So Pokerstars won't let me withdraw my money.

For 3 weeks they've been coming back with an email like this...

Hello ******,

Your email has been escalated to me and I will be personally following up with you. Unfortunately at the moment we don't have any different information to provide and we continue to seek alternatives to send your a withdrawal for the balance in your Stars account.

Unfortunately we no longer have the option to withdraw funds to a bank account in your country specifically nor via Entropay. Should you own a bank account in a different location, please let us know and we will submit your request to our security department for review. Otherwise, we will inform you as soon as we have found an alternative to proceed with the withdrawal of your funds.

Thank you for your patience and your understanding.

Regards,

Carlos
Stars Payment Services Senior Manager





I mean wtf?

Basically what they are saying is "Thank you for putting money on our site, now you can't withdraw it". Very FTPy of them.

I've offered to do a player transfer (and they have said no). There are numerous methods they have as ways to withdraw that I can accept, so the problem is at their end, not mine.

I'm not sure how they think this is actually okay.


Note - I am Australian, so I can't gamble it. Not that I want to, because **** pokerstars.

Well if gambling is ilegal in Australia then they would properly commit a crime if they made a bank transfer so that's why they say no to that.
Did you use Entropay to put money to the site or how did you do that ?

He wasn't living in Australia when he was playing on Stars though. Is it a crime for them to make a bank transfer of money he won when he was a resident of a different country now that he's back in Australia?

You post too often. Wait and see.

This makes no sense.

The two things in your sentence ("gambling" and "making a bank transfer") are different things. If one is a crime then it doesn't mean the other thing is prohibited.


Fundamentally, of course The Stars Group can send you a cheque or wire a payment if they wanted to do so, especially because they operate various businesses in Australia. It might be a hassle or inconvenient for them to do so, but really, the idea that it's hard to send a cheque to Australia (or a bank wire) is just nonsense.

OP,

FWIW, having met Carlos in the past, he's an outstanding person and likely genuinely working in your favour. That said, there might be administrative issues and challenges that he is facing. I suggest working cooperatively with him to resolve the issue. I think he's almost certainly acting in good faith.

I am Australian, but have played from all over the world.

I have an American bank card (which they didn't accept). I'm currently staying in the USA, so they could send a check here.

They told me in an email it's been a problem since August, so it's been 3 months. And they say "they are working on it", but that's as much as they've told me. Gut feel is that it's going to be a long term issue (if it is ever solved). Being that they can't get any deposits from Australians I can't see it being high on their list of things to sort out.

It just blows my mind.

Ask anyone who they think is the most trustworthy site to be able to get your money at any time and they would say Stars. Thought I would just let people know that Stars can just say no to you if you ask for a cash out just because they want to.

I don't remember how I deposited the money (it was several years ago).

tbh the money side of it doesn't worry me (it's not a lot of money). It's the principle. Biggest poker website in the world. The most trustworthy one. etc etc, just said "No" to me withdrawing my money because they have a problem.

You could ask for the money to be cashed out to the USA - their settlement with the DOJ expressly requires them to allow American players to cash out.

nope. They told me that they can only send it to me if I am in New Jersey.

They're wrong.

This is their exact words...

"Unfortunately, the same limitation we have to withdraw the funds in your country, we have to do so in the United States outside of New Jersey where we are regulated and support deposits and withdrawals for residents of the state."

At the outset, let me say that I expect that this situation will be resolved by them paying you - PokerStars, and the folks who have been emailing you, tend to be honest and decent on such issues.

Cool.

The issue is that you and the PokerStars staff member are talking about two different things.

You're asking to have your money sent to you. I don't think you really care how it is sent to you.

They're saying that they "can not" do it with their current/standard payment providers.

Of course PokerStars has the ability to give you your money if they are sufficiently motivated to do so. Obviously, The Stars Group sends money into the US all the time to pay various other creditors in the normal course of business. Obviously, The Stars Group sends money into Australia all the time to pay various other creditors in the normal course of business. It's obviously not impossible for them to do so - obviously, they have significant and substantial businesses in both countries. Indeed, I got an email overnight asking me to create an account with their Australian online gambling brand, BetEasy.

I think you have two options here:
a) wait for them to complete their current/ordinary processes.

b) escalate/pressure PokerStars to hurry up and give you your money.

You can choose option (b) by:

1) Asking for the issue to be escalated for re-review (although Carlos is a senior staff member, so you're pretty close to the end of that chain anyway)

2) The Stars Group employ a player advocate. You can ask for your issue to be escalated for review by her.

3) The Stars Group under license from Governments where their servers are located. I assume (but am not certain - you might have been playing on one of their locally regulated licenses) that your account will be covered by the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission. You can contact the IOM GSC and ask them to review the issue. Their contact details are here: https://www.gov.im/categories/busine...-and-e-gaming/ (I've found the IOMGSC to be very responsive and helpful with various queries both recently and in the past - they're very legit). If you're not certain whether you were playing under the Stars Group's IOM license, you can just contact Stars and ask for them to refer you to whichever regulator applies.

4) You may be able to consider taking legal action. Please consult a professional legal adviser for further assistance with this. This is likely to be expensive and a waste of money until you've exhausted (1) - (3) above.

Thanks for your help Josem. It's greatly appreciated. I even forgive you for being a Hawks supporter...

I'll contact them again in a week. At that stage it will have been one month since my initial request for a withdrawal. This is a fair and reasonable time to wait (I believe). I will look at your options 1 to 3. I'm talking a few hundred dollars here, so option 4 won't happen.

Half my emails I send to them go unanswered at the moment. I assume mainly because they don't have an answer they know I want to hear.

That sounds reasonable.

They're likely acting in good faith, so I think that this makes sense.

Just to give feedback...

Pokerstars have now ignored my last 3 emails.

- Sent 24th of October
- Sent 8th of November
- Sent 11th of November

I realize that the 11th was only yesterday, but the entire content was just asking them to reply to the email I sent on the 8th.

The email I sent on the 8th was...

Hi Carlos,

It has now been over one month since I made my request to withdraw money.

I would like to know every step that Pokerstars has made in that month period to further my (fairly simple) request. Alternatively you can just let me know how I can retrieve my money now and we can all move on from this.

maybe u can xfer the funds to someone, who can cash out, and then can send u the money

nope.

I have already made that suggestion.

They said no.

Still no reply....

Give the man his Monies Pokerstars

Isle of Man Gambling Commission Contact Details
Email: gaming@gov.im
Telephone: +44 1624 694331

Hi fidstar-poker, I just saw this thread; I am in exactly the same situation. I am Australian and have had a Pokerstars account for 10 years and held off withdrawing my funds when Pokerstars pulled out of the Australian market on the hope that they would re-enter. I bit the bullet recently and tried to withdraw funds and have had the same issues as you.

Have you had any luck since your last message on 18/11?

I have through the player advocate (not an ideal solution, but a semi solution). I will PM their details.

The player advocate sorted it out in 24 hours after 6+ weeks of absolutely nothing from Pokerstars. Amazing work.

Thank you for your help fidstar-poker

fidstar-poker can you tell me what is exactly player advocate and how to get in touch with him because pokerstars also doesn't let me to withdraw,and it's been 3 weeks now.

See https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...94&postcount=3

Also:

*

Edit: I have been informed by a third party that JoanH is no longer a Player Advocate. Can she or any PS Rep confirm or otherwise, please?