PokerStars is an

online poker Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet. It has been partly responsible for a huge increase in the number of poker players worldwide. Christiansen Capital Advisors stated online poker revenues grew from $82.7 million in 2001 t ...

cardroom. It is the largest real money

site in the world, controlling over two-thirds of the total online poker market, and can be accessed through downloadable poker clients for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

Android Android most commonly refers to: *Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), a mobile operating system primarily developed by Google * Android TV, a operating system developed ...

and

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

. A PokerStars.com online satellite tournament produced the

2003 World Series of Poker The 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP) was a poker tournament held at Binion's Horseshoe. The tournament is seen as a turning point in the history of competitive poker, as amateur Chris Moneymaker's victory in the main event despite no prior tour ...

(WSOP) champion,

Chris Moneymaker Christopher Bryan Moneymaker (born November 21, 1975) is an American poker player who won the Main Event at the 2003 World Series of Poker (WSOP). His 2003 win is said to have revolutionized poker because he was the first person to become a wor ...

. As the first person to become a world champion by qualifying at an

site, Moneymaker's 2003 win was an important factor in catalyzing the

poker boom The poker boom was a period between 2003 and 2006, during which poker, primarily no-limit Texas hold 'em, but also other variations, became considerably more popular around the world. During the boom years, the online poker player pool at least dou ...

of the mid-2000s. The press has called this the "

Moneymaker effect The Moneymaker effect is the name of the sudden growth in interest in poker after the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event. History The term was created after Chris Moneymaker, a 27-year-old accountant and amateur poker player from Tennessee, Un ...

." PokerStars was part of

The Stars Group The Stars Group Inc. (formerly known as Amaya Inc., Amaya Gaming Group Inc. and Rational Group) was a Canadian gaming and online gambling company headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its shares were traded on Nasdaq and the Toronto Stock Ex ...

until it was sold to

Flutter Entertainment Flutter Entertainment plc is an Irish-American multinational sports betting and gambling company. It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and has a secondary listing on the London Stock Exchange. It owns brands such as Betfair, FanDuel, Pad ...

, owner of the Irish gambling company

Paddy Power Paddy Power is an Irish gambling company founded in 1988. Its product offering includes sports betting, online casino, online poker, and online bingo. Business operations are led from its headquarters in Dublin, alongside a satellite office ...

, on May 5, 2020.

History

PokerStars launched its beta play-money-only site on September 11, 2001. The company began offering real money wagering on December 12, 2001. PokerStars was originally a Costa Rican company, Rational Enterprises, part of Canadian company

which was majority owned by the Canadian

Scheinberg The Scheinberg is a hill, ,{{GeoQuelle, DE, BFN-Karten and the highest point in the Steigerwald, a hill range in southern Germany. It lies northeast of Ippesheim in the county of Neustadt an der Aisch-Bad Windsheim in Middle Franconia. To the n ...

family. The company was subsequently moved to

Douglas, Isle of Man Douglas (, ) is the Capital (political), capital city and largest settlement of the Isle of Man, with a population of 26,677 (2021) and an area of . It is located at the mouth of the River Douglas, Isle of Man, River Douglas, and on a sweepi ...

. The move was driven by the establishment of a 0% corporate tax rate and the removal of rules barring companies from accepting casino and poker bets from the United States. PokerStars holds numerous licences in other jurisdictions (see Regulated Markets below). In February 2012, PokerStars acquired a European Union license granted by the Malta Lotteries and Gaming Commission. While privately owned, PokerStars had been the subject of financial media speculation regarding a possible

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

or merger with a publicly listed company. Analysts estimated its market value would have been approximately in 2006, which would have made the company one of the world's largest privately held gambling companies. PokerStars overtook PartyPoker as the world's largest online poker room after the U.S. Congress passed the

Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) is United States legislation regulating online gambling. It was added as Title VIII to the SAFE Port Act (found at ) which otherwise regulated port security. The UIGEA prohibits g ...

