PokerStars Cracks Down on USA Players

After the events of Black Friday, PokerStars quickly moved to prevent poker players from the United States from playing on their site. This prompted many high stakes players to move to Canada, Europe, or other locations in order to continue their play. Some, however, chose a more devious method of working around the new restrictions – and many of them are now paying a price for doing so.

According to PokerStars VIP Manager Steve Day, several American poker players have been caught attempting to play online poker on their site while still located in the United States. Players attempted this by using Virtual Private Network (VPN), a program which allowed them to route their connections through another country, thus masking their real IP address.

While some players have likely been doing this and avoiding PokerStars’ detection efforts, others have been caught – though the final punishment has yet to be determined.

“We're not really sure what will happen yet,” Day told the twoplustwo.com PokerCast. “The accounts get frozen, and then we wait for guidance from the independent moderator who was appointed by the Department of Justice as to what to do with the funds in these accounts and the ability to play in the future.”

The moderator Day refers to was put in place after Black Friday to ensure that PokerStars did not attempt to continue service to its American customers. While PokerStars was expressly allowed to continue service elsewhere around the world, the Department of Justice required that oversight be put into play to ensure the site complied with their current stance, which was that PokerStars’ US operations were illegal.

According to Day, some of the players who have been caught were high-stakes regulars who had a lot riding on the line by skirting the site’s new policies. One case reportedly involved a player who was working towards Supernova Elite status, and was advised by other players that VPN was a safe way to get around the new restrictions.

Day emphasized that players should know this is not the case.

“Many people are getting caught, and the consequences are severe,” he said. “We have to enforce the rules.”