I was too harsh with PokerStars:
I will send a complaint to the UKGC and I encourage everyone to do something similar.
https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/contact-us

Meanwhile, I'll look for and play on some unregulated site.

Thank you for the link, I have just submitted a complaint to the UKGC and please others do so as well.

This change currently puts UK players at a disadvantage and makes it less likely for them to win, the complete opposite of what is intended in terms of protecting them.

I don't think it is a new regulation. As I posted above, auto rebuys were under threat years ago, but the UKGC said they could go ahead if players were monitored and they were allowed to continue.

This - I hate stars so good, I hope they lose even more of their player pool

But I also note this -

“For example, we would expect licensees to effectively implement other responsible gambling measures that are intended to protect players from harm. This means an operator is expected to monitor the play of their customers and, if unusual or excessive gambling activity occurred, the operator should take appropriate action.”

GG email you every hour, and a pop up box asks you if you wish to continue playing (888 also does similar) - so I would assume this ax to actually matches the criteria of the above comment. So I’m actually gonna guess 888 and GG will be ok. Tho not sure about Party..as far as I’m aware Party do not currently offer this type of service. But as they have very similar looking software to GG now, I also hope they implement a similar check only

Also I imagine limiting someone to rebuy only to 100bb also meets this criteria too. Eg a player suffers a bad beat and then cannot buy in for 1,000 BB.. but as said above, I think the other conditions will OK it

I hope you're right super_dave & davmcg, that is, it is merely a poorly-executed implementation from PokerStars of the UKGC legislation. If that's the case, it is not well thought out. I don't see how clicking the rebuy buttons manually every few hands will not lead to frustration and frustration will not turn into loss of money.

Regardless, I have sent a complaint to UKGC. Their legislation is meant to protect me, not destroy my hobby. They have been sending big fines to 888 (9.4 millions) and Sky (1.17 millions) recently. I wonder if it hasn't indirectly led to the current situation.

Any word on loyalty programs changing as a result of these new regulations? There are muppets in government calling for a complete ban on loyalty schemes which would obviously be terrible for UK poker players.

I could still auto-rebuy on Sky Poker this evening, which is a UK-only site. I think they are part of the same group as Stars.

whats your alias buddy?

I've emailed Stars stating that this issue was dealt with years ago (and linking the Gambling Commission's agreement that prohibition wasn't required if players were monitored for excessive buyins) and asking for the mail to be forwarded to the compliance dept. btw there isn't any point in hassling the Gambling Commission unless you can find some evidence that they have introduced a new rule or are responsible for the change.

Unfortunately it appears to me that if Stars compliance or auditors simply looked at the relevant guidance text, without the UKGC's comments

they are unlikely to change their policy (I was in finincial compliance for years and they are always low risk).

**** ratholers let the bastards go broke

If only there were a way to replace a loyalty scheme which would be equitable to everyone. They could call it something like instant rakeback, where they have the simple solution of charging less rake

Oh FFS. This is mental, I multi-table zoom, this is a real issue for me. You know every time you pickup a big hand the previous hand you would have just been stacked down to 1BB by someone on 99BB who couldn't rebuy.

Thanks for posting this. Just spent the last couple of hours uninstalling, deleting profiles, re-installing trying to work out why I wasn't getting topped up.

Guess I'll be looking elsewhere to play now.

This sucks so hard.

How can they actually implement this without thinking everyone will leave.

they didnt 'implement it', it was forced upon them by UK regulations

If it was "forced on them", why didn't they do it eight years ago when the UKGC first issued the relevant guidance?

I don't understand the huge push in recent years to go after online poker by governments. Would have expected them to get softer. Pathetic and idiotic.

Its all a **** show. Why only stars? Y not other sites?

Stars still has player transfers for .uk guys?

Casuals simply don't care about this sort of thing

5th time today I'm getting stacked in the BB and losing out on the BTN.
just uninstalled pokerstars, if other sites follow suit I'm in vegas cya gl.

I now think that davmgc is right. I haven't been able to find any new legislation later than 2014:
https://www.gamblingcommission.gov.u...ed-legislation

I have sent a message to PokerStars through their client, asking them to reconsider and to forward it to their compliance / legal department.

Meanwhile, I am withdrawing and uninstalling.

Well yeah, I mean with these changes they have literally created an unfair game for UK players where the opposition from other countries have an advantage over them, as they force the UK players to get dealt less IP seats than what they actually deserve for the amount of blinds they have posted, so it is in effect harder for UK players to be profitable on their site.

Remember in 2008 when everyone would go allin every hand for an hour in rebuy tourneys? Gotta get that big stack

ye if other sites follow this is the end, gotta reg it up in the casinos

I don't think we've heard of other sites followiing suit with this yet have we? If so, then this just seems to be a new Pokerstars interpretation of UKGC guidance that just puts them at a competitive disadvantage compared to the competition such as GG Poker and Party Poker that are not doing this.

Now the argument about ''Well Pokerstars are just being ethical and doing the right thing and if it costs them some traffic in the short term then they will potentially win traffic back in the medium and long term, and if not, well at least they are doing the right thing'' does not really hold any water either. This is because by taking this new interpretation they are now running unfair games where players from one country have a disadvantage against players from other countries, and this in itself is not ethical.

So by the looks of things, Pokerstars are not only putting themselves at a competitive disadvantage with this new stance, but it is also unethical to boot, so it just seems like lose-lose to me.

They should implement something where if you lose a hand and fall under 100bb a button pops up saying 'top up default buy in', it can just stay up for 1-2 seconds so it won't slow down the game.