New stars update putting in the backend for chests, the end is near.

Assuming this to be true, and I don't have any motive to think otherwise, this brings me to another question. At this point all of their promotions are player targeted. They clearly have their player pool segregated into withdrawal players and net depositors, alongside with other volume segregation. I have a couple of friends that play recreationaly and lose money that receive promotions I don't even get noticed of. This is a fact.

So how can we be sure that they don't apply the same concept to pick the winners of the big chest prizes, picking "randomly" recreational players that they know will still leave the money there? THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT because by the actual standards of the company this is a very possible situation.

Are you getting your fair share and this is indeed the new standards for the rakeback or are your luck being "adjusted" so you can run under expectation?

Will they even put out the percentages of each reward? It's probably not on their best interest to do so but they should.

This should be a real concern at least on those legal markets like the one I'm playing at. The laws should enforce it on this kind of mercenaries like the Chinese did recently regarding the loot systems of the video game companies.

This is the only way to protect the players from being scammed by these unscrupulous companies.

This is the same idea as "online poker is rigged because I always lose to fish" lol

I'm glad you brought this up, because this exact concept has been exposed recently for third-party sites undercutting Valve's CS:GO crates.

The framework is exactly what you would suspect... it can be customized via backend to increase/decrease payouts per user... meaning a certain segment of the market has very little or no chance of ever winning the top prizes (dubbed "Rape Mode" if you can believe that), while those who stream or are sponsored have a much higher payout rate, thus suckering viewers into believing the rewards are better than they really are. So yes, what you are referring to is 100% possible and even "requested" by those third-party sites in the CS:GO case-opening market.

YouTuber "SidAlpha" (going off of Honor The Call's reporting) uploaded a video on it early last week. See 2:44 to 4:47

Yeah but CS:GO third-party sites are run by shady gipsies in a third-world country while poker companies are run by respectable people in lawless offshore locations where nobody will never be able to verify their integrity, you can't compare both, it's totally different.

icwudt & you have a point sir

+1.

Speculation doesn't have to be right, but it's worth mentioning that the speculation that rich-overnight David Baazov was pretty tight with his brother Josh/Ofer Baazov (convicted for ripping off remote gamblers), turned out to be true.

That's interesting. It made me think of how a large number of high value Spins were at one time reported to have been won on streams.

Spin prizes would be subject to regulation whereas chests wouldn't though, is that right?

I'm unsure, but on a COMPLETE GUESS I'd say the Chest system logically has some sort of access panel in place to tweak awards how they see fit. Since sites consider cashback as gifts to begin with then perhaps that would allow them to manipulate prize tiers in such a way while straddling what's legal, but again that's just me guessing.

Still, the lack of transparency of the Rewards system is something that needs to be communicated in my opinion.

EDIT: For those saying Baazov has little to no ties with Amaya/Stars Group, keep in mind that the company is still covering his legal fees afaik, which was brought up by Jason Ader (SpringOwl investment) in a reprimanding letter to the board late last year. Baazov's trial is scheduled to begin this November.

"Despite the many criticisms, the letter adopts a positive tone towards the future of Amaya. Ader suggests specific steps the board can take to rectify the situation.

Clean split with Baazov—Ader suggests a clean separation from David Baazov, whose shares should be placed in trust. He demands, as he has done before, that the company stop paying Baazov’s legal costs and salary."

SOURCE: https://www.onlinepokerreport.com/23...es-baazov-bid/

confimred for july 1st?

UK players received email in the early hours of last night to confirm new rewards programme starts "next week"

Is this confirmed? I didn't get one one. Is it possible that they wouldn't send you this email if you're opted out of marketing emails?

BE players got the mail too and the client has been updated to add Stars Rewards to the news items.

It says "next week" so theoretically July 3rd should be the earliest date I guess.

Wouldn't surprise me, that way they can let all the unknowing players grind a full weekend to get a head start for their silver,gold, whatever level and then take it away after the weekend

What you're suggesting here, if I'm reading right, would be clearly illegal. They have published the payout table for crates and stated they are distributed randomly.

You are suggesting there is some backend panel to "tweak" this, implying they are in some way non-random. That sounds to me like clearly fraudulent activity, and would jeopardize their gaming licenses around the world.

They have already built in their "tweak" ability - they can change on a per customer basis how long it takes to earn a chest.

If the company wants nothing to do with Baazov why are they paying for his legal fees? I've been feverishly trying to find the article that states Baazov's influence is still noticable within Amaya to back up my post from before but i can't find it.

Can confirm I received mail about it starting next week, UK account.

I (swedish) just got email from stars saying I get the new chest system from next week.

It's almost funny, I've been thinking of moving sites since my main site (swedish svs) changed their client into something terrible. But with this stars really cement their position as a no-go site for me

Anyone from Finland getting something else than this when logging in :

change is on July 6th...I asked..

Ha, I got > Our upcoming new rewards program, Stars Rewards, will be launched across all licenses (except New Jersey) at the 7th of July. You will continue to earn VPPs and complete VIP Steps as per usual until Stars Rewards is launched.

Good ole Stars support

No it's not. I lose to fish my fair share and things like PT4 or HM2 can help you get to that conclusion over a good sample. Now this is a different story. It's a legit worry the way things are.

A couple years ago all the promotions were directed to every player but now everything is target. They have the player based segregated. If you are a winner you don't get deposit offers. Even for promotions like Jacks or Better higher volume players need more points.

If they are not going to release the odds of each reward chests then it's legit for me to think this is a real possibility otherwise I'm being naive given what pokerstars has became in the last couple of years.

The odds of each chest type have been posted multiple times

Can you point me that info? Is it official?

He's referring to Posts #118 thru #121 in this thread (Page 5).

From the official FAQ page released for Denmark...

https://www.pokerstars.dk/en/stars-rewards/faq/

"Chest rewards are randomized, with the value distribution and prize probabilities dependent on the Chest type. Each Chest also gives you the chance to win a big top prize. Here’s a breakdown of Chest values and prize probabilities. Please note that this table represents regular Chest values and does not include additional top prizes, which are offered on a regular basis."

Frequency Red Blue Bronze Silver Gold Platinum

1 out of 10,000 $ 100 $ 100 $ 500 $ 500 $ 1,000 $ 1,000
400 out of 10,000 $ 0.60 $ 1.95 $ 5 $ 13.25 $ 34.50 $ 107
700 out of 10,000 $ 0.36 $ 1.17 $ 3 $ 7.95 $ 20.70 $ 64.20
1,000 out of 10,000 $ 0.12 $ 0.39 $ 1 $ 2.65 $ 6.90 $ 21.40
1,200 out of 10,000 $ 0.11 $ 0.35 $ 0.90 $ 2.39 $ 6.21 $ 19.26
1,400 out of 10,000 $ 0.08 $ 0.27 $ 0.70 $ 1.86 $ 4.83 $ 14.98
2,000 out of 10,000 $ 0.07 $ 0.23 $ 0.60 $ 1.59 $ 4.14 $ 12.84
3,299 out of 10,000 $ 0.06 $ 0.20 $ 0.50 $ 1.33 $ 3.45 $ 10.70