Just got a notification to changes in Pokerstars' Terms
This "Inactive Fee" seems like a real a-hole move. They might also lose some clients by closing their accounts for inactivity.



What do you guys think?

What country?

I'm from Moldova playing through the .EU client and I think it will apply to all European countries, as it appears on the website

https://www.pokerstars.eu/announced-tos/

The last time I remember that this topic was mentioned, in 2020, Josem posted:

I think that as long as the account holder plays even only one hand per year, their account won't be classed as inactive; and as they give 30 days' notice to allow withdrawal of funds there is nothing unfair about this latest amendment.

As they quite rightly say on such occasions, they're not a bank.

Hello all, my account is inactive for over six months and already at 0 as I currently play on another site but do not want to lose access to this account. Will I get a months warning of closure as there is nothing for them to take and does logging in reset the clock like it used to or has this changed? Thanks.

Log in and play a hand at play money tables.

I spoke to PS UK Support yesterday, because I couldn't find anything about it in the UK's current TOS, and apparently it's only a EU thing atm.

Therefore, it depends where you live. Check your TOS.

Will do, thanks.

Update: I have looked at Pokerstars.eu ToS and it appears an account is active once the client logs in. Below is the conditions as listed on Stars.eu website.

"10.11 You acknowledge and agree that if your Stars Account is "active" (i.e. you have logged into your Stars Account at any time during the prior 12 month consecutive period) monies deposited by you in your Stars Account are held in a trust account on your behalf and are considered to be "End User's Deposits". In the event that your Stars Account is "inactive" (i.e. you have not logged into your Stars Account for a consecutive 12 month period, monies deposited by you in your Stars Account will cease to be "End User's Deposits" and will not be held in trust but will be immediately available to you for withdrawal or to use the Service in accordance with the terms of this Agreement from such time as you log into your Stars Account and will be automatically reclassified as "End User's Deposits".

Should your Stars Account with a positive balance remain dormant or inactive with no account transactions for a consecutive period exceeding thirty (30) months, we will attempt to contact you with a view to returning the balance and reminding you of the consequences thereof, at least thirty (30) days before your Stars Account is due to become inactive. If we do not receive a response from you, your Stars Account will be deemed to have become "inactive" in accordance with the provisions of the Gaming Authorisations and Compliance Directive issued by the Malta Gaming Authority and we reserve the right to charge an inactive account fee, so long as the account remains inactive and in credit and without prejudice to your rights in respect of inactive accounts under the said Directive."



There is a possibility they are currently changing this and maybe the OP has been presented with more updated ToS upon login.

Yesterday, I wrote an e-mail to an address I had for UK Support and an auto-reply came back telling me the address was no longer supported and I should instead contact them via Help on the client. After an auto-update, I logged in but could not get further without having to agree first to the TOS they presented for acceptance, so I read the TOS. Because I didn't see any mention of an Inactivity fee, I felt safe enough to accept the TOS in order to contact Support. (I did not think this forced acceptance was fair in any way. If it had said, "Log in and you will be charged a fee", or something odd that I would not have wanted to accept, then the very fact that I had had to log in to talk to them would have taken such desired non-acceptance out of my hands.)

Support confirmed the Inactivity clause was only for EU atm, but the Agent did not know much more. However, from the first post in this latest conversation, yes, it seems the 30 months is now being changed to 13 months, and, assuming they'll use the same method to inform EU customers, as soon as the customer logs in, they will be forced to accept the change. (Not that customers can't accept any change PS decides to make to its TOS at any time, in any case, so it's all moot.)

Presumably, if someone logs in for the first time from now in two years' time, they'll find that 11 five euro fees will have been charged, and the log in with forced acceptance of the TOS will enable PS to tell the customer that it's all in the TOS they just agreed to - but of course they sent them a warning e-mail a year ago.

Given that once I log in it registers as activity it is fine with me and I cannot fault them for charging a fee for this for the reason you outlined earlier. Thanks for your help on this topic and we are lucky they are not like a bank given what the banks get away with in my home country(Ireland). Do Pokerstars do loans?

It appears that the rules have changed since then: I now see rules similar to that described in the OP online here: https://www.pokerstars.uk/announced-tos/

It was awful behaviour when PartyPoker did this 15 years ago, and formerly, PokerStars acted well (indeed, as described in my post you quoted, those rules were reasonable and fair!).

