On the edge of a mental breakdown with Pokerstars security and support

[ShadyS]

Dear CardsChat Members,

I decided writing a post here, as well as in every pokerstars related forum, because I am right now victim of an embarassingly kafkaesque situation with Pokerstars Support.

I have been pokerstars.com player for more than 15 years, I am from Italy but I lived most of my life traveling around the world, mostly by playing poker, online and non. I am currently registered in Kazakhstan, where I have my residency.

In December 2023 I started a solo trip in South East Asia going from Indonesia to Thailand and then to Cambodia, where I am at the moment.
In December 2023 I deposited few times on Pokerstars, played some tournaments, always lost and therefore never managed to cash out. All good.
In January 2024, present month, I started using the exchange feature of the Sport/Betting session on Pokerstars.com, betting on Asia Cup of football, African Cup of football and cricket games which I all sporadically follow. I managed to turn my initial deposit of 150$ to something around 1800$.
I requested a first deposit of 370$ on the 20th of January 2024. My account immediately got frozen.
I have been informed that I am subject to investigation in order to prevent fraudulent activities and therefore I am asked to provide utilty bills or bank account statement from my current location, which was Thailand until few days ago and now is Cambodia.

After clarifiying my situation with Pokerstars, informing in details about my movements, all holiday related, I sent so far:
- PDF receipts of all my flight tickets
- PDF statements of all my stays in Jakarta, Bangkok and Phnom Penh made on Airbnb, Hotels.com and Expedia
- Full picture of my passport
- Full pictures of all the visas I got entering/exiting Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia
- My american express statement showing my residency address as shown on my Pokerstars account

I made clear that since I am renting hotels and airbnb I CANNOT have an electricity bill in Thai or in Khmer in my name. Yet, I am now threatened to have all my funds confiscated and my account frozen because I cannot provide the required documentation.

I don't know anymore how to get out from this situation. The Pokerstars Support automatically closes my chat when I try reaching them via the website. I need a sort of advice or explanation for any possible course of action I should take in order to fix this issue.
I didn't steal anything from anyone, I didn't use any VPN service, I didn't collude with any other players or used criminal softwares. I have just been betting on worldwide huge events followed by millions or billions of people. I have absolutely no idea whatsoever on what I am presently investigated for. Therefore I don't know anymore what to do.

I hope someone is kind enough to help me out in this.

Regards

 

[puzzlefish]

Probably being investigated for logging in from different countries. Welcome to the swamp. I would recommend maybe writing them a polite email explaining instead of chatting.

 

[ShadyS]

Probably being investigated for logging in from different countries. Welcome to the swamp. I would recommend maybe writing them a polite email explaining instead of chatting.

That's exactly what I did, several times. I send in the attachment the copy of the email I sent them.

 

[G0930]

Dear CardsChat Members,

I decided writing a post here, as well as in every Pokerstars related forum, because I am right now victim of an embarassingly kafkaesque situation with Pokerstars Support.

I have been Pokerstars.com player for more than 15 years, I am from Italy but I lived most of my life traveling around the world, mostly by playing poker, online and non. I am currently registered in Kazakhstan, where I have my residency.

In December 2023 I started a solo trip in South East Asia going from Indonesia to Thailand and then to Cambodia, where I am at the moment.
In December 2023 I deposited few times on Pokerstars, played some tournaments, always lost and therefore never managed to cash out. All good.
In January 2024, present month, I started using the exchange feature of the Sport/Betting session on Pokerstars.com, betting on Asia Cup of football, African Cup of football and cricket games which I all sporadically follow. I managed to turn my initial deposit of 150$ to something around 1800$.
I requested a first deposit of 370$ on the 20th of January 2024. My account immediately got frozen.
I have been informed that I am subject to investigation in order to prevent fraudulent activities and therefore I am asked to provide utilty bills or bank account statement from my current location, which was Thailand until few days ago and now is Cambodia.

After clarifiying my situation with Pokerstars, informing in details about my movements, all holiday related, I sent so far:
- PDF receipts of all my flight tickets
- PDF statements of all my stays in Jakarta, Bangkok and Phnom Penh made on Airbnb, Hotels.com and Expedia
- Full picture of my passport
- Full pictures of all the visas I got entering/exiting Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia
- My american express statement showing my residency address as shown on my Pokerstars account

I made clear that since I am renting hotels and airbnb I CANNOT have an electricity bill in Thai or in Khmer in my name. Yet, I am now threatened to have all my funds confiscated and my account frozen because I cannot provide the required documentation.