. Many sites, including PartyPoker, immediately suspended business with U.S. gamblers, while others, including PokerStars, did not. In December 2009, PokerStars set the world record for the biggest online tournament. The tournament entry fee was $1, and the number of entrants reached 149,196. They broke that record in December 2011, when 200,000 players played in a $1 buy-in tournament with a first prize of $50,000. PokerStars was so busy during the early stages of the tournament, all tournaments had to be stopped for 20 minutes because the heavy traffic crashed their servers. This record had been broken again in June 2013, with 225,000 participants. The buy-in was $1 and went completely into the prize pool, with no

rake Rake may refer to: Common meanings * Rake (tool), a horticultural implement, a long-handled tool with tines * Rake (stock character), a man habituated to immoral conduct * Rake (poker), the commission taken by the house when hosting a poker game ...

. In January 2012, PokerStars introduced a downloadable mobile client for

from

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

. In February 2012, the company also introduced a client for

. In July 2012, PokerStars bought its former competitor,

Full Tilt Poker Full Tilt Poker is an Irish online poker card room and online casino that opened in June 2004. Formerly privately owned by Tiltware, LLC and later by the Rational Entertainment Group, the site was acquired by The Stars Group (then known as Amaya ...

. The $731 million deal settled a civil lawsuit with the Department of Justice while giving ownership of Full Tilt Poker's assets to PokerStars. In June 2014, The Stars Group, then known as Amaya Inc, agreed to buy PokerStars and its parent company for $4.9 billion in cash. The deal was completed on August 1, 2014. Later the deal led to a major insider trading investigation conducted by the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) over a four-year period concerning Amaya Inc. As of April 2016, they have reached an agreement with Netent to add desktop and mobile gambling games to its poker lobby in New Jersey and other locations. In February 2017,

Microgaming Microgaming is a privately held gambling software company based in the Isle of Man. The company first developed online casino software in 1994. Overview In May 2009, Microgaming's progressive slot Mega Moolah paid out $6,374,434, the largest ...

announced a partnership with PokerStars, owned by parent company for the integration of its Quickfire platform. In July 2017, PokerStars agreed to a deal with bankruptcy administrators to acquire some of rival

PKR.com PKR.com (also PKR) was an Alderney, UK-based online poker room that allowed users to play poker in a virtual reality setting. The site customized 3D graphics and player character animation during poker play. The characters incorporated body ...

's assets without reviving the brand, while refunding the full account balances of the entire PKR player base. In December 2017, PokerStars unveiled a brand new player tournament called the PokerStars Players No Limit Hold'em Championship, which is to be held in January 2019. The tournament is expected to become one of the biggest events in the annual poker calendar with a $25,000 buy in and a $1 million bonus for the eventual winner. In March 2018, The Stars Group reached an agreement with gaming company Sugal & Damani to support the launch of its PokerStars brand in India. In September 2018, PokerStars launched PokerStars VR, a fully immersive virtual reality poker experience. The platform was developed in collaboration with virtual reality software developer Lucky VR and was unveiled at EGX 2018. In October 2019, The Stars Group, owner of PokerStars, agreed to be acquired by Flutter Entertainment, in a $6 billion all-share merger. On May 5, 2020, PokerStars became part of Flutter Entertainment. In 2021, PokerStars entered into a partnership with

Red Bull Racing Red Bull Racing, currently competing as Oracle Red Bull Racing and also known simply as Red Bull or RBR, is a Formula One racing team, List of Formula One constructors#Team's nationality, competing under an Austrian racing licence and based in ...

, sponsoring their

Formula One Formula One (F1) is the highest class of worldwide racing for open-wheel single-seater formula Auto racing, racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one ...

team, with the brand to appear on Red Bull's new cars for the next few seasons, as well as on the suits of

Max Verstappen Max Emilian Verstappen (; born 30 September 1997) is a Dutch and Belgian racing driver who competes under the Dutch flag in Formula One for Red Bull Racing. Verstappen has won four Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles, which he w ...

and

Sergio Pérez Sergio Michel "Checo" Pérez Mendoza (; born 26 January 1990) is a Mexican racing driver, who most recently competed in Formula One from to . Pérez was runner-up in the Formula One World Drivers' Championship in with Red Bull, and won Gr ...

