There is never next to no reason why some ipoker site kicks some countries out.

Wow. PS has gone to a new low. Ridiculous.

This is what I emailed them:

Hello
> I still haven't received my percentage of VIP stellar rewards yet. I sent an email few days back to support and I got no reply from Pokerstars. If I am not given any reply this time then I will email UIGEA, UK gambling comission, the online poker regulatory board, Nevada Gaming control board and all other regulatory boards there are with screenshots of my pokerstars client which I have taken as a proof for robbing me my part of the VIP services that Pokerstars owe me. I will email them that without any prior warning whatsoever PokerStars stopped providing us services and locked our VIP rewards which we could have cleared in time had it been informed. I will tell them how petty and cheap PokerStars has become so they don't have to pay players the VIP service rewards by shutting down service without prior warning. I have also opened a group where all the players from the recently banned countries will file their individual complaints to such boards and let them know who PokerStars really is and if that would be really a good idea to let them enter the US market again. If PokerStars can do such vile acts of theft then I wonder how they would be again be a trusted online poker company.
Thanks

And this is what they replied me:

Thank you for your email.

I have credited $8.53 to your account for the partial 1,500 VPP Stellar Reward.

Regards,

Gareth
PokerStars VIP Team

Congrats on your $8.53 "go away" money.

I once had a meeting with three very senior budget holders regarding a customer refund bigger than this by some margin. After 15 mins I pointed out that we had already spent more in our time that the amount disputed, after 30 mns I did the same, again after 45 mins...we have just spent three times the amount involved arguing about which budget pays it...at 1 hr 15 with lunch looming and 5 times spent they split it three ways...at $8.53 I would hope that the customer services rep had the power to pay this rather than ask permission, otherwise....

Congratulations on your rewards! , as a player who is affected by their decision of not offering real money in my region, I hope you e-mail them asking them to be back in your region again since there is no regulatory barrier. I e-mailed them a dozen times not asking for my stellar rewards, but to urge them to be back offering real money again because that is the thing I and I think all poker players do want from them

To be really really honest, I dont bother for PokerStars to be back in my country. The way the acted and pulled out of my country was a serious breach of trust. With their corporate mentality and BS I think I am better off playing somewhere else. And PS is infested with too many regs anyways. Altho their VIP system was amazing!

Could anybody here please show me exactly where does it say that UKGC-licensees have to leave so called "grey" markets (such as Russia particularly)?

Couldn't find it in the following official documents:
- Gambling Act 2005
- LCCP sector summary for remote betting

Thanks in advance.

So its been more than 2 days and I haven't got any reply on why Pokerstars left those countries without giving any prior notice to them after they told me earlier that they will notify players well in advance should there be any change to the services they offer

This was the mail we received from William Hill Poker(we were told 5 days before they plan to exit India)

"Dear xxx,

We regret to inform you that William Hill has taken a decision to withdraw all of its online betting and gaming services for all residents of IN for the foreseeable future.

We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you; however this decision has been taken for regulatory reasons beyond our control.

We will be suspending all accounts of all residents of IN from midday (GMT) 11 December 2013. After this date, you will not be able to use your account to access our online sportsbook, casino or games products."

Betfair reason:

"Thank you for contacting Betfair.
Unfortunately since you are currently residing in India, Poker would not be available to you on our site.
The reason for this is that due to certain laws and legislations we would not be able to provide Poker in India.
May we apologise for any inconvenience caused by this. "

Got a reply from Richas. Continued discussion here - http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...l#post45066299

November 1 is looming guys!!
Expect few more pull outs )

Just got the email about it going live Nov 3rd. Why it's not going live on the 1st is a mystery to me.

Nov 1st is a holiday/weekend I suppose (Saturday). What else did the email say?

What is going to go live on Nov 3rd ???

Sorry guys on my phone and posted in the wrong thread (meant to post in UK one)

The email says the new software for UK players will go live on the 3rd nov. It also says although the website might reference the Isle of Man licence that UK players will be playing under the UK licence from Nov 1st.

I emailed stars about not being able to serve Canadians after next week.


Thanks for your reply.

The changes we are making next week are in order to comply with our offering to UK players. This is not something that impacts our ability to offer services to other jurisdictions (nothing will change next week in that respect).

Thus, we will still be offering real money games to Canadian players next week, in the rare event that anything changes we will be proactive in our communication to players.


Regards,

Simon
PokerStars Support Team

It's concerning they haven't been able to give that reply to Australians or Russians yet

They apparently are now

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...&postcount=702

Well that's good, hopefully over the last couple of days they've nutted out an agreement and will continue to serve us

Not what they have said. They have talked about next week, nothing more. They have also announced huge rake changes that look like a panic response (after adding withdrawal charges).

I would like clarity if "next week" they are operating in the UK under a continuation licence or if their full licence has been agreed. No full licence, noi clear deal.

I suspect they got a continuation licence and the grey market stuff is still in play. Sorry if that is less hopeful than their short standard email about next week but the grey market thang has not disappeared. It is still a real issue

1.11., 2:30 central european time, Russians and Australians still playing.

The changes are supposed to happen on November 3rd and it's already been confirmed more countries won't be kicked out then, anyway.

Stars were granted a continuation license so nothing will change for now. When they get a full license (No idea when this will be) it still seems likely they'll be pulling out of Aus/Russia/wherever else.

The alternative is that due to "integrity" issues in serving illegal markets they are refused a UK licence. In that event they would need to close to UK players.

Given the UKGC had 161 full remote gambling licence applications it may take them a while to check them all. Their ;atest blog update was to allow flexibility for those with continuation licences to introduce new to their site games so long as others serving the UK already have them which suggests it may take a while.

the only 'good thing' to come out of this was we would know in black and white very shortly, and it now looks like we'll be strung out for how long we dont know?

what a **** around

where has it been confirmed theyve been given a continuation licence and I understand you said no idea when the full licence will be granted, what do you think is a fair time frame? (ie 1-2 months, 6months, 12 months etc)

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/uk-gam...110000288.html

Re: the time frame, see Richas' post above. They have 161 applications so who knows whether Stars will be near the top or how long they'll take etc.

I do think we'll get notified a fair bit in advance when it does inevitably happen, though. I highly doubt it'll be a "wake up one day and it's gone" situation like those other countries a month ago.

I still don't understand if the action of pokerstars on Sept 30th of withdrawing from around 30 countries was related to the new UK license or it was just a mere business action of cutting costs!