I don't know anymore how to get out from this situation. The Pokerstars Support automatically closes my chat when I try reaching them via the website. I need a sort of advice or explanation for any possible course of action I should take in order to fix this issue.
I didn't steal anything from anyone, I didn't use any VPN service, I didn't collude with any other players or used criminal softwares. I have just been betting on worldwide huge events followed by millions or billions of people. I have absolutely no idea whatsoever on what I am presently investigated for. Therefore I don't know anymore what to do.

I hope someone is kind enough to help me out in this.

Regards

man that sucks... also PS customer since 15 years and I have to say that their support gets worse every year.

When I had to reverify my account 7 years ago it was just as tedious and humiliating process..
One needs a lot of patience for PS...
Main important thing is to stay polite.
Remember you're only talking to some fellow shitshovelers who have to follow PS ' absolutistic reign.

Yeah such a great room @Poker Orifice .. Gimme a fukin break 🙄

GG is the future , PS is the past. They had a good run .now its time to reitre with dignity intact

 

[ShadyS]

man that sucks... also PS customer since 15 years and I have to say that their support gets worse every year.

When I had to reverify my account 7 years ago it was just as tedious and humiliating process..
One needs a lot of patience for PS...
Main important thing is to stay polite.
Remember you're only talking to some fellow shitshovelers who have to follow PS ' absolutistic reign.

Yeah such a great room @Poker Orifice .. Gimme a fukin break 🙄

GG is the future , PS is the past. They had a good run .now its time to reitre with dignity

Thanks for your words of solidarity. Not sure why and how, but they really feel relieving to me in this moment. I appreciate a lot.

I am trying my best, I never insulted them, I am just getting a bit impatient cause they are not offering me a way out. I am really speechless at what Pokerstars became today...

 

[G0930]

Thanks for your words of solidarity. Not sure why and how, but they really feel relieving to me in this moment. I appreciate a lot.

I am trying my best, I never insulted them, I am just getting a bit impatient cause they are not offering me a way out. I am really speechless at what Pokerstars became today...

It really is sad.. seems like investors and manager are leaving the sinking ship slowly.
It gets more and more profit only oriented.
Of course that's the purpose of a pokerroom but others value their customers, PS does NOT ,(anymore,)

Hop you get your money soon!
Worst case you have to file a lawsuit.
But get this ...our highest court order was ignored by PS . They must pay back millions in player losses cause they are operating in austria without a license.

Its now at EuGH. I dare you PS to ignore EU court.

 

[pentazepam]

They probably outsource the "customer support" to persons who don't even play poker.

 

[valeski 28]

I just remember the good days when PS support used to resolve s any questions that a customer might have in just a couple of hours.

 

[Gallarado777]

no one can help you, except supporting the Pokerstars poker site itself, you need to prove your intention and show it in your documents. If you fail to provide documents, your account and accounts will be frozen and after you can provide them with documents, they will be able to unfreeze you more and there are no other options, unfortunately

 

[Cooking]

I know this a bad situation, but right now I don't think there's nothing much you can do, except waiting for their answer. I've read once that everytime you change your country and still want to play poker, you need to let the poker room knows before (I know that now this not helpful). I hope you have your money back, I know how bad poker room supports can be.

 

[belizebum]

Sorry for repeating myself here, but I am still choked with Stars. After leaving Ontario and moving to Belize, I can no longer withdrawal unless its $10000 US or more....what a fkn joke. Pretty much just played the CC stuff there since I found out and I used to put quite a bit into the slots. No more. They are definitely going downhill.

 

[Suns of Beaches]

Sorry for repeating myself here, but I am still choked with Stars. After leaving Ontario and moving to Belize, I can no longer withdrawal unless its $10000 US or more....what a fkn joke. Pretty much just played the CC stuff there since I found out and I used to put quite a bit into the slots. No more. They are definitely going downhill.

I alreasy told u this in another thread so i am going to repeat myself here too: check the various deposit/withdraw methods. For example skrill. There is no way u have only 1 withdraw method which is limited to minimum 10k. No way.

Otherwise please post a screenshots to proof it.

 

[puzzlefish]

I alreasy told u this in another thread so i am going to repeat myself here too: check the various deposit/withdraw methods. For example Skrill. There is no way u have only 1 withdraw method which is limited to minimum 10k. No way.

Otherwise please post a screenshots to proof it.

Sites have anti money laundering policies that only allow you to withdraw money using the same method that you used to deposit it. I ran into this myself recently. If you deposit with Skrill, for example, and win $1000, then you can only withdraw that $1000 using Skrill. If you decide to deposit $20 using a different method and then try to withdraw $1000, it gets denied. This is real.