. In January 2022, PokerStars announced an extended multi-year partnership deal with Red Bull Racing. The deal included PokerStars' branding on the RB18 and race suits. The company stated they aim to provide fans "new and unique ways" to watch the sport in addition to increase technological advancements. In April 2022, PokerStars launched their peer-to-peer betting exchange which allowed customers to enter their own odds and bet against other customers. In December 2022, PokerStars announced that Michigan and New Jersey players would be unable to access their servers on December 12 and December 13 for a "major upgrade of the site". This upgrade is to allow Michigan and New Jersey poker players to play together, as both states are participants in the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA). PokerStars stated, "The upgrade is a necessary milestone to bring more games, bigger prize pools and guarantees in poker tournaments so New Jersey and Michigan poker players can compete against one another in the near future."

Games

PokerStars offers multiple poker variations:

Texas hold 'em Texas hold 'em (also known as Texas holdem, hold 'em, and holdem) is the most popular variant of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as hole cards, are dealt face down to each player, and then five Community card poker, community cards ...

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the List of cities in Nebraska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska. It is located in the Midwestern United States along the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's List of United S ...

, Omaha Hi/Lo (8 or Better), Courchevel,

Stud Stud may refer to: Animals * Stud (animal), an animal retained for breeding ** Stud farm, a property where livestock are bred Arts and entertainment * Stud (band), a British progressive rock group * The Stud (bar), a gay bar in San Francisco * ...

, Stud Hi/Lo (8 or Better),

Razz Razz may refer to: * Razz (poker), a form of stud poker * Razz (rapper), winner of MGP Nordic 2002 * "Razz" (song), a Kings of Leon song * Razz, Arab Rock Jazz, a music genre promoted by Aziz Maraka & Razz * Blowing a raspberry * Golden Raspber ...

Five-card draw Five-card draw (also known as Cantredraw) is a poker variant that is considered the simplest variant of poker, and is the basis for video poker. As a result, it is often the first variant learned by new players. It is commonly played in home ...

, 2-7 Triple Draw & 2-7 Single Draw,

Badugi Badugi (also known as badougi, paduki or padooki) is a draw poker variant similar to triple draw, with hand-values similar to lowball. The betting structure and overall play of the game is identical to a standard poker game using blinds, but, ...

HORSE The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 mi ...

HOSE A hose is a flexible hollow tube or pipe designed to carry fluids from one location to another, often from a faucet or hydrant. Early hoses were made of leather, although modern hoses are typically made of rubber, canvas, and helically wound w ...

, Mixed Hold'em, Mixed Omaha Hi/Lo, Triple Stud and 8-Game Mix. PokerStars also offers "Mixed Games," which rotate through several of these games. PokerStars averages over 15,000 players playing real money

cash game Cash games, also sometimes referred to as ring games or live action games, are poker games played with "real" Poker chip, chips and money at stake, often with no predetermined end time, with players able to enter and leave as they see fit. In co ...

s daily. PokerStars launched Zoom Poker in March 2012, with an official launch in May 2012. Zoom Poker is a fast fold ring game poker format where opponents change after every hand. The aim of Zoom poker is to offer players more hands of poker than in a regular ring game. In January 2013 PokerStars rolled out Zoom Poker Tournaments due to popular demand for the fast fold variant

Online tournaments

The site's weekly ''Sunday Million'' tournament has a guaranteed $1 million prize pool and a $215 buy-in. The Sunday Million is the biggest weekly online poker tournament. On March 7, 2011, The 5th Anniversary Sunday Million broke records, with 59,128 players creating a total prize pool of $11,825,600.

World Championship of Online Poker The World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is an online poker tournament series sponsored by PokerStars. It is played on the PokerStars website in September. Established in 2002, WCOOP is PokerStars' attempt to establish the online equivalent ...

