PokerStars Can’t Find Me – And Doesn't Care - and that’s a problem

I admit it’s a small problem, because where I live I can’t play for real money.  Yet.  Still, it highlights a flaw in the system, and because I got a ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ when I asked about it, I felt it was time to go public.

Yes, I participate in “play money” games.  I’m not ashamed to admit it.  I’ve been a member of PokerStars since 2003, so I’ve had an account there for what seems like forever, and back in the “good ol’ days” I did play for real money.  But now, sometimes when I am bored (or feel like multi-tasking), I’ll open the laptop, sign on to PokerStars, and get into a quick “spin-and-go” table.  It helps pass the time.  And until April of last year, I had no problems.

But because of a lawsuit in Washington state, PokerStars became pro-active about offering play money gaming, and prohibited players in that state from playing any of it’s play money games.

Pisser.

Problem is, I live in Oregon.

Back then, I lived in Seaside, and while we’re close to the border, we’re not that close (a good 18 miles).  When the pop-up “can’t play here” screen first appeared, I wrote to PokerStars support about it (and got the “shrug” response).  Basically, they blamed it on my ISP, EasyStreet, which sort of made sense, as they have servers located in Vancouver, WA.  The thing is, I wasn’t always blocked – just most of the time.  There were occasions when I could get on and play, and I never did think as to why I could.  It could be that the ISP has other servers (in Portland) and I was hooked into those on those lucky days.  I just was thankful that I could play again (even if it was only play money, it beats Zynga).

Fast forward to 2019, and we’ve moved to Warren.  I’m still in Oregon, but now I have CenturyLink as my ISP.  I attempted to log on and play on PokerStars right away, and – bingo!  Access!  I thought my problems were over.

But just yesterday the bugaboo was back.  I logged on as always, and instead of getting action, I got the damn “can’t play here” pop-up.  I tried again today (after shutting down and rebooting) and I still can’t play.  I have no idea how long it will last.

But I can tell you that this is a problem.  Sure, it’s only play money now.  But it sends a signal (get it?) that there are STILL issues with the geolocation programs.  PokerStars has a whole page devoted to the issue, but it doesn’t help me a bit.  And that makes me very unhappy – not just for myself, but for the online gaming industry.

Someone should look into this, and take it a bit more seriously than ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.