Thank you for your patience in waiting for an announcement about options US Residents have for redeeming FPPs. PokerStars has today obtained approval from the US Department of Justice to allow FPPs to be redeemed. In addition, many US Residents have been credited funds for partial progress toward their next VIP Stellar Reward or Milestone Cash Credit.

Full details are available below. The PokerStars FAQ for US players has also been updated with this new information: http://www.pokerstars.com/usaplayers/faq/


FPPs
PokerStars is pleased to announce the US Residents are now able to use their FPPs in the VIP Store to purchase VIP Reward Bonuses. US Residents have had their VIP Statuses as of April 15, 2011 restored in order to have access to purchase appropriate VIP Reward Bonuses for their earned VIP level. Players with VIP statuses higher than BronzeStar will have until at least May 31, 2011 to purchase VIP Reward Bonuses that require advanced status.

US players can also use their FPPs to purchase any VIP Stellar Rewards and/or Milestone Cash Credits that may have been earned in 2010 or 2011 but not claimed. The funds from any purchased VIP Stellar Rewards and Milestone Cash Credits will also be immediately made available for cashout.

Any FPPs remaining after a US player purchases bonuses and rewards available to them will be made available again if the US player is again able to play for real money on PokerStars at some point in the future.

Unfortunately, PokerStars is unable to ship merchandise from the VIP Store to US residents. All pending VIP Store orders have been cancelled and FPPs used for these purchases have been refunded to players’ accounts.


VIP Stellar Rewards
Many players have been credited funds to reward them for partial progress toward earning their next VIP Stellar Reward. Compensation amounts have been calculated by determining the percentage of incremental VPPs earned toward the next VIP Stellar Reward, then awarding the same percentage of the value of the reward to be earned. Compensation has been issued to all players who would receive $10 or more using this formula.

As an example, consider a player who has 8,000 yearly VPPs. They earned their last VIP Stellar reward at 5,000 yearly VPPs and were working toward a $50 reward at 10,000 VPPs. This player has earned 3,000 of the 5,000 (60%) incremental VPPs required for the next VIP Stellar Reward. This player would have been credited 60% of the $50 reward, or $30.


Milestone Cash Credits
All US Residents with more than 100,000 VPPs have been credited with partial progress towards their next Milestone Cash Credit. Compensation amounts have been calculated by determining the percentage of incremental VPPs earned toward the next Milestone Cash Credit, then awarding the same percentage of the value of the reward to be earned.

As an example, consider a player who has 375,000 yearly VPPs. This player has earned the 300,000 VPP Milestone Cash Credit and is 75% (75,000 out of 100,000) of the way towards earning their $3,000 Milestone for 400,000 VPPs. This player has been credited 75% of $3,000, or $2,250.

If this player relocates outside of the United States later this year, provides proof of relocation and resumes play they will not be able to purchase the 400,000 VPP Milestone Cash Credit from the VIP Store. Instead, the player will be able to email vipclub@pokerstars.eu after earning the required VPPs to receive the remaining $750 of their reward.

Yes!

Can't wait to get home from work, calculate the most profitable way to spend my odd assortment of points, and cash out.

Now all I need is FTP to do the same.

Thanks Steve!

Nice work Stars! Once again you have led the way in online gaming. I miss playing on your site.

Not surprisingly, Stars comes through again.

So just to make clear, we cannot get our FPPs converted to cash at the highest bonus level rate? We must buy individual bonuses?

And, as we all already knew, PokerStars rules.

cool story stars

Thank you for posting.. I hate reading breaking news from a random on 2+2 with 60 posts (no offense).

I don't like this. Who knows if we will ever be allowed to play again. If we are cashing out anyway, is there a reason our checks can say $150 and not $152.29

Same as above. This has to be automated, and we are cashing out anyway.. Why can't I have my extra $2.94 on my next check.

Really, none of these are anything for me or anyone else to get upset about on their own. However, I'm just thinking if I'm leaving $7 on the table as an American, and there are a few million of us, that's going to leave A LOT of money leftover for someone...

Dammit, PokerStars, I love you so much. I want to see you again. I wish my dad didn't disapprove so strongly of our relationship.

What a great company. If only the US government cared as much about its citizens as PokerStars did about their customers.

Any FPPs remaining after a US player purchases bonuses and rewards available to them will be made available again if the US player is again able to play for real money on PokerStars at some point in the future.

This is going to add up to a nice chunk of change that PS will never have to payout on.

After buying up all of my milestones, I obv still have some FPPs. I'm not sure if I missed a big announcement somewhere, but is it possible for me to buy some tournament tickets and convert them to cash?

i stars.
i was at ~98k fpps..
decided to just eat the difference and buy up the 650, 300 etc. ...
just to make sure, if you're sitting on <2,500 fpps..
there isn't a way to cash that in, correct?

(Insert generic hater's gonna hate comment/.jpg here)

wait...can you convert step or tourney tickets to cash????

Dear PokerStars Steve,

Can you please help Full Tilt Poker begin to process our withdrawals ASAP?

Thanks.

I can only guess they don't want people who suddenly have $3 to want a check. Setting a min cashout is fine IMO, no one is expecting you to cut a million checks for 50c. However, there is no reason to keep any value, especially if we are cashing out already.

Why not convert every last point to cash, and if you can't cash it out, then the MONEY will be waiting should Pokerstars ever return to the USA.

I'm a former Supernova who stopped playing several months ago due to work and was busted down to Bronze. Just so I'm clear, the only thing I can get for my 73,000+ FPP's is $25 and Stars is going to keep the rest?

Great job Stars. Sure do wish I was giving you more of my action in hindsight!

Nice Stars and miss you guys....

you couldnt get a check for $3 anyway, I believe the min was $100 to get a check, and anything below that and above $1 required you to get a direct bank transfer.

Kind of upset with stars that Im sitting on 2454 fpps and they're basically robbing me of $24.50 and not even letting me waste it on stupid stuff in the store

Awesome, just awesome, esp. partial credits.

Seriously? Just be glad you can convert your FPPs to cash. Stars didn't really have to allow you to do this.

I'm not sure, but I don't have an option to convert FPPs --> Cash , is this for Supernova+ only, or am I just missing something?

I think it's absolutely ridiculous that PS couldn't do a simple rate conversion for all FPPs into cash. You guys did everything so well RE: US players up until now, and you're going to leave us with a bitter taste in our mouths because you're too greedy to hold on to the $20 worth of FPPs that I and many others have?

Shameful.

anyone complaining about unused points should stop. thanks stars!