(WCOOP) has been running since 2002 and is regarded as the online equivalent of the World Series of Poker. The WCOOP tournament series is the largest online poker series and pays out the largest prizes in online poker. The WCOOP 2010 Main Event champion Tyson "POTTERPOKER" Marks won $2.2 Million, the largest online tournament prize in history. Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) was established in 2009 and has since become the most popular online tournament series. Unlike WCOOP, there are three different buy-in stakes in the SCOOP events: Low, Medium (10x Low stake) and High (100x Low stake). Micro Millions was launched in March 2012 as a tournament series designed for recreational and micro-stakes players offering a low buy-in tournament schedule and large guaranteed cash prizes. PokerStars guaranteed $5 million in prize pools for the second installment of MicroMillions. In 2014, PokerStars was hosting 500,000 online tournaments each day.

Live Poker Tours

PokerStars sponsors various live poker tours ongoing such as: *

European Poker Tour The European Poker Tour (EPT) is a series of poker Poker tournament, tournaments created by John Duthie (poker player), John Duthie, winner of the inaugural Poker Million tournament. It began in 2004 as part of the worldwide explosion in Texas ...

''(EPT)'' *

Asia Pacific Poker Tour The Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) is a major international series of poker tournaments established in 2007 and hosted in cities across the Asia Pacific. Along with other major tours such as the European Poker Tour and Latin American Poker Tour, ...

''(APPT)'' *

North American Poker Tour The North American Poker Tour (NAPT) was a series of international poker tournaments held in North America. The NAPT included an associated television series broadcasting the final table of some of the tournaments. The NAPT was started in 2010 ...

''(NAPT)'' *

PokerStars Open The PokerStars Open is a series of European poker tournaments, launching in 2025, organised by PokerStars. The formation of the new European tour was announced in December 2024. Each festival will be headed by a €1,100 open main event with a � ...

''(PS Open)'' * :pt:Brazilian Series of Poker ''(BSOP)'' *

PokerStars Caribbean Adventure The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure is an annual televised poker tournament. History The event was first held in 2004 and was originally co-sponsored by PokerStars and the World Poker Tour. In 2008, the event moved from the WPT to the European ...

''(PCA)'' *PokerStars Players Championship ''(PSPC)'' *Swiss Poker Series ''(SPS)'' *Campeonato de España de Poker ''(CEP)'' * Irish Poker Open ''(Irish Open)'' *LexLive ''(LexLive)'' *

Belgian Poker Challenge The Belgian Poker Challenge (BPC) is a tournament sponsored by PokerStars with the winner becoming the Belgian Poker Champion. History The Belgian Poker Challenge (BPC) originated in 2013, when the tournament was held at Casino Middelkerke. The ...

''(BPC)'' *Manila Super Series, Manila Megastack and Okada Manila Millions at ''PokerStars Live Room,

Okada Manila Okada Manila ( Japanese: オカダマニラ, romanized: ''Okada Manira'') is an integrated resort located on the Entertainment City gaming strip in Parañaque, Metro Manila, Philippines. With a total construction cost of about ¥250 billion, O ...

'' And tournaments that did not continue, such as: * Australia New Zealand Poker Tour ''(ANZPT)'' 2009-2015 *Brazil Poker Tour ''(BPT)'' 2011-2012 *Czech-Slovak Poker Tour ''(CSPT)'' 2009 * Estrellas Poker Tour ''(ESPT)'' 2010-2024 *

Eureka Poker Tour The Eureka Poker Tour (EKA) started in March 2011, is a major regional poker tour in the central and eastern Europe. The tour is sponsored by PokerStars.com, like its counterparts, the European Poker Tour (2004), Asia Pacific Poker Tour (2007), ...

''(EKA)'' 2011-2024 * France Poker Series ''(FPS)'' 2010-2024 * Italian Poker Tour ''(IPT)'' 2009-2017 *Italian Poker Open ''(IPO)'' 2018-2019 *

Latin American Poker Tour The Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) was a major poker tour in Latin America, held from 2008 to 2016 and returned in 2023 and 2024. The LAPT was sponsored by PokerStars, like its counterparts, the European Poker Tour (2004), Asia Pacific Poker Tour ...

''(LAPT)'' 2008-2024 *Russian Poker Tour ''(RPT)'' 2008-2009 *Russian Poker Series ''(RPS)'' 2010-2012 *

UK and Ireland Poker Tour The UK and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) started in December 2009, is a major regional poker tour in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The UKIPT is sponsored by PokerStars.com, like its counterparts, the European Poker Tour (2004), Asia Pacific Poker ...

