PokerStars Pushing Players to Retrieve Account Balance

The previous customers of Amaya Gaming’s PokerStars brand are recently being contacted concerning their unresolved account balances. The site left market after the Black Friday federal indictments of 2011. They have sent emails to the NJ players holding accounts with them at that time so that they extract any money that may still be in their old accounts.

Amaya has applied to the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) for reopening its PokerStars and Full Tilt brands, which got approval this September. Rational group, from whom Amaya acquired the brands in 2014, restored almost 5 million US dollars in account balance of players of New Jersey following the 2011 indictments.

However, New Jersey players have still not withdrawn almost 428 thousand US dollars, according to DGE. If the affected Stars account holders do not step forward to retrieve their funds by December 28, Amaya has notified them of the money being forfeited to the state. After that, players will need to submit applications to the state’s Unclaimed Property Department for restoration.

The above step by Amaya is apparently an effort to keep DGE happy by conforming to the law as much as possible, which is proved by some PokerStars account holders reporting that they have received e-mails though their accounts hold negligible sum of money. Amaya’s suggestion to players with such unclaimed balances is to donate the money to a New Jersey problem gambling fund.

Online Poker Affiliate Severs Ties with Unauthorized Sites

The DGE released a Director’s Advisory Bulletin on June 4, indicating a 150-day deadline to affiliates interested in working with state-licensed sites for cutting ties with any international gambling site serving US customers without a New Jersey license. One year before this notice, the New Jersey Attorney General’s office cautioned affiliates on the possibility of subjecting them to “appropriate civil or criminal sanctions” in case they keep promoting unauthorized sites.

Compiling with this order, Chris Carson, CEO of a major online poker affiliate FourCubed, the parent company of PAS.net (previously Poker Affiliate Solutions) released an email this week mentioning that as of October 29, it would stop connecting, marketing for, promoting or accepting new advertisements and player sign ups at any unauthorized online gambling site serving US players. As it appears, they have waited as long as they could to conform to the DGE’s deadline.

Until now, the state of New Jersey has not been successful in meeting its original yet highly unrealistic revenue prospects, the DGE’s order being an attempt to support its regulated market. Though the casino vertical is somewhat stable, poker hit a new all-time low in September after soaring to its highest within a few months after the market surfaced in November 2013.