i guess policies have change i thought before they just use to seize profits if you played in the US. Now they just take the entire bankroll I guess this change over time because too many people were breaking the rules now they go after the entire balance.

well there has to be some form of deterrent. Although my personal opinion is banning for life is excessive and so is seizing all funds.

more appropriate action would be a fine relative to the volume and stakes eg $25 NL might be $100 but $100 NL might be 500.

add in a time ban eg banned for six months and you have a reasonable deterrent that does not appear so draconian.

thought at the moment the message is clearly understood and also I have heard that stars hand is tied by agreement with DOJ I would like proof of this is there evidence or is this speculation?

if true stars cant really be condemned there hands are tied.

This is really surprising.

Figured I owe an update after all this.

It sounds as though they are going to refund my account net of my winnings in the US which I estimate to be about half. They are also putting a restriction on my account that I cannot play while using a VPN. Should be fun trying to remember to disconnect it every time I want to play poker. Obviously I'd prefer the whole amount but I guess this is better than nothing. Wish I could pick the charity at least that these funds are being donated to.

Thanks all for you input.

This seems to be a fair resolution. Best of luck to you moving forward.

Glad to hear you at least got some of your money back.

Sounds fair.

Just don't know why they didn't start with that instead of messing about. I'm guessing some people just give up and they take the whole heap and keep some of it.

Because it might do damage to their licensing applications further down the line.

In any cases we hear about the money is eventually returned to the customer though. Unless regulators appreciate sites giving people the run around before giving the money back I don't see how it is different than just confiscating the illicit winnings and no more in the first instance.

I don't even see why regulators would want deposited money, or legally won money held.

Can they possibly detect whether or not you connect with VPN?

Keeping the money you won by violating the TOC seems wrong. It's not like we're talking about a five (or even four) digit bankroll here. They "took" $200 from you. $200! I'd probably pay PokerStars $200/day to play in the US.

PS will probably donate the confiscated money to charity.

Yes.

I emailed stars and asked them about this. First of all, it's entirely acceptable for me to use a VPN from any country in which PS is legal and make my IP address appear to come from Russia or any other country where PS is legal.

There is NO WAY to discern from the PS servers' POV whether the connection from Russia comes from a person physically located in Russia, or from a German using a VPN routed via Russia. It's exactly the same as using a VPN to by-pass geo-restricted content or using a specialist browser that encrypts traffic and creates a virtual IP in a different country. If the Chinese and American governments can't crack it, the relative one man and his dog of PS sure as heck can't do it.

If, however, at any time your guard drops, your device auto-connects to your home broadband or a wi-fi hotspot, even for a millisecond, this will negate all your efforts permanently.

Sounds like you got a fair resolution. It does seem like there are different rules depending on who you are though. I remember Mike McDonald registering for a tourney whilst in Vegas and told the Twittersphere only for PS to get wind of it and locked his account. A simple tweet to PS resolved it in double quick time. Why isn't it like that for us plebs???

... because life is not fair.

http://f5poker.com/poker-news/2014/6...joking-matter/

Well actually the geo-location service on VPN's isn't always 100%. You can go to a "what is my ip" website and the location will sometimes show you two different geo locations. VPN's will also come up as network sharing devices sometimes unless you have your own private VPN.

They (Stars) also have the ability so see what other programs are running on your computer so they may be able to see if you are running a VPN client.

You may have permission to but OP does not as he has already been caught using a VPN from the states. VPN'ing from a place where you are allowed to play seems stupid and unnecessary but whatever floats your boat.

Pro tip...if you're on a VPN enable the option where it doesn't reconnect if you get disconnected.


*edit* So in reading your other post it seems as if you think IP's in russia are prone to run good on stars? Or am I reading that wrong? So you want to VPN from russia because you think it will help you run better? LOL if true.

Just to clear some things up. In the original response where Pokerstars said they freezing my funds and reinstating my account they noted that while Pokerstars does not stipulate that you can't play with a VPN, they highly recommended that I didn't.

When I settled the issue of getting my funds back, the security person I was dealing with stated she was placing a special restriction on my account that I cannot play real money games while connected to a VPN. I guess if I play real money games while connected to a VPN they said they will freeze my account and I risk losing the balance again. I questioned further about what if I inadvertently was connected because it runs in the background and is not always noticeable. She wouldn't put anything in writing but I kinda got the message that I would probably have to jump through significant hoops to prove I wasn't in restricted location.

Regardless I've been playing without the VPN connected and it is my every intention to never play while connected obviously. Hopefully I don't screw it up.

I think you are confusing Pokerstars with the Death Star. If Stars had that capability they would be violating the privacy of all their customers. If you have any proof of this, please provide it and we can all share in the windfall from the lawsuit.

In the past when I have had issues with Stars (I was an Alpha and Beta tester for years) I was required to send them my DxDiag. I'm guessing it would have been more efficient for Stars to extract that info directly from all their testers than ask and wait.

You got that bit spot on. Don't think I don't know how crazy it sounds but, as men of science, we can only go by our observables, right?

Sorry for divergence from OP

1) Happy you got some sort of resolution
2) Stars can see what network you have connected from, e.g. Sky, BT, Verizon etc. If you connect with a small name VPN only service, well, clearly you are using a VPN. If, however, you connect with a VPN provided by your domestic or an international broadband provider from a legal country..........

https://www.pokerstars.com/poker/roo...olsandservices

Pretty sure it's a well known fact that they have the ability to see what programs are running on your computer when you are running the Stars client. I believe it's in the TOS somewhere.

You think an IP from Russia is rigged but yet can't fathom Pokerstars can look at running programs. LOL...you're dumb.

WOW

I will be emailing them on this. If they can see any programs that interact with the Stars client, that would be one thing (just monitoring their own software and looking for clues by the presence, or lack of, certain parameters). If they can see ALL the programs running or installed on my computer, that is staggering. Will update.

Game integrity bro.

Go back to the rigtard thread.

As I expected, no, Pokerstars is not the Death Star. They can only monitor through the client, NOT YOUR HARD DRIVE. So, if you run programs that interact with the client, yes, thankfully Stars can detect this. The rest of your data and installed programs are off-limits.

Correspondence with Stars, names redacted:

Hello XXXXXXXXXX,

Thank you for your email.

Please note that there is no
functionality in the PokerStars software to alter in any way the integrity of
your computer or system. The PokerStars application can only modify itself
through the automatic updates. It is not possible for PokerStars staff to
remotely modify any file on your computer, or send any file to your
machine.

However, please note that the PokerStars software will monitor if
you are using prohibited tools and services, and this may trigger a few alarms
with many security applications.

If we find one of the prohibited tools or
services, we will alert the player that they are running a prohibited tools or
service and tell them what it is. We will ask that they stop running the tool or
service immediately. If they comply, fine. If not, then we will prevent the
PokerStars client from running on their computer.

It is also very important
to note that we will NOT look for anything else on your computer. Our sole
interest is in protecting our players and our site from tools and services that
we believe are bad for the integrity and fairness of our games. We do not review
internet browsing histories, documents, or other private files and information
in the computer.

PokerStars takes your privacy very seriously and complies
with relevant Data Protection law. PokerStars does not collect
personally-identifiable information, other than that provided by the player
during account registration and routine security verifications. It is not
possible for any member of PokerStars staff to read or copy private data from
your machine. For more information on this subject, please see our Privacy
Policy at:

http://www.pokerstars.uk/poker/room/privacy/

We hope this has
helped to alleviate your concerns about playing in our
site.

Regards,

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
PokerStars Technical
Specialist

He's banned, I see, but I don't think that email even proved the point he was making.