Online poker giant PokerStars switches off black markets. As a result, it is exiting Taiwan, Macau, and China as of September 1. According to unverified reports, the company is making banking changes. Thus, they had to exit the three markets because the new banking policies were not compliant with Chinese standards.
PokerStars made several banking changes on how players withdraw their money. Some changes include lowering the minimum amount for bank wires, and allowing withdrawals through NETELLER and Skrill. Players gain access to latter withdrawal options even if they don’t have previous deposit.
According to bookie pay per head service professionals, the three markets doesn’t allow playing online poker for real money. Also, China has been beefing up its fight against cross-border illegal gaming. The country’s regulators increased its scrutiny of online payment processing for operators of gambling sites.
PokerStars Switches Off Taiwan, Macau, and China
PokerStars’ actions in the Asian markets came after Flutter Entertainment announced stricter supervision over The Stars Group. It is TSG’s main component. Also, Flutter said that there are some TSG markets that they found unviable to operate in. Thus, they are switching the markets off.
The goal of the move was to improve the quality of TSG’s anti-money laundering processes. The parent company estimated that the withdrawals would cost them around £65 million a year. However, it was the price they are willing to pay to make sure they don’t run into trouble with other regulators from more vital markets, such as the United States.
Under the previous management, PokerStars depended on black markets, such as Russia, for its business. It led to the blacklist of several PokerStars domain in the country. Russia bans all types of online gambling, except for sports betting. Thus, you can legally learn how to be a bookie in the said country. Just ensure you know how to find pay per head software for the new venture.