 

[Suns of Beaches]

Sites have anti money laundering policies that only allow you to withdraw money using the same method that you used to deposit it. I ran into this myself recently. If you deposit with Skrill, for example, and win $1000, then you can only withdraw that $1000 using Skrill. If you decide to deposit $20 using a different method and then try to withdraw $1000, it gets denied. This is real.

I was always able to choose different withdraw methods (that i already used for deposits in the past) on winnings.

 

[hjuosh]

"Man, I'm really sorry. I know it's a very tough and desperate situation. Social media could be perhaps the last resort. I mean, surely Pokerstars wouldn't want a viral video of a popular channel with million of followers with this bad story. But if they're not going to help, at least the world needs to know."

 

[Station_Master]

Good luck with it, hopefully you get your money back once they properly review the info you sent.

 

[fundiver199]

A situation like this can take much more than a week to solve. So you need to calm yourself down and cooperate with their investigation. If you have been living without any permanent residence for 15 years, it might be a bit complicated though. Especially since Italy is not a country, where people are allowed to play on the global Pokerstars.com site. So if they conclude, that your residence is Italy, they will likely end up closing your account and offer you to open a new one on their italian site.

 

[Poker Orifice]

A situation like this can take much more than a week to solve. So you need to calm yourself down and cooperate with their investigation. If you have been living without any permanent residence for 15 years, it might be a bit complicated though. Especially since Italy is not a country, where people are allowed to play on the global Pokerstars.com site. So if they conclude, that your residence is Italy, they will likely end up closing your account and offer you to open a new one on their italian site.

This sounds about right.

Also, I'm not 100% sure about the process but for example, I'm a Canadian resident. If I want to travel to Costa Rica and play while I'm there, I believe I need to have a residence set up there along with a bank account (not 100% sure... but is definitely the case if Pokerstars.com is not offered in your resident country)

 

[Poker Orifice]

fwiw, something seems 'shady' about your initial post.

 

[Babale007]

Send PS to the court. Do not be a little kitty.

 

[fundiver199]

fwiw, something seems 'shady' about your initial post.

Kazakhstan is a pretty unusual destination for western poker player or other expats. A far more common choise would be South East Asia, like for instance Nathan Williams AKA Blackrain79, who moved to Thailand. Or maybe South America. Kazakhstan is more known as a place, that many russians have fled to since the beginning of the Ukraine war. So yeah... something does sound a bit weird here, and for sure PokerStars is going to have many questions about an italien poker player living in Kazakhstan but playing from countries in South East Asia

 

[Suns of Beaches]

Kazakhstan is a pretty unusual destination for western poker player or other expats. A far more common choise would be South East Asia, like for instance Nathan Williams AKA Blackrain79, who moved to Thailand. Or maybe South America. Kazakhstan is more known as a place, that many russians have fled to since the beginning of the Ukraine war. So yeah... something does sound a bit weird here, and for sure PokerStars is going to have many questions about an italien poker player living in Kazakhstan but playing from countries in South East Asia

Well but i mean its not up to u/us to decide where his destination is. If he is indeed registered and verified in Kasakhstan then i dont really see a problem of him travelling and playing from other countrys where its allowed to play from (if he does not stay forever in said countrys). People did that in the past and im sure there is people, mainly pros who are still doing it.

 

[fundiver199]

Well but i mean its not up to u/us to decide where his destination is. If he is indeed registered and verified in Kasakhstan then i dont really see a problem of him travelling and playing from other countrys where its allowed to play from (if he does not stay forever in said countrys). People did that in the past and im sure there is people, mainly pros who are still doing it.

True. If he is actually reciding in Kasakhstan, then logging on while on vacation in other countries should not be a problem, as long as its a country, where its allowed to play on Pokerstars.com. But maybe this investigation was triggered by the fact, the account has been inactive for a number of years, and then it was suddenly used in 3 different countries, none of which is the one, where its registered. If this is all, there is to it, then hopefully it will eventually be resolved.

 

[Poker Orifice]

Kazakhstan is a pretty unusual destination for western poker player or other expats. A far more common choise would be South East Asia, like for instance Nathan Williams AKA Blackrain79, who moved to Thailand. Or maybe South America. Kazakhstan is more known as a place, that many russians have fled to since the beginning of the Ukraine war. So yeah... something does sound a bit weird here, and for sure PokerStars is going to have many questions about an italien poker player living in Kazakhstan but playing from countries in South East Asia

Some very good points but what I was actually referring to was this >

 

[najjah166]

Concerning the electricity bills that PS asks you, it is just to justify your address in other words if you are at the hotel provide proof, if you are on NBairb provide all the documents justifying your rental (rental payment receipt ) because PS does not accept email exchanges