Hi guys,

To cut straight to the centre of the issue here; I've been banned from PS (for approximately 7 or 8 months now), and I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to get them to allow me to play there again.

I plan to write a formal correspondence(s) to them, either in email or print, and explain (again, but with more humility and lengthier reasoning) my side of the issue and pretty much basically plead that they let me play there again.

Before I do this I've come back here hoping to snatch any important points or things to consider. Maybe there's other routes, maybe it's advisable I wait longer before initiating any more contact etc.

Before going on, I'm aware of PS zero tolerance stance on problem gamblers and that once an account is permanently banned it is not their policy to ever reverse this decision.

Without going into too much detail (as these details are personal and I find mentioning them difficult) the basic reasons for the ban are thus;

I became temporarily addicted to online poker, and played outside my means. I've been playing for about 5 years now, and this period of time where my behaviour became uncontrollable was specifically over the course of a one month, and perhaps a week.

I notified them of this, requesting to have my account banned. (unaware this meant life long banning). They obliged. Now they are unwilling to reverse their decision.

A month or so after the this happened I contacted them again, but they told me they could not reverse the decision. Taking a bit of a longer view, I quit online poker, up until now, thinking that maybe an extended break would be a good idea.

Anyway, I love the game and I miss playing on PS. It's got a huge player base and I found it fun to be part of that community. I regret, quite a lot actually, taking various things for granted; including both my own well being and the terms and conditions / rules for using the site.

I know I can play on other sites, I'd really like to play on PS again though.

Thoughts? Thank you in advance for reading and giving any other perspectives / experiences, words of caution, honest but difficult to swallow truths

You have literally 0% chance getting that account activated. Spend time if you like trying to ask them if that offers you some sense of closure, but that account will never be brought back.

If you were a losing player, consider it a blessing and send them a thank you card at Christmas as problem-gambling has destroyed more lives and families than fun-gambling has helped.

If you were a net winning player both overall and each year (and be honest), go play somewhere else. If you were not a net winning player, see point above before finding another hobby.

An addiction, gambling, alcohol, drugs, smoking, etc. is seldom if ever a temporary problem. You asked Pokerstars to close your account because you had a problem. They are going to respect your request. You had temporary measures available to you at the time, you did not use them, you asked to have your account closed, that is permanent. Depending where you are located it may affect your ability to open up accounts elsewhere. Some jurisdictions maintain a universal disqualification list, once you are banned due to a gambling problem you will disqualified from opening an account with any operator licensed by that jurisdiction. This is all an attempt to protect you from yourself.

For the sake of argument, I'll assume for a moment that there is such a thing as a temporary addiction to online poker. What do you think a true gambling addict would tell Stars to get back on their site? I'd suggest pretty much anything they think will work, including that their addiction was temporary. That's why they can't allow you back on.

I know, as I wrote 'temporary addiction' I thought similar things. And it is correct to say there is no such thing as this.

However, the incident(s) was much longer and nuanced, but none the less there's zero chance of having that account reactivated and writing these things down has really helped me realise this.

Thanks guys for your advice.

^^^
Good luck jammy.

/Quick, close the thread before he changes his mind!

The account will NEVER be reinstated. When you banned yourself it was for life. PS needs to protect itself legally incase you sue them saying... "hey i didnt mean to lose $100,000 i self banned myself for life last year they shouldnt have reopened my account i want my 100k back!!!!"

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