''(UKIPT)'' 2009-2024 *

PokerStars Championship The PokerStars Championship was a series of global poker tournaments which began in 2017. The formation of the series was announced in August 2016, when PokerStars revealed that the European Poker Tour and other poker tours were being rebranded. S ...

''(PSC)'' 2017 * PokerStars Festival ''(PSF)'' 2016-2018 *PokerStars Live London Series 2017-2021 at ''PokerStars Live Room,

Hippodrome, London The Hippodrome is a building on the corner of Cranbourn Street and Charing Cross Road in the City of Westminster, London. The name was used for many different theatres and music halls, of which the London Hippodrome is one of only a few survi ...

Live Poker Rooms

PokerStars live poker rooms around the world such as: *''PokerStars Live Room

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

- UK, at The Hippodrome Casino London'' *''PokerStars Live Room

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

, at

Vegas Infinite

Vegas Infinite, formerly PokerStars VR, is a free-play poker game for Oculus and

Steam Steam is water vapor, often mixed with air or an aerosol of liquid water droplets. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization. Saturated or superheated steam is inv ...

platforms that was released in 2018. It allows players to get free chips and use them to play

as well as

roulette Roulette (named after the French language, French word meaning "little wheel") is a casino game which was likely developed from the Italy, Italian game Biribi. In the game, a player may choose to place a bet on a single number, various grouping ...

blackjack Blackjack (formerly black jack or ''vingt-un'') is a casino banking game. It is the most widely played casino banking game in the world. It uses decks of 52 cards and descends from a global family of casino banking games known as " twenty-one ...

, slots, and

sports betting Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. Sports bettors place their wagers either legally, through a sportsbook or bookmaker (colloquially known as "bookies"), or illegally through priva ...

, although the winnings cannot be transferred into real money. Players can use store credits to buy cosmetics and props for use in games. As of February 2022 it was the 14th most popular game on Meta Quest. In October 2023, PC support without a VR headset was added along with a rebranding.

PokerStars.net

PokerStars.net is a company website offering only

free play Free play is unstructured play among children without adult supervision who decide themselves how and what to play and make up the rules as they go along. Free play is crucial for child development, and promotes social skills, emotional health ...

games. The pokerstars.net domain is used primarily in their TV advertisements since there are no real money games available at this website. This avoids any legal issues or censorship of using their pokerstars.com domain which allows real money games.

PokerStars.tv

PokerStars.tv is the online source for PokerStars TV shows, commercials and event highlight shows – with commentary and expert analysis available in up to 7 languages. The content available includes live cards-up coverage of the biggest PokerStars tournaments, TV shows such as The Million Dollar Challenge and

PokerStars Big Game The ''PokerStars Big Game'', also known as the ''PokerStars.net Big Game'' or simply the ''Big Game'', was a poker television program sponsored by Pokerstars.net originally airing on Fox Network. The program had a tie-in to the Pokerstars North A ...

and online tournament highlights from

WCOOP The World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is an online poker tournament series sponsored by PokerStars. It is played on the PokerStars website in September. Established in 2002, WCOOP is PokerStars' attempt to establish the online equivalent ...

and SCOOP.

Team PokerStars

PokerStars sponsors a team of professional poker players known as Team PokerStars. , the team consists of

André Akkari André Akkari (born 28 December 1974) is a Brazilian professional poker player. He is a member of Team PokerStars Pro Brazil. He won the 2011 World Series of Poker $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event for $675,117. He is the co-owner of Furia Esports ...

, Arlie Shaban, Ben Spragg, David Kaye, Felix Schneiders, Fintan Hand, Georgina James,

Jennifer Shahade Jennifer Shahade (born December 31, 1980) is an American chess player, poker player, commentator and writer. She is a two-time United States Women's Champion and has the FIDE title of Woman Grandmaster. Shahade is the author of the books ''Ches ...

