Pokerstars to stop serving Washington State Residents

This is really horrid news:

PokerStars has announced that, as a result of the WA State Supreme Court ruling upholding that state's anti-online gaming law, PokerStars has decided to stop serving that state.

http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/news/washington/


PokerStars today announced that it would cease providing real-money poker to residents of Washington State. To date, PokerStars has operated in Washington on the basis of legal opinions where the central advice was that the state could not constitutionally regulate Internet poker, or at least could not discriminate in favor of local cardrooms and against online sites. Last week, however, the Washington Supreme Court for the first time rejected that position and upheld the state's Internet gaming prohibition.

In light of this decision, following extensive consultation with our legal advisors, we believe that the right course of action is to now block real money play by Washington residents on the PokerStars.com site. This policy will remain in effect until the law changes or subsequent legal challenges succeed. Our decision to block real money play in Washington does not affect the balance of funds in customer accounts, which remain completely safe. Our payment services team continues to be available to Washington State residents to assist with cashout requests.

We regret this decision, which will no doubt disappoint our customers in Washington State. However, in all of the jurisdictions where we operate, we are committed to making responsible decisions that are based on a full and considered understanding of the most up-to-date legal advice.

PokerStars remains supportive of passing sensible Internet poker regulation in the United States that will provide much-needed tax revenues and formalize consumer protections. PokerStars operates under those conditions, complying with rigorous licensing regimes, for its worldwide operations in the Isle of Man (UK), and for local operations in Italy, France and Estonia.

Oh wow, I really hope this isn't the beginning of the end for US online gambling.
iirc Kentucky did it first a couple years ago? Hopefully this will be slow and things will change before Massachusetts shuts down.

No kidding. Which states are next? This is the worst news in some time.
What an awful day for online poker.

Wow, no kidding. The last thing I wanted to see when I opened my poker account this morning was a message saying that I can no longer play because I live in Washington. I hate this state...

I am wondering if anyone has tried changing their address in the Pokerstars profile. Will they pay enough attention to this?

They will block you based on your ip address.

Oh right, of course. Thanks.

I guess my next question is, what do all you fellow Washington players plan to do? I know there are many of you who play full time. I suppose I can try Full Tilt or some other site, but Pokerstars is the only site that offers the best and most omaha games (as far as I know). This is the reason I play on Stars. Any thoughts/comments?

FAQ for WA residents:

http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/news/washington/faq/

30 September 2010 - PokerStars today announced that it would cease providing real-money poker to residents of Washington State. To date, PokerStars has operated in Washington on the basis of legal opinions where the central advice was that the state could not constitutionally regulate Internet poker, or at least could not discriminate in favor of local cardrooms and against online sites. Last week, however, the Washington Supreme Court for the first time rejected that position and upheld the state's Internet gaming prohibition.
In light of this decision, following extensive consultation with our legal advisors, we believe that the right course of action is to now block real money play by Washington residents on the PokerStars.com site. This policy will remain in effect until the law changes or subsequent legal challenges succeed. Our decision to block real money play in Washington does not affect the balance of funds in customer accounts, which remain completely safe. Our payment services team continues to be available to Washington State residents to assist with cashout requests.
We regret this decision, which will no doubt disappoint our customers in Washington State. However, in all of the jurisdictions where we operate, we are committed to making responsible decisions that are based on a full and considered understanding of the most up-to-date legal advice.
PokerStars remains supportive of passing sensible Internet poker regulation in the United States that will provide much-needed tax revenues and formalize consumer protections. PokerStars operates under those conditions, complying with rigorous licensing regimes, for its worldwide operations in the Isle of Man (UK), and for local operations in Italy, France and Estonia."

As a resident of Washington State, I'm pretty pissed.

uhm this is not a good sign for the poker world. keep Ohio out of it government, please and thank you.

I can see the headlines now:

Million man march turns into strip poker game. Obama "all in" with a full house. MM known for her shenanigans at the poker forum CardsChat when the Moderators are gone has taken it one step further. Today in Washington DC the Alabama nurse orchestrated a march in protest for restricting citizens of certain states the right to gamble on-line.

Before anyone knew what was happening, cards where distributed and a strip game of poker ensued. Obama asked later about the incident standing in his birthday suit, "hey, thought my full house was good, who knew the nurse would slow roll me on quads". Maid Marian with a smirk "rumor of big feet and hands are true of our commander in chief."

Bill Clinton was mentioned to have taken part in this march but denied his involvement saying "I'm going to say this again, I did not have poker relations with that woman." Just another crazy day in our state capital.

We will just have to see how this publicity effects the gaming community. It also should be reported that MM will put Obama boxers on E-bay to help sponsor legislation for those on-line poker players denied access.

