My first question is can a member state erect national boundaries given the EU principle of free movement? I haven't looked in to it but it appears the portugese football case suggests they can but the juncker commission (digital single market) is intending to change that in the future?

My second question would be, can a company ie. Stars pick and choose which member states they do business with on which platform? Nations can argue the ban is justified, can a company do likewise? (and would they succeed?)

Q1 - Fairly complex question and i'm sure others can go into it in more detail, but v vriefly: Many countries fall foul of exactly that and there are infringement proceedings against countries with monopolistic or inconsistent approaches to online gambling. However, erecting national boundaries can be justified if it can be argued that it is necessary for harm prevention.

Q2 - If a company is based outside the EU (Say, in the Isle of Man or Gibraltar) then would such laws apply to them?

Q1 The European Court of Justice has backed the principle that individual governments can introduce rules to protect the vulnerable/minimise harm BUT they need to be "consistent" and "proportional". the cases that have gone all the way through the system (takes years) have tended to come out in favour of liberalisation, this is partly because those persuing the cases tend to be excluded firms who are pretty sure they will win.

German state courts though, like the UK for other things, refer disputes up to the ECJ for advice and eventually a ruling so every now and again a new ruling comes out which sounds a bit more supportive of state action.

A total state monopoly can be justified but it gets in to trouble if that monopoly then promotes itself and introduces new products to increase revenue, however without promotion people go to offshore anyway.

Licencing is OK but setting a strict limit on the number of licensees would fail as a restrition of cmpetition, they could set quite onerous conditions - ie all player funds in trust, minimum capitalisation beyond that, financial reporting all sorts of things so long as they are consistent (apply to state provider/local provider too) and proportionate - thus a rationale for each requirement is needed including that this is the minimum action required to achieve the goal.

It is hugely complicated. I've read loads of the ECJ rulings and every single one is nightmarishly complicated and often comes out with a kind of split decision - backing liberalisation in places but regulation/the state for other bits.

The latest was a Gib one about the point of consumption tax, it was only the initial report to the court but it recomended that Gib be treated as part of the UK so they could not challenge it which left the wider question about whether the UK POC tax can like VAT be applied to revenue from just one country.

Q2 All non EU firms need to comply with EU rules and regulations to supply there. In this case IoM and Gib are sort of in the EU anyway (Gib residents have the same MEPs as me). What happens to both is a bit up in the air with Brexit as their status is linked to the UK...anyway so long as a firm based anywhere in the world can get a valid EU recognised licence they can serve most of the EU.

Countries like France insist that the equipment is based in their jurisdiction whilst the UK does not care so long as they comply with inspection/testing. You could set up on the North Pole or in Vegas and still get a UK licence.

Part of the bilateral deals betwen regulators for this is getting them to recognise each others competence and so letting the equipment be in one of the countries (or anywhere) rather than the requirement to be in the one jurisdiction - which I think is a bit dated in the age of the cloud but also difficult to justify as "proportionate" when the UK system of allowing kit anywhere has already been working for 2 years.

Time to move

Anybody have information about this? Is it safe to play Sunday MTTs?

I wouldn't try it.

Sunday is fine ye they always bring these bans in on monday. Was kicked off .FR back in 2014 talking from experience.

Fwiw, Slovenian exit was announced for 4th of July, we could still play until 5th 9AM ET (3pm local time).

How can you ignore this and keep talking points of law?

received this:

"Thank you for your inquiry.

We can confirm that from February 13, 2017 (16:00 CET) only residents of mainland France and its overseas territories can play on PokerStars.FR. This reorganisation is made in an effort to adapt to a constantly changing environment."

so sunday should be fine if the tournament ends before 16:00 CET

Thanks travisohc.

thanks travisohc

usually stars had the thing where players were shutdown during play when certain areas were closed due to legislation

c'est fini

au revoir

Laterrrrrs. Bring it on Mediterranean network!

Smallest conversion is 2,5k Stars coins to 25€ in the store, and it looks like they're not automatically converting all remainder points that is below 2,5k points?
#yetanotheramayamoneygrab

I wonder how much these surpluses add up to across all banned accounts?

I'm pretty sure they will add smaller conversions. Maybe send an email about it?

Gotta try to maintain baller status, not be bothered to write an e-mail and blast my furious outrage on 2+2.

They should convert them to cash sometime today. No way im letting amaya have my 9 euros

Just checked you can convert them 1 euro at a time now in the VIP store

The VIP Store for impacted players now offers a €1 VIP Cash Rebate for 100 StarsCoin.

Impacted players will also receive 100% of the prorated value of their in-progress VIP Step credited to their account within 48 hours.

Regards,
Dylan

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOP 25 cents coming up

Why not offer 0.01€ for 1 StarsCoin? Considering the amount of foreign players on your site and the fact that most of the people won't really care (and you know it) about their last up to 99 cents this seems like another decision that follows the tone your head company has set during the past years downfall.

It's quite the same as some sites don't allow using decimals while making withdrawals and at the same time have account fees that make those cents disappear after 6 months - sure it "doesn't matter" for that one player, but hey maybe you save few employees month wage in the long run.

so you are just gonna take that 0.08€ worth of starscoins that i have on my account?? RUDE

hi, sry if dumb question but can UK players play on Winamax or is there any prediction regarding when it will be available?

I think so, at least we can from Malta. It might change when .eu will be available but when stars banned other country Winamax said they won't