Hey,

I recently went to the US and logged in and watched high stakes action at pokerstars. I do live in Canada and I came home and a few days after my account has been locked. They asked me a bunch of questions and i've answered them and waiting for a response. Has this happened to anyone? Also can people play play money games or even download the software at all in the US? I'm very confused at why this is happening.

they are allowed to play the play money tables but i dont think they are able to access the real money tables even just to watch tables.

i think you should be alright because you didnt play but they are in a tight spot due to the doj so **** knows what they will do

Challenge Accepted :P

Hopefully this won't be a problem. These are the questions they asked me.

- Where are you currently located?

- On what date did you arrive in the USA?

- Have you used PokerStars' real money services from the USA since 15 April, 2011?

- Please provide details about how you connect to PokerStars, including the name of your internet service provider and the connection type (cable/DSL/etc).


I hopefully didn't do anything wrong. I was hoping to put in a good session today but cannot now I guess. Hopefully their Security team is fast responding.

Thanks

Anyone think this could be a problem from me? I really am not sure what I did.

Your mistake was coming to the US, believing that we are the 'land of the free'. It turns out we're the land of the free poker games.

i can watch

Once they proved you didn't actively play through logs, I would hope be okay. But it's currently against PokerStars TOS for ANYONE to play real money poker from a US IP address.

Alright. Well I explained it to the security team, I'm pretty sure they should know by my IP address from when I was playing prior New York and post New York. They said they would send my investigation to A "case manager"? I'm not sure why it's being escalated but if this screws me i'm going to be extremely pissed.

Seems to me, some enterprising person outside of the US would set up a proxy so the US players could play on these sites without a US IP address. However, I'm betting that PS is EXTREMELY concerned about doing anything "grey" with their last issue with the DoJ.

Im really hoping this is the case. I've been waiting 24 hours now for a response on this matter. Not quite sure how this could look even close to shady. I was on 1 IP then another in the US but didn't play and then back to my old IP. Hopefully this is resolved quicker than it's been so far.

When everything first went down, you could play through a proxy, but PS got wind of this pretty quickly and shut down every account from a US player, and you now have to show them proof that you have moved to different country before they will unlock your account for real money play. I expect the proof will be bills and bank accounts. I could probably manage this with a proxy since I still have a bank account in Montreal and friends in canada who could put an electric bill or some such in my name.

As to watching real games from the US, they will no longer even let you download the real money software, and the play money software does not let you see the real tables, or the cashier. The only time you see your play balance on the play software is when you register for a tourney or sit at a table. There is a thread somewhere about update problems with PS which gives an IP address where you can download the new version of PS real money so you can have a cashier and watch the real money tables.

I realy hope we get some form of regulated online poker eventually. The play money tables are not even worth playing, they just screw up your game. It is hard to find a table where there is not at least one person shoving preflop every hand.

You logged in from a restricted area. I'm in the US, I can log in, but I can't play. They want to make sure you're not from the US before they give you your access back otherwise they could be letting an American play.

Much ado about nothing, really. A bit of a hassle, but I'm sure they'll square you away.

Yeah still yet to hear anything from the "Case Manager" and it's been almost 36 hours. I understand I logged in and everything although I didn't even sit at a play money NVM real moneyz. I have 1k in my account and it feels pretty ****ty that this is taking so long. I'm OK with sending in a bill and ID or whatever but honestly they have to see my IP adress when logging in in the states and logging in here in WPG... On average I produce 12 dollars a day at pokerstars(lol) and they're losing money as we speak so IDK what to say about this but lighten up ykno lol

It's going to take a while. They have to satisfy their suspicion that you ****ed up using a VPN and revealed your true location. I'd stop counting hours and start looking at days. Easily a week before you are back in action.

I don't really know how I ****ed up tho. I mean I logged on probably 5 times in a 1 week span in the US. It gave me that message that americans cant play or watever but I just railed some of the highstakes action. IDK if hotel internet is different from regular i'm not really computer friendly although I know I did nothing wrong, but to not hear from pokerstars staff for this long is wierd. Never had to deal with them for more then 4 hours just asking through the support email. I do have my information all uploaded to my comp. so if they ask for personal info I can ship it ASAP, but I mean it just seems wierd that this really hasn't happened to others who have gone on Vacation in the US.

You didn't **** up. I'm saying they suspect you may be an American that logged into Stars without using your VPN. They have to satisfy that concern.

They will take care of you in time. Just be glad you can play on Stars at some point. I'm envious of your problem.

Lol, hopefully THAT problem is fixed sooner then we think.. (tomorrowplz?) but ya I think I should be fine, just kinda pissed I got 2 days off and I can't grind it out :P

It's been 6 days no response. I emailed them asking them whats going on and they said they prioritized my request and should be emailed within 24hrs and it's been 36... Thought they had the best support,