Pokerstars Shut Down Questions and Answers

US Players and the Pokerstars.com Closure

You probably noticed by now that when you visit Pokerstars.com you get an FBI warning page. This is because Poker Stars was seized by the United States government. Now, because so many things have transpired since April 15th when the dot .com domain of Pokerstars was overtaken I will try to recap the strong points of the shutdown and summarize them below in cliff notes.

1. Pokerstars shut down by US government on April 15th for multiple felonies.

2. Poker players are completely in the clear, it is not illegal to play online poker.

3. People have begun playing poker at Carbonpoker.com instead of Pokerstars.

4. Pokerstars has not yet issued a statement as to when you will be able to cash out your money

5. The owners of Pokerstars were indicted and face up to 80 years in prison, they are not likely to ever see a jail cell

6. The new support email for pokerstars is support@pokerstars.eu

7. Pokerstars plans to get their .com domain back. In the meantime countries outside of the US continue to play at Pokerstars.

We are continuing to follow this case as it develops. There are many questions still being asked by players as this shutdown was so immediate and affected a multitude of poker sites. Here are some FAQ regarding the situation.

Q. I just want to play poker, is there anywhere I can play safely?
A. Yes, most are playing at Carbonpoker.com.

Q. Will I ever get my money back from Pokerstars
A. 100% Yes. General consensus is that your money is perfectly safe, but that Pokerstars is working with the the United States to re-distribute the money. There will likely be a timeframe in which you can login and cashout.

Q. What about my player points and bonus money I had.
A. Don’t count on this being credited to you. Your money will probably be the only thing you will get back.

Q. Is Pokerstars going to reopen to the United States
A. Once they lost their dot com domain, they switched to Pokerstars.eu but decided to NOT take players from the United States.

We will continue to update this page as more information comes into play. For now please remember that it is not a crime to play online poker from the United States. The US Department of Justice took this poker sites domain because they believe they were committing wire fraud, bank fraud, and other felonies. Online poker was forced underground and was never really “illegal” so the poker sites were basically forced to take measures they shouldn’t have. There will likely be a long legal battle over the pokerstars.com domain shut down.