New Policy by Amaya Gaming Removes PokerStars/Full Tilt from Gray Markets

On October 1^st, players around the world were surprised to find that PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker were no longer servicing their country. With the acquisition by Amaya Gaming, a new policy was put in place that would remove operations by PokerStars and Full Tilt from countries that were not explicitly regulating online gaming. According to a report at PokerNews, thirty countries were affected by the recent policy change.

Real money game play has now been removed from thirty countries where PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker had previously provided real money gaming. This change now has many in the industry wondering if Canada will be affected as they are not regulated for online poker and this is also where Amaya Gaming is based.

An official statement with the names of the countries affected has not been released but we do know that several areas were affected by the withdrawal. These countries include:

Malaysia

Turkey

Pakistan

Egypt

Nigeria

Afghanistan

Kenya

The Vatican

North Korea

Iran

Iraq

Syria

Libya

And more

When a player from an affected country visits the PokerStars or Full Tilt website, they are given a pop-up message which reads that following a recent review, the company has decided to stop offering their real money gaming services to that particular country. The review by the management team and advisors searched for business risks for the brand as well as assess commercial opportunities. The results of the review consisted of the many countries being affected by the withdrawal.

Because the countries affected was not a large portion of the player base, PokerStars and Full Tilt should not be affected in a considerable manner. However, it will be interesting to see if any changes are now made that include Canada since the country does not have explicit regulation when it comes to online gambling.

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