First Israel, Now Slovenia
7 years ago
01 Jul
Hot on the heels of their decision to withdraw real money games from Israel, PokerStars have now announced that they are also pulling out of Slovenia – a move which appears to be the first European market to suffer from the Amaya-owned site’s summer changes.
As of July 4th, players from the small country of two million inhabitants which borders Italy will find themselves unable to play real-money games, a message on 2+2 breaking the bad news:
Got message today”, wrote ‘babilon’. “We can play until 4th of july.”
The news follows last week’s announcement that players in Israel would also be abandoned by the poker giants in an e-mail stating:
Following a recent review, we regret to inform you that we have decided to stop offering real money games to players who are physically located in - or have a registered address in - Israel from June 27, 2016.”
This latest move has actually affected one of PokerStars own players, the Team Online Pro Luka Kovač posting in response:
gg guys. It was nice till it lasted :/” adding that his favorite game Limit Hold'em is “pretty much non-existant on other sites, so my only option would be relocating.”
Kovač streams online from Slovenia via Twitch TV, explaining on his page:
My game is Fixed Limit Hold'em and I'm playing up to 5 or 6 tables, limits from 2/4 to 15/30. Yes, you are correct... Fixed Limit is that weird game where you can't go all-in whenever you want.”
Not anymore, apparently, for Kovač and his Slovenian colleagues.
The latest withdrawal of real-money games has yet to be explained by PokerStars, although many feel that they are in the process of withdrawing their services to countries which have ‘net withdrawer’ players or simply where the regulation is problematic for Stars to offer their other, often more lucrative, services such as casino games.
Michael Josem from the PokerStars PR team has been on 2+2 since the news broke and stated:
The key points are that those players are able to withdraw their balances at their convenience, and that we have no further plans to withdraw services from any other regions in the foreseeable future.”
Josem added the official statement which reads: “Our management team regularly reviews our operations market-by-market to assess commercial opportunities and business risks for our brands. Following a recent review, we have decided to stop offering real money games to players who are physically located in, or have a registered address in, Slovenia from 4 July, 2016. Player balances remain safe and secure, and players are able to withdraw their real money balances at their convenience.
We do not currently expect to withdraw services from any other locations in the foreseeable future, and a full question and answer page has been provided for affected players.
We hope that we will be able to return to the market in due course, and will continue to support the implementation of fair and consistent regulation that serves the needs of all stakeholders and includes a strong commitment to consumer protection, particularly of vulnerable people, in Slovenia. There is already a successful framework for such regulation in Europe and PokerStars is currently licensed in 12 EU countries. We hope to apply for a license in Slovenia when it is possible.”
Slovenia, though small, has a great reputation for its live poker – with a total of 13 casinos in spread across 11 cities, which compares well with its neighbor Italy which has about 60 million people and only five casinos.
Online poker, however, has been problematic for the bigger sites which are situated outside of the country – the 1995 Gambling Act, which licenses and regulates all gambling establishments in Slovenia, restricting ‘legal’ poker to Slovenian sites, although outside sites have operated outwith the framework.
Babilon, who posted the initial message on the 2+2 forum, added that he was:
Not even bothered by this s***,” although he added, “But have to say: thank you Dnegs, positive changes all year long. Did 2nd million freeroll even happened? Who cares right “
This, of course, is a dig at Daniel Negreanu who acted as some sort of intermediary between the PokerStars management and the pro players who launched a series of strikes in response to Stars’ VIP changes at the turn of the year.
The changes to SuperNovaElite players terms, among others, signalled the first warning shots that professional and regular players would not be the main focus of PokerStars under the new Amaya management, with recreational players being seen as the main target audience from then on.
Although the strikes did not achieve their aim, PokerStars reputation has taken a serious hit this year, and it seems likely that if the changes continue as they are doing – for example last week’s removal of the microstakes cash games in Belgium at PokerStars.be – then it will not only be Israelis, Slovenians, Belgians and regular or pro players who will be missing out.
Further developments, of course, will be covered by PokerTube.
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