PokerStars spends a lot of money on its sponsorships, and it behooves the brand to have these professional players be successful. Admittedly, there is some compelling video evidence on YouTube of sponsored PokerStars players beating the odds on multiple occasions during a number of big events. The most concerning question about PokerStars is whether the service is rigged.
The company is located in the Isle of Man and acquired a European Union gambling license through Malta. residents, but they continued to for a time because it was profitable and because that law was difficult to enforce with them operating entirely outside the United States. Prior to the seizure, PokerStars could not legally provide service to U.S. PokerStars was forced to leave the US market at this time. On April 20, the and domain names were returned for the purpose of helping to facilitate the withdrawal of US players’ funds. On April 15, 2011, the Department of Justice seized the domain name, along with and several others. – in Nevada and New Jersey – which had legalized online gambling. This settlement allowed PokerStars to return to the U.S. After neglecting the USA UIEGEA law of 2006, the company reached a settlement with the U.S. Although the company started as a play-money service only, the focus has been on real-money poker for more than a decade. PokerStars has been in business for over 15 years. The company lost a lot of money and a significant portion of its customer base. PokerStars realized it was breaking US law by continuing to accept US players and eventually abandoned the US market.
We feel this choice started PokerStars down a road of shadiness which leads us to our opinion today – that PokerStars is a scam.
PokerStars, however, disregarded the US government and continued to operate in the US. The biggest online poker site in the world at the time, PartyPoker, immediately accepted and followed this new US law, and left the USA market.
This act made it illegal for PokerStars to accept US players and illegal for US banks to process payments related to online poker. passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. PokerStars had a strong reputation ten years ago, but that all began to change in late 2006 when the U.S. The company was one of the driving factors in the meteoric success of its young industry, and always offered strong security measures and customer support. Since 2001, PokerStars has been among the most prominent online poker brands.