, Lasse Jagd Lauritsen, Laurie Tournier, Lex Veldhuis, Nicholas Walsh, Parker Talbot, Rafael Moraes, Ramón Colillas,

Sam Grafton The 2022 World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) was the 13th edition of the World Series of Poker Europe, a series of poker tournaments organized by the WSOP. It was between 26 October – 16 November at King's Casino Rozvadov, King's Casino in Ro ...

and Sebastian Huber.

Celebrity players

PokerStars also has had a Celebrity team and a Sports team, called respectively "Friends of PokerStars" and "SportStars". These have included Jamaican Olympic gold medal winner and World record holder

Usain Bolt Usain St. Leo Bolt (; born 21 August 1986) is a Jamaican retired sprinter who is widely regarded as the greatest sprinter of all time. He is an eight-time Olympic gold medalist and the world record holder in the 100 metres, 200 metres, ...

and American actor comedian

Kevin Hart Kevin Darnell Hart (born July 6, 1979) is an American comedian and actor. The accolades he has received include the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor and nominations for two Grammy Awards and four Primetime Emmy Awards. After winning se ...

. Former associated celebrities include World Cup winning Brazilian striker

Ronaldo Ronaldo is a Portuguese given name equivalent to the English Ronald. It became a common name in all Portuguese-speaking countries, also prevalent in other Romance countries. People Notable people known as Ronaldo include: Association footballe ...

, tennis pro

Rafael Nadal Rafael Nadal Parera (born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for ...

, former tennis champion

Boris Becker Boris Franz Becker (; born 22 November 1967) is a German former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Becker won 49 c ...

, FIFA World Cup-winning Italian goalkeeper

Gianluigi Buffon Gianluigi Buffon (; born 28 January 1978) is an Italian former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. Widely regarded as one of the greatest goalkeepers of all time, he is ...

, Manchester United star

Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for and Captain (association football), captains both Saudi Pr ...

, Dutch field hockey Olympic Gold medalist

Fatima Moreira de Melo Fatima Moreira de Melo (born 4 July 1978) is a former Dutch field hockey player and professional poker player of Portuguese descent. She has played 191 international matches for the Dutch national team, scoring 30 goals. De Melo's debut match wi ...

, Norwegian cross-country skier

Petter Northug Petter Northug Jr. (born 6 January 1986) is a Norwegian former cross-country skier and double Olympic champion. He won a total of 13 World Championship and two Winter Olympic gold medals with 20 medals overall (two gold, one silver and one bron ...

, Swedish cross-country skier

Marcus Hellner Carl Marcus Joakim Hellner (born 25 November 1985) is a Swedish former cross-country skiing (sport), cross-country skier who competed between 2003 and 2018. He retired at the end of the 2017-18 FIS Cross-Country World Cup, 2017-18 FIS World Cup se ...

, quantitative analyst and author of the 'Chen Formula' for Texas Hold'em

Bill Chen William Chen (born 1970 in Williamsburg, Virginia) is an American quantitative analyst, poker player, and software designer. Biography Chen holds a Doctor of Philosophy, Ph.D. in mathematics (1999) from the University of California, Berkeley. H ...

, Brazilian auto racer and race team owner

Gualter Salles Gualter Salles (born September 28, 1970, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), is an open wheel race car driver. He raced in the 1997-2000 and 2003 CART seasons, as well as one Indy Racing League event, totalling 49 IndyCar starts overall. He also competed in ...

and French rugby union international

Sébastien Chabal Sébastien Chabal (born 8 December 1977) is a French former rugby union player. He played Number eight (rugby union), number eight and Lock (rugby union), lock for CS Bourgoin-Jallieu, Bourgoin (1998–2004), Sale Sharks (2004–2009), Racing Mé ...

