a 24k lesson learned.

You and many others keep doing this. How you think you can go to another country and circumvent the laws is beyond me.

Just because it is legal in your country, does not make it legal everywhere. How europeans fail to understand this blows my mind.

Also the ignorance play is total BS.

If it was legal for you to do it, you wouldnt need a vpn to circumvent anything. Following me? You use a vpn to bypass rules, that is why you use your vpn. You did it with euro only sites (also against their ToS most likely), and you did it with stars. STars is solid enough to catch you.

just a note: if you do it right they cant tell you used a vpn.

and op was probably not trying to circumvent the rules generally with the vpn, as i understood it he did it because sites often lock your account if you're not playing from your home country to prevent frauds. op was probably trying to avoid the hassle. although theres definitely a chance he knew he shouldnt play from the US.

Ah so OP is one of the male crashers each year in the Ladies Event at the WSOP?

And thumbs up for explaining them the usage of the VPN ... really clever, especially because all non US players were informed of the legal situation. PokerStars is not at fault here

Sorry op, no sympathy from me. Rules are pretty clear, you are not allowed to connect from US, using VPN or no VPN.

Yes, you broke the rules, and it has been clear to anyone who has made an effort to know that you cannot play on Stars from the US. What do think think renders a VPN necessary, and what were the problems you referred to that you wanted to avoid?

Stars have to show they are not tolerating, hence your trouble. Still, it's not like you are a multi-accounter or a superuser, so I hope you get your money back. But if you were banned, even perma-banned, it would be hard to argue that the ban was unjustified.

And anyone who thinks that Stars wants their custom too much to ban them is probably overestimating their own importance to the world's dominant poker site. More likely they would think that you are more trouble than you are worth.

Sadly for you, you deserve everything you got in this case. While I suspect you will get your money back... eventually, I doubt it won't happen until they get some release from the DoJ covering non-US residents using VPN's on American soil.

Just to clarify as im unsure, Is it illegal to even log on to stars from the US?

Cheers