Casino games is a good thing. (sites with casinos and sports books are the softest to play on)

Pulling out of 30 countries that offer little to to their bottom line and could hinder them getting into legitimate markets that represent a huge % of their bottom line is a good thing. (though it sucks for the small population of the player pool effected)

How they went about it, not so great, but the same thing would have happened no matter who was in charge.

I know nothing of the satty changes, please enlighten me.

They are the softest to play on now. But at the point all pokersites offer them that advantage is obviously gone. It's a bad thing because the good players will leave those games for what they are, but the degens might spends their occasional pokerwinnings in the casino instead of reinvesting it on the poker-tables.

What about the degens who come just for the casino and then go dump in the poker room? You know, that's kind of how casinos work in a live setting.

If you look at something from one angle you can always make it seem bad.

If it were CasinoStars it might work that way and that'd be good. But seems to me someone looking for a casino is unlikely to end up on PokerStars.com.

I guess you don't understand how important it is to have what is most likely the biggest database of internet gamblers there is.

Where are people more likely to take their casino business, a site that can heavily advertise and has the trust of an entire industry or one of the shady sites that won't be able to advertise in legal markets?

It seems to me everyone just wants something to bitch about.

Some of the Muslim countries didn't have many fish or winning players, but I did see some at tiny stakes which are purely entertainment for Western people but they could be part time employment for an Iranian at 5NL or 10NL. The terrorist angle is bull as what is 5NL player playing with as a bankroll? That can't even by a new gun. It's probably Stars figuring that the rake generated from 2NL and 5NL through 25NL isn't worth the bother in countries where it's clearly against the law and Stars can't promote the game legally. So all they get are tagfish or out right winners.

No more of this "its not about "terrorism".

Let's have an economical chat for a moment. Western powers have been seeking to destabilize local economy under the guise of inflation control since the great depression. By law of economics this would cause the local peoples to seek a more stable currency, and so as an adjustment these western powers have sought to destabilize those countries that do not subscribe to the Keynsian money printing method (ie Islam does not believe in such usuary practices).

Because of Adam Smiths explanations we know that economy flows like water from the stagnating areas to the flowing ones, and so governments have been doing everything they can to use laws, regulation, and intimidation to seal off any "leaks" in this regard.

This includes many payment networks that the general player is not aware of and so there are many such controls in place to combat these lines. Poker falls in this category not as a logical means for terrorist suppression, but simply as a natural enemy to those that want to close all lines to external thinking economies.

It's not a coincidence these places are generally labeled as "terrorist" in both Canada and US policy makers eyes. It's mostly just economics and a little bit of ignorance, but it cannot be said to be unrelated to terrorism. And what seems clear (and was announced on stars twitter), was this was a move to keep the transition of Amaya squeaky clean in relation to both and canada and us governments field of view.

It all makes perfect sense I think. Other than the part where Amaya inherited a customer base they are driving out of their own market.

What is most interesting in relation to all this is what would be the effects of a more "viscous" currency in the mix, one of a stable supply, with no suppressive international regulations that can slip between these kinds of cracks, and what it might mean to a poker world that is increasingly being cut off from its freedom to an exchange of monies for chips. Or the relation to a market where new sites are entering at an increasing rate.

This all comes from and is quite related to "ideal poker" or course. And to the Islamic and other countries/players that were banned don't worry we didn't forget about you.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...poker-1353102/
When government suppresses economy it works like a damn-the pressure just builds up. And PROVIDED the players of the economic game have an OPTION to exercise their wants, the "water" WILL in fact find a way.

And there are in fact multiple "international" poker projects (that I know of) on the way.

And eventually I'll stop getting banned for making these posts (somewhere around the time when the players "clue in")

Oh no, now I know who you are..... in before Nash and rake free poker rants and ban.

They have employees posting in the riggie thread for YEARS but can't issue a statement about this.

Perhaps, but one thing is for sure - you aren't Stars customers anymore so they'll get around to you when/if they feel like it.

By and large I think he has done a good job over the years for Pokerstars but his last tweet sounds like it's directed at shareholders and not loyal customers.

I agree that they should have gone about it in a better way by giving notice. But if the choice was between dropping all of these Countries to be allowed back in the US or keep the doors open in the UK and Canada, Amaya from a business standpoint had no real choice.

Hopefully laws/politics will change so people who have being playing in these Countries will be allowed to play online again soon.

the US police state is behind this, it was decided long time ago, however, mr X, the owner at that time, asked for (or probably enforced) some grace period in order to sell it to Amaya ...

Sounds like he's a arrogant mainly. I wonder what his reaction would be to a termination letter mentioning that his work was meaningless in the bigger picture and that he's only 1 out of many employees.

His termination should be due as he does a terrible job atm.

Considering most of the US probably won't be playing poker on Stars anytime in the near future that doesn't seem very likely to me. This happened the day that the new UK regulations were supposed to take place, so I'm going to go with the new UK regulations as the culprit. (though getting rid of grey markets does help their future chances in the US as well)

What's all the US talk? There is no federal bill passing around congress. There will be no federal legislation for a very long time. At best, they can hope to service a couple of states, which would be a smaller player pool than all the countries they booted by a very large margin.

Lol mr. X. Lay off the crack pipe. Nothing has ever pointed to the DoJ seizures as a means to regulate online poker in the US, despite all the wishful thinkers back in 2011. 3 years later, not much has really changed, and nothing has changed federally.

U don't think that Stars has paid $xxxxxxxx (might be missing a few x's) just to get the lucrative NJ market do you?

New Lame Duck Sweat for Federal iPoker Bill?

SIGNED

This is the bill trying to ban all other forms of online gaming but allow poker right? If so, that has almost no chance of ever passing.

I don't think they paid more than they paid Reid a couple of years ago. Also, lucrative NJ, LMAO, there doesn't seem to be anything lucrative with the NJ market currently.

Ah, Reid again. He took from Stars; he took from the Christian coalition. He sided at the last minute (well, from outward appearances) with the player with the bigger roll: Christian coalition.

You guys are high.

It seems that the players are going to be paid back, and that this isn't the only problem PokerStars' new ownership has been causing lately. They also released a number of affiliate contracts recently too.

Here's a full list of the countries that PokerStars is leaving.

I'm not sure that the NJ market is even worth Stars going after at this point though. It sounds like its just a necessary stepping stone in that

1) The US Poker Market can't survive without Pokerstars
2) No other states will follow suit until an alliance between the states can be made and there must be proof of concept before any other states want to sign on

This is likely a response to the UK requesting tax revenue and regulation recently.

lol at the US poker market not being able to survive without Stars. Stars needs us, we don't need them. All we need is the ability to be able to play on legit sites again.