In April, after the so-called “Black Friday”, PokerStars reached an agreement with the American Department of Justice that resulted in PokerStars completely blocking American online poker players from its site. Overnight tens of thousands of players either lost their hobby whilst some lost their careers due to being professional online poker players.
Some of those who lost their revenue stream have upped sticks and moved to neighbouring Canada or emigrated to countries such as Cyprus, Costa Rica and the UK in order to continue with their careers but others who could not either afford to move or did not want to uproot their families but still wanted to continue to grind online, took to technology to solve their problems.
Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs, are nothing new and many companies and individuals use them legitimately. The essentially create an IP address from a different country, which makes the target site believe they are in that country. Several American poker players have been using a VPN so that the PokerStars client thinks they are logging on from a country where online poker is legal, but according to the PokerStars VIP Manager, Steve Day, the online poker giant is in the process of tracking these players down and if caught they run the risk of having their balances frozen.
Day said, “We’re not really sure what will happen (to the suspended accounts) yet. 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.”
According to a thread on Two Plus Two, one player was attempting to reach SuperNova Elite status, the highest VIP level on PokerStars (worth around $180,000 a year to a player) whilst using a VPN and now his entire bankroll is in question because he essentially won his money illegally.
That is just tough for players who have made this game their bread and butter. I feel sorry for them. Especially the ones who are doing it not for fame but those who have mouths to feed other than themselves. US should just legalize the whole thing. They can make millions out of it from taxes. Didn’t a court in France or was it Spain declare that poker is not a game of chance but of skill making more like a sport?