.

http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/corpor...t-151895.shtml

"We've shown that our pursuit of doing what's best for the game, what's best for the livelihood and vitality of the entire poker community, is good business, even if it means higher ongoing costs from expenses like local taxes in newly-regulated jurisdictions.
We make those decisions every day across the entire company. Most changes go unnoticed, because they're meant to unobtrusively improve the player experience, like optimising security to ensure you're playing at the safest poker site in the world.

Others changes get more attention, such as our recent changes to the foreign exchange (FX) charges or the rake that we apply to various games. We know that some of these decisions will not be popular in all quarters and they're not decisions taken lightly, but are made looking broadly across the poker ecosystem."

Pokerstars is trollin hard.

They can drop the £ easily, and in one way the $. Even online wallets ask these costs, for currency protection, variation, and i dont know what it costs and loses to have dollar account instead of euro account in a bank, eg. euro interest rates are low at saving accounts in europe.

Lets hope this leads to euro tables only w max rakes 888 style.

I remember a time banks paid me good money to have money there and all was free. Then everything started to cost and interest rates dropped to 5 times lower they are today.

The bottom line now is, i play w dollars, then slowly turn them to euros, cashout to bank account w euros, thats free, though wont stay free as i am not putting money myself to my own bank account, though the names need to be the same but thats all.

Wat? PS charge a 5% spread on major currencies. My company (and any company of any size) can do it for < 0.1%.

If you mean its bad for players and good for PS profits then I agree.

Its not that these are good decisions which we would all be delighted with if only they explained them better. Even the stars' sophisticated spin machine can't mask the stuff-the-players attitude inherent in their actions. The failure with communication is that they've tried to get through a material change to the T&C - an extra 5% in-out cost for many people without properly informing all players through email etc.

They would hold local currency accounts in any currency where they do a reasonable volume of transactions.

Bear in mind there is almost no actual cost to stars because (a) FX spreads available to them are tiny; and (b) they only have to actually convert large NET balances which build up over time (likely months) from many deposits and withdrawals. The amount they need to convert is a tiny fraction of the amount on which they are charging fees and the cost of transacting that small amount is a tiny fraction of the fee they are charging the players. This isn't a cost-offsetting exercise, its generating a new profit stream for stars on top of the rake (like charging for play-money chips).

Do you understand PS have massive currency reserves collected from players, so they are not actually making any currency conversion. It works just like transferwise.com and it costs only close to 1% (if i remember right) converting currency through that company.

i am going to list my process of deposit/withdrawal below, can someone tell me if i will incur any costs.

i deposit to the Pokerstars client in GPB

i then change the funds to dollars in the client

when i wish to withdraw i can change the funds back to GPB in the client and withdraw to my paypal account.

if i do the above transactions will i be charged?

2.5% is a disgrace and pokerstars is going down the **** pan.

The fact that there is no viable alternative to stars/fulltilt has allowed this company to run rampant. Not giving people notice of this latest gouge precluded any possibility of wide spread partial withdrawals, not advising ALL their customers, even at this late date, is repugnant.

Assuming interest rate in Isle of Man is the same as the mainland UK (which is likely) then interest rate is v v v v low at the moment.

Hippy 80 is correct btw - these charges are pretty standard to change currency. The way they've been communicated is predictably sh_e of course...


and no: I don't work for PS/shill for them etc; my employment is totally unrelated to the poker industry

CAns omeone post some math? I don't get this at all

If I withdraw £100 then I am only getting £97.5? If I deposit £100 then I am only depositing £97.5?

I left other poker sites because of not getting the amount I requested due to hidden charges like this. I will leave pokerstars if it is unreasonable. I don't mind a small charge but say one day I hit big and wanted to withdraw 100k then I am getting charged 2.5k?? That's alot of money for a bank transfer.

Also it's totally ******ed if they charge from GBP to $ because no one deposits in $ surely and they are based off the coast of England so why not just use £ for default currency.

The way to get a limit increase is if you have a large amount in your native currency and then telling stars that your unable to convert your money to USD, i'm sure then they will give you a limit increase.

If you Pstars account is in USD and you withdraw in GBP then yes you get a 2.5% charge.

If your Pstars account is in USD and you deposit in GBP then yes you get a 2.5% charge.


Basically, if your bank account is in GBP and your pokerstars is in USD then you will be charged 2.5% every time you move money to or off the site.

My pokerstars is in £ but I convert all my funds to USD as the games are in $. My pokserstars account is in £ and in the summary it tells me how many £ I have despite my funds being in $.

Currently my $ and £ representations are accurate. The wallet conversion is also accurate.
I see nothing to suggest losing 2.5% unless it shows up on my bank statement or on the withdrawal screen.

This post nails it. It's basically theft from those who aren't sophisticated enough to use a competitive FX exchange service instead.

A core example that PS are no longer a poker room for poker players. Instead they're a turkey for Amaya to carve up without a care for what's left when they're done.

Very shortsighted and the opposite of that bull**** PR piece they put out. Immediate cash grab at the cost of long term viability.

Good news is it opens the door for competing rooms coming out of the US in the near future.

Don't know if I'm wrong but it seems that my GBP play is unaffected by this. Internal exchanges don't come under the fee and that is what I was worried about. I assume that the same is correct for euro accounts. My withdrawal requests match my account, so unless there is some hidden charge afterwards then you are fine if palying in GBP. Just make sure your account is in the correct preferred currency. If I deposit ££ and withdraw EU or $ then it's fair game for there to be a charge.

Other currencies will be hit by this, but I'm not. SO basically I don'#t give a **** except it means less $$ in the player pool, which is already sufficient.

This will detterr players from Australia or wherever depositing though once they get wind of it. I refuse to play on PKR.com because of it's stealing when depositing/withdrawing so I assume others will do the same with stars.

More BS but atleast this time they were smart enough not to use 2+2 to speak to the community: http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/corpor...t-151895.shtml

Guys, it's okay, you can always just head back to Full Tilt... oh.

What are you gonna do about it? The 3 other main sites keep disconnecting the last few days (weeks) to the point of being unplayable.

Amaya has us by the balls and they know it.

Yes this way should be fine and you should not get the 2.5% charge then. Assuming that you also convert the money back to GBP before withdrawing.
The charge is for depositing and withdrawing from "different" currencies.

AmayaStars making one new "improvement". Any guesses how many millions of dollars this "small change" that isn't even mentioned by Stars will bring to their pockets? What next? Compulsory 1% withdrawal fee? Or why not to go for 3% like Party Poker did as RICH PLAYERS can afford it?

Not considering PokerStars very safe for my funds any more. In future just keeping smaller bankroll there, then.

I see and even hope if these countless suckouts continue that AmayaStars will face future like PartyPokers, and some site(s) that actually concentrates to poker will rise up to prominence.

The way I am reading all of this there seems to be an easy way to avoid a large percentage of the fee, transfer your funds to a wallet that matches your home currency first, then cash out. I confirmed this via chat with Josem.

Is it the same on Full Tilt? This whole situation is really sad to me. Stars always seemed so far above this kind of ****. The future doesn't look bright.

Yes, but what about those who aren't sophisticated enough to do this? Which is going to be 90% of recreational players. All they'll see is their money disappearing, when they notice, and then they'll think twice before doing business with pokerstars again.

btw this has to be a GIGANTIC money-grab for stars. Like, straight up 20% increased revenue or something.

And for players who cant use their home currency on PS?

This would all be well and good if players were informed of the fact that if they don't change their usual deposit/withdrawal habits stars will be helping themselves to 2.5% of each transaction