It's sad to see a brand be run down in this manner with such petty fees. It can only reflect a very different leadership mindset to 5, 10 or 15 years ago.

It's not a big deal, but it can happen that you don't play for a year and miss the notification with all the junk mail.

From a software perspective, their costs to maintaining these accounts are close to 0, so it's most likely the idea of some guy from the Finance department, either to get more cash or maybe there's some fiscal stuff they need to abide to.

If an account is dormant for that long with that little attention payed to even their communication efforts then it is not a good idea to keep money there. Players can always remove it to their bank and then see how fast money is removed from it and with bank of Ireland it will be €6 per month with additional costs for transactions. Pokerstars policy won't seem so bad after that.

This is not something that is going to cost them customers as OP stated it would and all other poker sites will do the same if they already haven't so lets move on. This is small potatoes compared to what may lie ahead given the governments continuing to tighten the noose around operators necks.

Correct, they aren't a bank, because with a bank you earn interest. Poker sites have people perpetually funneling them money. The vast majority of accounts are net losers and now they want to siphon more money off the casual/recreational players.

It's happening in Canada as well.

It is small potatoes but it showcases their intentions and how they treat their customers. With how poker players love to hate on each other for trying to gain any edge and squeeze every cent of EV, we certainly shouldn't be condoning the nickeling of "inactive" accounts.


^ This.

Sounds like some fuss about nothing.

It wouldn't surprise me if there are some accounting rules at play here about inactive player balances and the way they are recorded on the balance sheet. Old gift cards is one kind of similar example for retailers, where after a certain time they can assume they won't be used and move from balance sheet to income statement.

Asking players to login or pay a small fee with 30 days notice doesn't sound onerous, especially if you want to keep the account open to receive occasional free tickets and deposit bonuses. If you don't check your email or can't do so easily because of spam, that's on you.

The right thing to do would be to refund the balances after 30 days, but often the balances will be a few dollars and not worth the transaction costs and staff time resolving all the bounced payments (often when the customer is now dead). They also want to incentivise keeping accounts open for things like reporting on customer KPIs to the market.

There may also be some costs associated with the accounts. Legal and compliance possibly, marketing to dormant accounts, etc.

Then just reinstate the PokerStars rule they recently had: after X months of inactivity, the money is transferred to PokerStars. If the player ever returns, give the money back to the player. PokerStars had a really good and decent and industry-leading solution. Now, they do not. This is regrettable.

Further, do you think that people who played and registered under the old terms and conditions will get their money back, despite never agreeing to the new terms and conditions? A gold-class regulatory regime would have some scepticism about such cases. But they're now operating under a bottom-of-the barrel regulatory regime in Malta, which further limits the recourse that players have.

1. Does this apply to all stars clients whether eu or .com or any other ones? I believe there was that message when logged into stars last time but don't recall.



2. So after 13 months of your last login or last hand/tournament played? What do they mean by inactivity? Log in the account or play?



3. So after 13 months of inactivity, you will get charged 5 euro or 5 usd a month? So this will continue until the next time you login or play? But does it ever go dormant though such as after x amount of months like 30 months or few years, then the balance would go to zero? So if someone has a small $50 balance and they don't login for 3 years, then their balance will go to zero since it would be a $5 monthly inactivity fee. But what if it is someone who kept say 5k or 10k or more in it? Will it still be a $5 fee every month after the 1st 13 months? So if that person log in their account after say 3 years... well that would mean 11 months in year 2 and 12 months in year 3 of inactivity so that would be $55+$60= $115 in fees. So if that person had 10k in their account, they would still have $9885 balance right? But the account never goes to zero right if you have a very high balance? So it would cost a person $60 a year essentially if they don't log in?



4. Are there any other sites that has this inactive account fee? I recalled party had this a while back but they changed it recently? Does gg or wpn has this? What about skrill or any of the other ewallets? The inactive account fee of $5 is annoying but as long as it doesn't go dormant and account goes to zero, that isn't that big of a deal to most I assume. So anyone know what other sites are like this?



5. Why would they introduce this? I believe stars was the only site that never did this ever?

yes.