gg softest games ever

what exactly has changed in the austrian legal framework?

For noobs, can someone explain the .fr thing? I'd always assumed .fr was PS' ringfenced France site. But what countries did it include?

Damn ! But why ??

it's fenced b/c the player pool only includes the fr-client, but you could/can sign up from other countries ... kinda surprised about the pull from Austria and i've no clue whatsoever what "change of the legal framework" they are referring to

Sry, confused - if it's "fenced", i presumed that meant that you MUST be located within France to play, is that correct? Are you saying that you can SIGN UP from anywhere, or that you can actually PLAY from anywhere?
e.g. can Russians create both ps.com and ps.fr accounts and play both from russia??

all you needed was an EU bank account. UK nationals used to be able to play. I would have been able to play from Vietnamese IP when they banned the UK as I was not physically located in the UK and had Viet address. I am pretty sure Canadians and Australians can play from their respective countries with an EU bank account unless the rules have changed for they countries. Not sure about Russia but you definitely would need an EU bank account at the very least.

Correct.

For exemple, i live in Switzerland. Not in the EU. I could play on .FR, but in order to do that i would have to open a bank account in an EU country.

short answer: you don't have to be located in france and i know several ppl from Germany/Austria, who played. also a lot of ppl on P5s have fr-accounts added to their profile ... i never signed up, so i never bothered to check all the details tbh

Cool, thx. (I assume Stars has no problem with people having BOTH .com and .fr accts?)

No problems, they are different sites.

Nothing changed. In late 2014 the Austrian government started to look into online gambling licenses in more detail. Operating gambling sites in Austria without an Austrian issued license is illegal. So I guess stars.fr stalled as long as they could and now the time has come where they have to shut their virtual doors. Shame..

Is this gonna make the fields better or worse?

Very sad day for me personally.....

Regarding Highstakes MTT:
Now with FTP and stars.fr gone u basicly have to decide between those reg-infectet 12-19 bb avg stack games (obv with higher rake than ever) on stars.com or the little offer on other sites with ****ty software......

How many f***ed up news can they come up with in such a short time??? (probably cant blame amya for this one tho)

A little better for .fr and no influence on .com is my guess
But they are amazing with or without Austria throughout all buy-in levels

I suppose PokerStars.fr withdrawal may have something to do with this:

QUOTE: Gaming software specialist Playtech has agreed terms to take over the supply of Austria’s regulated online poker network. The initial three-year deal will see Playtech work closely with the Austrian Lotteries and Casinos Austria-owned win2day brand to replace existing suppliers and deliver a desktop and mobile-enabled poker platform for the country’s only regulated network.

The platform will launch in March with software and technical support over the next three years, as Playtech works alongside win2day to expand the offering.

SOURCE: http://www.intergameonline.com/i-gam...-poker-network

Why would .fr pull out because of austrian legislation but .eu won't ?!

Last dense question: what's an "EU bank account"...just a bank account denominated in Euros? Or one that's domiciled in an EU country? And if the latter, do you have to be a resident of an EU country to open an "EU bank acct"?

Because of the kangaroos

It's just a bank account held in a country within the EU.

I had a stars.fr account in the UK before our legislation revamp.
My UK Current Account in GBP was acceptable to open it. Note - this was the only method allowed for withdrawal. I guess it cut down on fraud.

I would assume its possible to get an EU bank account even if you are not a resident in the EU, that would be up to the individual bank.

There was also a slightly more stringent KYC process to get an account with stars.fr, including having to receive a letter in the mail.

[1] I believe an E.U. Bank Account is a bank account in any of the 28 European Union member states

[2] You don't need to be a resident of a particular country to open a bank account, but it isn't cut & dried

** US customers are not welcome at all European banks for all sorts of reasons
** Many banks [but not all] do require residency
** Banks that don't require residency may not accept you if you don't show up on their credit scoring system [so European banks aren't likely to find you on their system if you've done no business locally & you don't reside in the EU]
** All banks will move mountains to open an account for you no matter where you're from if you're wealthy
** Good luck trying to open a bank account if you're 'no fixed abode' or actually homeless [although there are regs in place to counter this discrimination]

Example: This link mentions two German banks that will take non-EU residents: https://www.deutscheskonto.org/en/op...count-germany/

Nothing, most likely. Same as in Schleswig-Holstein, where PS all of a sudden decided to stop offering FT and PS.fr without any legal Change since like 3 years (licenses been given out, but ignored for years before).

"The Schleswig-Holstein question is so complicated, only three men in Europe have ever understood it"

Someone asked support:

Hmm. Reminds me of what happened with Ireland suddenly being kicked up the hole and off of Winamax.fr too.
Still can't understand why.