Yes, PokerStars allows players from almost every country in the world including the United States. Some may believe that online poker is illegal in the US, but they are far from correct. Online poker is legal in the US and players from the United States will have no problems playing for real money at PokerStars. May 26, 2021 Now they have added a number of new badges that a much wider group of players can add. They show the number of lifetime real money hands a player has played on the site. Each badge looks like a pocket pair. Pocket Twos is for players with 5,000 hands or over.

After the fateful Black Friday in 2011, PokerStars no longer accepts US poker players, though it caters to millions of players from other countries across the world. PokerStars is the biggest and most popular online poker site on the web and is known for offering the best tournaments and games. It was launched on September11, 2001 as a ‘play money only’ site and then started real money gambling on December 12 in the same year. PokerStars is currently licensed by Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission in UK and AAMS (Amministrazione Autonoma dei Monopoli di Stato) in Italy.

The PokerStars Journey

PokerStars was initially a Costa Rican firm owned by Israel’s Scheinberg family. Then, the firm was transferred to British Crown dependent, Isle of Man. After the transfer, the site started accepting poker and casino bets from USA.

Later, PokerStars was involved in many media speculations regarding a merger with a public company. In 2006, when the US government passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, PokerStars left behind PartyPoker and became the biggest online poker site in the world. Many casino and poker sites including PartyPoker stopped business with the US players, but PokerStars, along with few other poker sites, initially did not.

Black Friday of Poker

The Black Friday of poker has been one of the unfortunate events that affected the US online poker industry. A series of raids was conducted secretly by the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) and DOJ (Department of Justice) on 15 April, 2011. The raid accused owners of major online poker and casino operators like PokerStars, Full Tilt and Ultimate Bet of various charges including the unethical use of money that they earned from gambling. The charge against PokerStars was that it tricked financial institutions to process payments for gambling, challenging the UIGEA act.

PokerStars was seized and closed by the Attorney Office in Southern District of New York, since it was believed that it violated Federal bank’s money laundering and fraud laws. Since then, PokerStars stopped US players from playing for real money and changed the company’s URL from PokerStars.com to PokerStars.eu. The domain name PokerStars.com was given back to the company on 15 April, 2011, by the Attorney’s office in the US.

PokerStars and US players

PokerStars assured their US poker players that their balances on the site were safe. Though the site does not accept real money bets from US players, the US government ordered it to return the balance money of all their US players. Unlike Full Tilt Poker, all US PokerStars players have been repiad in full.

Is it the end of PokerStars in the US?

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) does not make online poker in the US illegal. However, the act stops all the financial institutions in USA from processing transactions related to online gambling activities. Because of this, many online poker rooms, including PokerStars, cannot operate in the country. Hopefully, when and if online poker is legalized in the US, PokerStars should be able to step into the US market again and regain its lost glory. However, there is a school of thought which suggests that because Poker stars is in trouble for what they have already done, they will be permanently blocked from re-entering the US market.

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While doing research for this guide, I read hundreds of pages of 2+2’s PokerStars Improvement Thread and played tons of hours of online poker at PokerStars.com. I’ve also been in the online poker industry for well over a decade, from before PokerStars ever got started. With that said, let’s get started on the PokerStars review.

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PokerStars Pros & Cons

Pros

Secure and Safe Online Poker Site.
Massive Opportunity for Gaming.
Quality Customer Support.
Great promotional opportunities.

Cons

Low US Player availability.
No Live Chat Support.

About PokerStars.com

Since 2006, PokerStars has reigned as the most popular online poker room in the world – and not only has it been in the lead, it has dominated its competition.

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For instance, according to PokerScout.com, PokerStars’ cash game traffic at its lowest hours is still twice as high as its nearest competition’s traffic at peak hours. At the time of writing, PokerStars has about 19,000 cash-game players online while the second busiest site (888 Poker) has about 3,000.

Not one competitor comes even close to PokerStars. But for how long?

Is PokerStars legit? Safety and security

When choosing an online poker room, players want a place that is safe and secure. At PokerStars, only the latest technology is used to ensure that gameplay is fair, player data is secure, and all financial transactions are safe. When it comes to fairness, PokerStars has game integrity experts who work to ensure that no player has an advantage over another. Software security is in place as well, to keep the quality of gameplay at the highest level.

PokerStars also holds their licensing within the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission. This commission was created in 1962 and ensures the regulation of online gambling activities. With this backing and the standards PokerStars upholds, players can rest assured they are going to experience legit game play.

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Opening your PokerStars account

With our PokerStars review, you can easily learn how to open a new account. Below you will find step-by-step instructions to get you started.

Download the online poker software from PokerStars
Open the software via the quick-start icon, should be labeled “PokerStars”
Once opened, choose ‘Create a new account now”
From here, you will be able to set up your Stars Account

PokerStar Bonus

Bonuses are readily available at PokerStars, especially for new members. To begin, new players to the site can access $30 in Free Play. Deposit $20 or more with the bonus code THIRTY to earn this extra bonus cash. The $30 in Free Play includes Spin & Go Tickets plus bonus cash.

Another option for new players is the 100% deposit bonus worth up to $600. This bonus can be accessed by using the code STAR600 and depositing via three qualifying deposits within a 60-day time frame. After depositing, players will need to play real money games. During gameplay, redemption points are earned. Players will earn 5 redemption points for every $1 paid in rake or tournament fees.

Player Traffic and Tournament Prizepools

Even though the recent changes have been unpleasant (to say the least), PokerStars is lightyears ahead of others when it comes to cash game player traffic and tournament prize pools. Volume makes a huge difference and PokerStars has ten times the volume of its closest competitor. For a poker player who cares about the art of game selection (as any winning player should), there’s no better place to play at than PokerStars.com.

While there is a high level of traffic at PokerStars, the game quality is among the poorest in all of online poker. Grinders play a dozen or more tables at a time. There are also problems with bum-hunting, meaning serious players will only go up against weaker ones. Some of the recent changes have tried to combat this, but it has not been effective.

PokerStars real money deposit and withdrawals

Now that you have your PokerStars account created, its time to learn about deposits and withdrawals. There are options for players to enjoy PokerStars via desktop and mobile, so game play can be enjoyed at home or on the go. PokerStars bitcoin, WebMoney, Visa, MasterCard and m

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