Playing Privileges Revoked - PokerStars

featherpost said:

Hello all,

Thanks for your responses. Just a quick update, I’ve still not heard back from PokerStars since they asked me the 6 questions (posted above) on Wednesday morning. I checked with the live chat and they said that I’ll unlikely get a response over the weekend, so guess I’ll sign up to another site that will actually allow me to play when & how I choose! So I won't have to wait until at least Monday now. This means my compulsory 7 day cooldown is now turning into a 14 day cooldown. It’s really frustrating, as they’re not communicating anything with me.

Will update you when I have a further update and will try and answer any questions as and when I see them. Thanks

Click to expand...

Changed (fixed?) your post a bit.

Yeah, that’s pretty normal — PokerStars has a responsible gaming system that automatically flags accounts based on playtime, frequency, or deposit patterns. The 7-day cooldown is their standard safeguard. Once that’s over, they usually need to manually review your answers to those responsible gaming questions before reactivating gameplay

wilko32 said:

Yeah, that’s pretty normal

Click to expand...

Cant be that "normal", since there has basically never been a similar story in this forum before. Have you heard of other such stories, and if so then where and when?

wilko32 said:

— PokerStars has a responsible gaming system that automatically flags accounts based on playtime, frequency, or deposit patterns.

Click to expand...

Seems like a very poorly designed system then. Is this lousy system used everywhere, or is it just players in the UK, who have to keep up with that nonsense?

wilko32 said:

The 7-day cooldown is their standard safeguard. Once that’s over, they usually need to manually review your answers to those responsible gaming questions before reactivating gameplay

Click to expand...

So basically a braindead robot shuts down the account, and then it takes forever for a human to (perhaps) reopen it. Here is a free idea for a simple fix: How about making the stupid robot not close the account but instead send a message to staff, who then manually look at the account and contact the customer before taking any action. Like "hey we noticed, that you have been playing a lot lately and just want to make sure, everything is fine. Would you mind taking time to answer some questions? Thank you very much for your cooperation".

And if the customer has been playing some long session, because he has taken part in their most prestigeous tournament series, where many events last 8-10 hours or are spread over 2+ days, then the customer is probably not a gambling addict, and there is no reason to bother him at all. This is like literally the most lame thing, I have heard about, since I signed up for the forum in 2019. Its a shame, PokerStars no longer has a support thread here, because if they did, this would be an obvious issue to bring to their attention.

fundiver199 said:

So basically a braindead robot shuts down the account, and then it takes forever for a human to (perhaps) reopen it. Here is a free idea for a simple fix: How about making the stupid robot not close the account but instead send a message to staff, who then manually look at the account and contact the customer before taking any action. Like "hey we noticed, that you have been playing a lot lately and just want to make sure, everything is fine. Would you mind taking time to answer some questions? Thank you very much for your cooperation".

Click to expand...

You must have sufficient human resources (people want to live so they want to get paid) to make such a thing work.
This is a cost factor for a listed(stock market/Börse) company that they have to justify for their shareholders.

Despite what the official letter stated, which is probs auto generated, it may be more about the high deposits within 3 weeks of starting an account.

I imagine the vast majority of players don't just start playing big enough games to require deposits of $1200 in the first 3 weeks, regardless of how much you also withdrew.....if one of my friends said they did that, I'd have concerns too!! They may not be valid, but they would the there all the same.

SpanRmonka said:

Despite what the official letter stated, which is probs auto generated, it may be more about the high deposits within 3 weeks of starting an account.

Click to expand...

Well then they should say so. They send an email, which specifically mentioned playing time but did not say a word about the amount deposited or anything else, that might indicate a gambling problem. And its not an excuse, that the email is auto generated. Then they need to make a better auto generated email or employ a human to interact with their customers.

SpanRmonka said:

I imagine the vast majority of players don't just start playing big enough games to require deposits of $1200 in the first 3 weeks, regardless of how much you also withdrew.....if one of my friends said they did that, I'd have concerns too!! They may not be valid, but they would the there all the same.

Click to expand...

Its probably not that unusual, that people, who have played for years, want to try a different site, and then they dont start with a $20 deposit, if they are used to playing higher limits. When I opened my account on 888 Poker, my first deposit was $500. Also if Pokerstars is so worried about, how much new players deposit, why not set some deposit limits, which can then be raised with time? Just like the limits to the amount of posts, new members of CC can make.

Goggelheimer said:

You must have sufficient human resources (people want to live so they want to get paid) to make such a thing work.
This is a cost factor for a listed(stock market/Börse) company that they have to justify for their shareholders.

Click to expand...

They have the highest rake for tournament players of any major site. And then they also need to provide at least a reasonable level of customer service, which clearly they have not done here. Being expensive and providing lousy service is a sure path to continue losing market share, as they have already done for many years.

fundiver199 said:

Well then they should say so. They send an email, which specifically mentioned playing time but did not say a word about the amount deposited or anything else, that might indicate a gambling problem. And its not an excuse, that the email is auto generated. Then they need to make a better auto generated email or employ a human to interact with their customers.

Click to expand...

