just play on acr/bcp. customer service is pre good. doubt it will go full lock poker

Anyone not have the vip/rewards store showing up on the cashier now? Was just an update when I ran the client and how on cashier page everything is there apart from the section that used to be in bottom left showing vip level etc and seemingly no way to redeem any stars points

yeah i do

Oh well. Looks like I'll play higher stakes now in hope of binking one. I guess the Australian Government prefers I play in the casino with min buy in of $200 instead of my gambling addict ways online buying in at $10.

Sent from my HUAWEI TAG-L22 using Tapatalk

I received PokerStars first email yesterday and just got another one today:

Hi,

You may have heard that soon we’ll no longer be able to offer real money poker games in Australia due to legislative changes. However, PokerStars will continue to run free-to-play ring games and tournament tables where you can join hundreds of thousands of poker players from around the world.

And today, as part of our Aussie Poker giveaway, we’re adding 250,000 free Play Money chips to your bankroll giving you the ultimate boost as you explore everything we have to offer. This week we’ll also be adding a range of free tournament tickets for you to make the most of, so make sure you keep an eye on your emails this week.

I wish it was 250,000 real money

Everyone is complaining about amaya not being any good and look at these amazing freebies

AMAZING

I don't know what to say.

Don't say anything. Just get busy on your ultimate boost exploring everything pokerstars has to offer.

I felt my sarcasm was clear but I failed. Really sad that they just didn't care about us Aussies and now it's done. They must make so much money that it just didn't matter to them. I do wonder if casinos here will benefit from it but with the rake offered everywhere I highly doubt it.

Isnt Australia a colony of United Kingdom?

Why UK has the best gambling laws and Australia is doing this?

Someone should write a letter imploring the queen to over turn such an unjust law.

One word Xenophon.

If the conservative vote wasn't split to the extent it was from the last federal election with the cross bench that was elected and the wheeling and dealing that needs to occur to get the government's agenda passed, this amendment to the Act would never of occurred.

I'm not going to blame him as he is just pushing his main platform of anti-gambling but who I will blame is that ****ing media that have undermined the Coalition (and Turnbull in particular) and built up this far right movement (although granted some of it has been useful in Leyonhjelm and Bernardi as true libertarian fighters but only in this particular fight as the overall effect of them going it alone isn't that good) and also been integral in the shifting away of moderates to Xenophon's party and the like.

I was underlining your sarcasm which I thought was funny

That they ban online poker and allow pokies is so ****ing hypocritical it beggars belief.

Serious point here - the poker operators (Luke included) should have got together and thrown some money around like businesses do to get governments to act in their interests. Obviously this would have needed to happen some time ago but from what I can tell they did very little indeed.

Sorry just to add more ****ing hate for Xenophon and I applaud Joey and Swoop's efforts but it made me cringe so much that at the time Joey was trying to set up meetings with the MPs to say that he had been in contact with Xenophon's office and they were somewhat sympathetic to our cause and then for Joey and Swoop to give Xenophon even the remotest amount of praise is just bull****.

If Xenophon had any idea he would realise that all this is going to do is encourage more people (recreational players in particular) to go to the clubs and pubs to play live poker where these people are more likely to drop $50-$200 in the pokies while playing in a less than $20 buy in tournament when they could do this online and not be susceptible to the other forms of gambling that comes with it. In thinking that he is eliminating one form of gambling he is just going to make pokies all the more pervasive in the community. You ****ing idiot Nick.

Exactly. Bloody moron politicians.

Mind you, the tax take from pokies must be phenomenal.

So here is the email i sent milton dick and cc'd nick xenophon. This was the reply i got from xenophons office. I didn't reply because the jist i got was typical polictal rhetoric sorry fir the size.

RE: Reply to your letter reguarding Online Gambling Bill

Dear Mark
Thank you for your copying Nick Xenophon into your email. I am responding on Nick’s behalf.

Thank you for your feedback regarding the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill 2016, particularly in relation to online poker. I have passed your comments on to Nick and his legislative adviser for their reference and consideration.

*Nick did not support the amendment related to online poker as he felt there was too much ambiguity in how it would operate and what the betting limits would be. However, he did say that more debate is needed on this issue, and that there is an inconsistency in the approach of the government and opposition to sports betting, where you can bet thousands of dollars at a time per game or per sporting event, compared to online poker, where there could be some very strict limits as to the amount bet.

*You may be interested in reading Nick’s full speech on this here:http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_...e289/&sid=0017.

If you need support with gambling, I would encourage you to contact the Gambling Helpline on 1800 858 858.

*Thank you again for writing to Nick.

*Kind regards
Morgan Reid

Correspondence Officer

*To:*Dick, Milton (MP)
Cc:*Xenophon, Nick (Senator)
Subject:*Reply to your letter reguarding Online Gambling Bill

*Dear Member Dick,*

I received your letter today, thank you for taking the time to reply, BUT, I am going to seriously challenge you on this issue*

It seems the overall goal of this bill is to reduce online gambling which will help families who have issues with gambling.*

So if that is the case, why are you not focusing on the real gambling issues. (1) pokies. pokies are the major problem with gambling. Here are some stats for you

*Electronic gaming machines account for 62 per cent of gambling expenditure. They account for 75 per cent to 80 per cent of problem gamblers.