I bet they will start complying with all state laws as federal regulation becomes more of a possibility. Poker sites disregarding state laws yet wanting to be registered and regulated federally doesn't seem like the right way to go about it.

Learn to use a Tor proxy....

Your memory is correct, Pooffy. Though I live north of Cincinnati OH my ISP is in Kentucky. In 2008 KY attempted to shut down online gambling and was successful to a degree. I couldn't get on Ultimate Bet for about 9 months or so, nor could I access Doyle's Room or Cake Poker. The latter 2 didn't bother me but I had a decent chunk of change on UB and that was a concern.

Thankfully, Full Tilt and Poker Stars didn't join the throng. My service to UB and Doyle's was restored but I still can't get into Cake (not that I care LOL) and some of the other lesser sites.

While I don't know the exact details, I think the thing in KY just sizzled out mainly because the Poker Players Alliance and some very powerful politicians fought the legislation, which was filled with flaws.

Hopefully this will happen in Washington, sooner rather than later. However, in this case the legislation must be really strong for Poker Stars to have taken such a radical step.

This is scary stuff indeed.

It is a violation of Wisconsin State Statutes to gamble online. It is a misdemeanor by statute. It remains unenforced, since I have played continuously since 2006. I hope that our AG is not encouraged by this Washington fiasco to start a lawsuit over it. They had a list of 11 states at one time that were cut off by several of the poker sites. I don't know if that is still in effect. I was cut off from Doyles Room after the US federal act, but since they joined the Cake network, they allow me to play. Hard to guess what might happen next.

UHHHHH do ya all realize this will affect Dusty "Leatherass9" Schmidt unless of course he moves or they find a way around it.

He lives in Oregon.

Yeah, Washington and Oregon are kind of the same state but not completely. Oregon has more hippies.

Come on Americans! Do something about this!

I would be so angry if my government started pulling crap like this.

Noooooo that is horrible news. I wonder which state is next. Hopefully not California

The is the beginning of the end for all online gambling in the USA as we know. The first step will be to make it illegal to play online and then the individual states will have to make it legal in their own state but only if you play on a state run site.

Freedom my ass

I live in NJ where we will most likely be the first state to make online poker legal and you will have to play on a site run by Trump. It will be better than the other states but it will still suck royally

Yeah, the Kentucky Governor tried to block online gaming while bringing in casinos to the sate.
I hope this doesn't encourage them to try again.

PokerStars and Full Tilt operate on the premise that poker is a game of skill, and is therefore not gambling. The State of California has acknowledged poker as a game of skill, which opened the doors for all of their legal card rooms.

My bad I was thinking he lived in Seattle just ignore me I'm an idiot LOL.

Which brings up an interesting point. What if you live in Oregon, but your IP address is assigned from a POP in Washington? IP addresses do not follow state boundaries. Those that know how to do Tor proxy can look like they access applications from literally any place in the world.

I will find it interesting to follow how they can enforce this.

Well you still have to have an address that proves you live in a different state - so between the 2 things it would be difficult to get around. I am sure a handful of people will succeed but most won't.

Full tillt to follow suit in state of washington?

Gosh, i hope Arizonia wont be next in line to block online poker?

Well forget IP addresses for a minute thy can enforce that everyone that was once listed as being from Washington re send in picture ID and they can also enforce that these people can only get paid by check mailed to an address outside of WA. That changes the game a little. Sure you can get a friend from another state to grab the check but it might still be a hassle.

Wow your government really sucks ass USAers . So ok correct me if I am wrong here didnt you get a bill passed a few months ago that was the first step to getting online poker restarted in the US? What happened with that?

I did some research on this and some reading on various sites and it seems like this is an act to help support casinos in Wa. state. Reading between the lines, it seems that the tribes in the pacific NW have some political influence and are using it to ban online poker to theoretically bring more business to their casinos. The state is all messed up anyway...apparantly the pro online poker players claim (correctly) that poker is a skill game and since horse racing is legal....online poker should be as well. The Wa. state legislature rules that horse racing ISNT gambling....that should tell you all you need to know about how dirty bill is. I'm sorry to our players in Wa. state and hope that common sense eventually prevails.

I think Az is kinda hung up on the immigration laws right now Having said that, how are the casinos doing out there. If they're struggling, then maybe they'll make a similar move to Wa. state. I don't recall this being on the radar at all when I lived out there but its been a few years now.

The biggest poker room thats at casino arizona is doing good so far, as for the others not quite sure bc I mostly play there only.

Isnt freedom of choice one of the pillars of a democracy? If I have no malicious intent to encroach on somebody else freedom then I should be entitled to do whatever I want with my money! Especially if I work and pay income tax! politics is the biggest load of bull on the planet-with religion a close 2nd!

But if your in Washington you can still play Lotto or bet on the horses
Which I believe the state gets a share of?