PokerStars Account with $8,400 Frozen for Seven Months during 'Routine Security Review'
Since January 13th, 2025, my PokerStars account has been frozen for a 'routine security review.'
I cannot play; I cannot withdraw any of the $8,419.32 funds held there, nor can I use two 'Bronze' $109 tokens that I had recently earned and will soon expire.
Periodically, I get an auto-reply telling me that the 'routine security review' is ongoing.
In 7 1/2 months, I have never received a human-generated reply to any of my thirty-odd emails.
It is genuinely hard to guess what prompted this review:
Collusion? I never play cash games, only large MTT's.
Laundering? In 15 years, I have never withdrawn a dime.
VPN? Nope.
Restricted Location? My country is not on the Prohibited List.
Of course I filed a complaint with the Malta Gaming Authority.
The MGA rejected my case with a rationale that defied common sense - they are a decorative arm of the Malta gaming industry.
Out of genuine desperation, I will arrive in Malta on 30 September, hoping to meet with PokerStars officials at the EPT Malta, as well as the MGA, and any Maltese attorney who will hear my case.
If others have similar stories, I'd love to hear them - online, or I'll be in the Casino Malta, 1-12 October.
Randy S.
'wimpy64' on PokerStars
5 Replies
After nearly eight months, PokerStars has ruled on its 'Routine Security Review'.
My account is in violation of something - without saying what - and has been 'Cancelled'.
I can no longer log in (of course I have saved screenshots) and I am not allowed to play in the EPT.
No reply surely means No, they are not giving me my $8, 419.32.
Maybe they will soon say to my face some explanation for why all of this has happened.
More likely, in court.
PokerStars' eight month long 'Routine Security Review' has morphed into a 'Standard Security Check, ' which seems to require a Skrill account, even though I never used Skrill to fund PokerStars.
See my one other thread on 2+2 regarding my brief experience with Skrill.
https://www.twoplustwo.com/News-Views-and-Gossip/129vl/Seeking-others-with-frozen-Skrill-account-for-class--action
In both cases, why me? I never play cash games to avoid collusion myself, no VPN: my location is legal. I am a retired US banker with transparent finances to anyone with a valid reason, offering PStars umpteen forms of personal identification, but because I play from Cambodia, people suspect that I am laundering money, whenever some moves.
Fair question. No is the answer. Come look at my back-up.
They have never asked for anything. Instead, their slow-motion, misleading tactics ... imagine the frustration generated by eight months of 'just wait another minute.'
Unless they offer a shred of evidence, which requires an accusation, they need to give me my money.
My wife begged me to give up. The aggravation was so much bigger than the money.
And after seven months of auto-replies and a laughable rejection in Arbitration, she made a strong case that the money was gone.
Unfair, absurd, but gone.
It would have been, but for one last spray of emails, in every direction that I could conjure.
One of them must have been read.
They finally refunded my $8, 419.
They weren't going to month ago, that was clear, but something made them change their mind.
Maybe it was one of the 28 separate emails I sent to senior management at PStars/Flutter, the Maltese and Irish governments, five poker news outlets and every famous poker player that I've ever met.
Or maybe it was my wife buying the Flutter public debt securities (as a US citizen, I cannot.) As a debtholder, my wife now holds the potential to become a genuine nuisance to Flutter Corporate.
They gave me my $8, 419 cash, but they found ways to be a-holes right up to the end. They sent the money in Euro to my Dollar account, costing me 1% for no reason, kept my $216 in Bronze tokens, and banned me from future live PokerStars events (breaking my heart.)
Pretend you're banned also. These people are the worst.
So congratulation. They have more tricks to screw you, after all they are dealing cards from depths of their rnd : )) I think they have parted world to zones, so most safe is to play from US > Western Europe > Eastern Europe > third world countries.
I empathize with your situation. I'm going through the same problem. I'm a Chinese player, and I registered an account on GG in May 2025 and used it until April 1, 2026. They banned my account and confiscated $10, 000 from it. told me I was banned for "violated section 5. MULTI ACCOUNTING and16. PREDATORY BEHAVIOR of our Security & Ecology Policy." This is clearly a complete garbage of a claim.I only have this one account, and unlike you, I play cash games. I'd like to ask where I can file a complaint now, and how you got your funds back.