·* Annual gaming machine losses per player average about $3,700 in New South Wales, $3,100 in Victoria and $1,800 in Queensland.

·* Electronic gaming machines are the dominant source of gambling revenue. This is despite the fact that most Australians do not play them at all. (Specifically, 70 per cent to 75 per cent of adults surveyed indicated they do not use them in any given year).

·* There were 198,300 electronic gaming machines in Australia in 2009.

·* Annual revenue per electronic gaming machine was around $59,700 in 2008-09, with average revenue per venue around $2.1 million.

number 2 is Casinos. You give Drunk people 24/7 access to games that are always stacked against the players gives the casino an advantage in which they derive 78 per cent of their revenue from gambling.

So you'll have to explain to me how online poker is such a massive issue when pokie machines account FOR 62% of all gambling and of that 62%.....75% are problem gamblers.

I would love to see the break down of what you sent me, how much of that 2.4 billion online gambling is from online poker. I bet it's less than 10% and how much of the percentage are problem gamblers.*

How you can sit there and justify having online poker on that bill*when it's a game of skill rather than luck or "gambling". Yet what action are you going to take against pokie machines? probably none and why because we all know the taxes that government get from the pokie revenue. So if you really want to impress me, start taking action against pokies and not the guys who love playing poker and spend maybe $10 a tournament that can take up to 7 hours if you play well enough.*

You're taking action against the small guys to make it look like you're doing something to help fix problems. When the real problem is going untouched because you can't rock the money boat. we all know that costs votes. Well just remember, everyone gets a vote.*

I CC'd Senator Xenophon because I believe he was the main driver for this bill*

Thanks for listening*

Mark

Not really sure why the Xeno bashing is going on as he has had little or no impact on the passage of the bill and has been supportive as he was back in 2011 when Labor was in power.

Both the so called "anti-gambling wowsers", (Xeno and Wilkie) are actually anti-pokies crusaders. Wilkie was also supportive of a 2011 model which proposed tournament only poker.

Without LNP support, we wouldn't even be able to get a bill introduced. We must have the support of at least one of the major parties, preferably LNP as they have a lower house majority.

We need to wait now for the Senate committee to report and then we can work on our next course of action.

We have lost the first battle in a larger war, so now is the time to stick together as one and not start to fragment.

This is not over by a long shot

#AusFight4Poker

Just to add some clarity

Xenophon introduced the 2015 IGA Amendment Bill (Sport Reform) which was not supported by the Government and eventually ran out of time.

The Government commissioned what became known as the O'Farrell Report. This bill acts on 18 of the 19 recommendations handed down by that report.

The bill "owner" is Alan Tudge, Minister of Human Services (LNP)

This seems like a positive. While the "limits to amount bet" should be rejected, the way PokerStars is changing poker, I don't think we can simply say "legalise poker" anymore.
While I'd like a libertarian approach, this will never happen in Australia.
It complicates our message, but imo we should push to legalise proper poker eg husng, mtts, stt and cash games at all limits with maximum harm minimisation measures.
The other games like spins max, power up, etc are no better than pokies.

Thank you PokerStars for your generosity, too kind, 12 years as a rec player, time to grind the play money

This seems like a hopeless case, i don't think anything that is done from now can undo what has been done.. They will get this report from the inquiry, look at it then continue on with other political business. I usually don't take a pessimistic stance on things like this but the writings on the wall. I hope i am proved wrong and it is regulated, but this countries politicians are immovable when it comes to an agenda that crosses over theirs. I actually thought we might have had a chance with the timing from the inquiry & the bill not being passed at the time, but its so much harder to get something back that has been removed, but had they waited the report would have showed positive results i'm sure and then it may had been excluded. But, naturally, the government probably saw the inquiry as a potential hassle so they got the bill to be passed literally the 2nd day of the first session of parliament proceeding the break. The person tweets Major reforms on online gambling through IGA or something around that line and its gone just like that. Its a shame that such strong support still can't change the dictatorship that is this country, just disguised as a democracy, i mean you vote for parties and they can just kick out their leader after they win the election, it's like false advertising.. So what real say does anyone have when the government just make deals with each other e.g: If you pass this, i'l support that. I don't think they should have able to ignore an inquiry with potentially substantial evidence FOR but they can do just that. I'm not an expert on this process of government so i may be wrong in some aspects but from following the progression of the bill all the way up until this point it seems exactly whats going to happen.



I don't like the software and look of the other poker sites. I usually play MTT on stars like bounty builders, progressives and Hot tournaments ranging from $30-$215 but it seems like no site offers anything like this, naturally given the volume of players etc.

GG to those who tried, i honestly did think that it was going to be saved at one point until the minister went out of his way to tweet about the IGA conveniently after an inquiry which had support. Corrupt government will never change no matter what happens.

I would take a different view. The law now says you need a licence to operate a poker site in Australia, so we just have to campaign for a regulatory system that would provide such a licence. Nothing needs to be reversed, just a regulatory system to be added.