Much to the delight of US players Pokerstars started processing withdrawals for their US customers again. Players are allowed to withdraw their balance by cheque and Pokerstars even gave 100% cash refund for all tournament tickets or tournament dollars a player had in his account. With the cash outs functional again this leaves only one issue unresolved for the US Pokerstars players. What happens with all the frequent player points (FPP’s)?
Pokerstars has one of the most rewarding VIP scheme’s in online poker awarding FPP’s for real money play. FPP’s can be used for playing tournaments, cash bonuses or buying items in the Pokerstars VIP Rewards store. The VIP store is unique because more expensive items in the VIP store have a better FPP/dollar ratio then the inexpensive options. This means a lot of players were saving their FPP’s for big purchases rather than spending them whenever they could. For some the value of saved FPP’s runs into the thousands of dollars. When the VIP store closed to US players on Black Friday many players wondered if their FPP’s should be considered lost.
A manager of Pokerstars VIP team made clear today that Pokerstars is currently working with the US government on an agreement on what can be done with FPP’s. Pokerstars aims at opening the VIP store again for all their players so FPP’s can be spend on goodies and bonuses. Nothing is certain yet so it is very well possible a different agreement will be made with the DoJ. Making the cash outs possible for US players was top priority for Pokerstars for the last two weeks. Now that cash outs are functional again resolving the FPP issue will be Pokerstars next high priority.
A lot of players are wondering if they should withdraw now or if they should wait for the FPP issue to be resolved. According to Pokerstars VIP manager it makes no difference and the choice is up to the player. The cash out option on Pokerstars will remain open and players will be able to cash out twice or as often as necessary. When making a withdrawal you do have to cash out all your funds which means you are not allowed to have a remaining balance. However, if after that you get new funds in his account from the FPP store, you are allowed to cash out that as well. But for this cash out the same rule applies, you need to withdraw your entire balance.
Holdempokerchat is impressed with the way Pokerstars has handled the events of Black Friday till so far. Of all three sites that were affected, Pokerstars has been the first to give their players access to their frozen funds and keeping their customers as first priority.
I think you should replace the word ‘delight’ with the word ‘relief’. Get gvmnt to stop screwing with our ability to play a game that’s a hobby for some and a profession to others, and THEN I’ll be delighted.