Regulated markets

PokerStars.com and PokerStars.eu operate worldwide under a license from the Maltese government. PokerStars also operates under separate government licenses in Denmark, France, Italy, Belgium, Spain and Estonia. In October 2008, PokerStars launched PokerStars.it, exclusively for Italian players, which offers real money tournaments in

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

s in addition to the usual play money games. PokerStars offers some ring games and tournaments on its main PokerStars.com site in euros. In March 2010, the site began allowing users to keep their real-money accounts in

British pounds Sterling (Currency symbol, symbol: Pound sign, £; ISO 4217, currency code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound is the main unit of account, unit of sterling, and the word ''Pound (cu ...

and

Canadian dollar The Canadian dollar (currency symbol, symbol: $; ISO 4217, code: CAD; ) is the currency of Canada. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $. There is no standard disambiguating form, but the abbreviations Can$, CA$ and C$ are frequently used f ...

s as well as U.S. dollars and euros. In July 2015, PokerStars withdrew from the Portuguese market. In November 2016 the Portuguese regulator, Serviços de Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos (SRIJ) issued its first online poker license to The Stars Group's subsidiary REEL Europe Limited. As a result, legal online poker returned to Portugal. In March 2016, PokerStars launched in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

for real money. In June 2016, PokerStars ceased to allow real-money online poker in Israel. The decision is thought to have been made after recent pressure from the country's banking regulator on financial institutions demanding they stop processing online gambling transactions. In July 2016, PokerStars stopped offering real money games to players who are physically located in, or have a registered address in, Slovenia. In November 2018, PokerStars was cleared to launch in Pennsylvania for real money in 2019. On January 29, 2021, PokerStars launched in Michigan. PokerStars was Michigan's first regulated online poker site. In December 2022, PokerStars announced the would be combining players from Michigan and New Jersey under the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement. In February 2024, PokerStars disagreed with Peru's new online gambling regulation and exited the country.

Domain name seizure

On April 15, 2011, the

Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

seized the .com internet addresses of the three

online gambling Online gambling (also known as iGaming or iGambling) is any kind of gambling conducted on the internet. This includes virtual poker, casinos, and sports betting. The first online gambling venue opened to the general public was ticketing for th ...

sites, a total of five

URL A uniform resource locator (URL), colloquially known as an address on the Web, is a reference to a resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it. A URL is a specific type of Uniform Resource Identi ...

s: Pokerstars.com, Fulltiltpoker.com, Absolutepoker.com, Ultimatebet.com and UB.com. On April 15, 2011, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the

Southern District of New York The Southern District of New York is a federal judicial district that encompasses the counties of New York (Manhattan), Bronx, Westchester, Rockland, Putnam, Orange, Dutchess, and Sullivan. Federal offices or agencies operating in the distri ...

seized and shut down Pokerstars.com and several of its competitors' sites, alleging that the sites were violating federal bank fraud and

money laundering Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...

laws. On April 20, 2011, the U.S. Attorney's office returned control of the Pokerstars.com domain name to the company in order "to facilitate the withdrawal of U.S. players’ funds held in account with the companies." On July 10, 2012, PokerStars, asserting the Government had insufficient grounds on which to base the charges, filed motions to dismiss the charges against them. On July 31, 2012, the US government dismissed with

prejudice Prejudice can be an affect (psychology), affective feeling towards a person based on their perceived In-group and out-group, social group membership. The word is often used to refer to a preconceived (usually unfavourable) evaluation or classifi ...

all civil complaints against PokerStars and

after reaching a

settlement Settlement may refer to: *Human settlement, a community where people live *Settlement (structural), downward movement of a structure's foundation *Settlement (finance), where securities are delivered against payment of money *Settlement (litigatio ...

with PokerStars which includes PokerStars acquiring Full Tilt. Under the terms of the settlement, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker admitted no wrongdoing for their past U.S. activities. The U.S. Government acknowledged both companies can apply for licenses to operate online gaming in the U.S. when a legal framework for such licenses is offered. The settlement terms also called for PokerStars to acquire certain assets of

from the Government. On August 9, 2012, PokerStars paid $225 million to the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a United States federal executive departments, federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of Law of the Unite ...

, consummating the asset transfer of

. Full Tilt Poker was successfully relaunched on November 6, 2012.

References

External links

* {{Use mdy dates, date=March 2012 Internet properties established in 2001 2001 establishments in Costa Rica Online poker companies The Stars Group Asia Pacific Poker Tour European Poker Tour Latin American Poker Tour North American Poker Tour UK and Ireland Poker Tour Gambling companies of the Isle of Man Domain name seizures by United States