Yeah they should, but we have all, I'm sure, had these sorts of interactions with companies, where they say yes they will wort something, but then it just gets boxed off some other way, which isn't right or correct. Large companies customer service can be frequently rubbish, and get things wrong, or not quite right!

fundiver199 said:

Its probably not that unusual, that people, who have played for years, want to try a different site, and then they dont start with a $20 deposit, if they are used to playing higher limits. When I opened my account on 888 Poker, my first deposit was $500. Also if Pokerstars is so worried about, how much new players deposit, why not set some deposit limits, which can then be raised with time? Just like the limits to the amount of posts, new members of CC can make.

Click to expand...

It may not be, but I personally think it will be. These days, how many good experienced players haven't joined pokerstars?? Then how many of them would be playing larger buy in events immediately? I don't think many at all! On GG maybe, as they are expanding!

Anyway, I'm sure you didn't blast through your$500 in a week and make another similar deposit like the OP likely did!

SpanRmonka said:

It may not be, but I personally think it will be. These days, how many good experienced players haven't joined pokerstars?? Then how many of them would be playing larger buy in events immediately? I don't think many at all! On GG maybe, as they are expanding!

Click to expand...

They are no longer the market leaders, so its entirely possible, someone might play for a few years on for instance GG Poker and only then open an account on PokerStars. Someone might also have been living in a country, where they dont offer their services, and then moved to in this case the UK.

SpanRmonka said:

Anyway, I'm sure you didn't blast through your$500 in a week and make another similar deposit like the OP likely did!

Click to expand...

Yes thats true, but like I said already, if there is an unofficial deposit limit for new players, then make it official and transparent. They could even make it, so that people had to document their financial situation with bank statements etc. to have it raised. That would be way better than randomly closing a new players account, just because he choose to participate in the WCOOP. There are also rich recreational players, who are completely ok with spending $1.000 or more on their hobby in a few weeks and have the money to do so.

fundiver199 said:

They are no longer the market leaders, so its entirely possible, someone might play for a few years on for instance GG Poker and only then open an account on PokerStars. Someone might also have been living in a country, where they dont offer their services, and then moved to in this case the UK.

Yes thats true, but like I said already, if there is an unofficial deposit limit for new players, then make it official and transparent. They could even make it, so that people had to document their financial situation with bank statements etc. to have it raised. That would be way better than randomly closing a new players account, just because he choose to participate in the WCOOP. There are also rich recreational players, who are completely ok with spending $1.000 or more on their hobby in a few weeks and have the money to do so.

Click to expand...

All good points, I don't think we disagree that much on this TBH.

Bizarre. There is almost no customer service anymore. What will happen to us when there is nothing but ai in charge of everything.

Hello all, sorry for the radio silence, but I wanted to wait for a development before providing an update. Interesting reading through some of your comments. Just to be clear, I was a regular player on 888 for a long time, but decided to give PokerStars a try after some issues with 888. PokerStars have now reactivated my account and I can play again. However they’ve put a £500 net deposit limit per week on my account, and if I want to change this o have to prove my income and send through several forms. If I’m honest, £500 is fine for me, so won’t change it, but seems a bit of overkill. The whole situation has soured PokerStars for me. I like the selection of tournaments and as I mainly play Omaha Hi/Lo I think it’s the best for the range of tournaments they have. Yet to deposit and play again, but may log in this weekend. Another point, they’ve removed all my promotions. So I can’t earn chests or anything else. Not a massive deal, just thought it was strange. Thanks for all your help, I’ll keep checking the thread to answer any follow up questions anyone has.

pokerstars is a scam u should stay away from that site
I am banned from ggpoker cause I offended them via email LOL another joke site.

featherpost said:

PokerStars have now reactivated my account and I can play again.

Click to expand...

Thats good to hear.

featherpost said:

However they’ve put a £500 net deposit limit per week on my account, and if I want to change this o have to prove my income and send through several forms.

Click to expand...

Here in Sweden everyone has to set a deposit limit, and its not possible to set it higher than SEK 5.000 per week, which is pretty similar to £500. So I think, this is pretty reasonable, and you even have a chance to raise it, which is not possible for us. This is thanks to our government and not PokerStars though. A bit funny, that they actually did pretty much exactly, what I suggested would be a better solution

featherpost said:

If I’m honest, £500 is fine for me, so won’t change it, but seems a bit of overkill.

Click to expand...

Unless you are a super high roller, there is no need for a higher deposit limit than £500 or SEK 5.000 per week. Just leave a reasonable amount of money on the site and dont withdraw, every time you have a winning session. If this really help people with gambling problems is questionable though. If you play on 3 sites, you could still spend £6.000 or SEK 60.000 per month, which is more than an average persons entire salary.

featherpost said:

The whole situation has soured PokerStars for me.

Click to expand...

Thats understandible, but since its solved, then just put it behind you and see, what the site has to offer. For me its far better than 888 Poker, although both of them are unfortunately experiencing declining volume. But at least on PokerStars volume is declining from a much higher level, so its still acceptable.

featherpost said:

Another point, they’ve removed all my promotions. So I can’t earn chests or anything else.

Click to expand...

Thats another responsible gambling thing. Its the same for everyone in Sweden, which is again a requirement from our government.