The world’s largest online poker site, PokerStars, appears to be pulling out of China, Macau and Taiwan as it looks to focus on regulated markets following the recent merger of parent company The Stars Group with UK betting giant Flutter Entertainment.
As noted by CalvinAyre.com, multiple PokerStars account holders posted screenshots on popular global poker forum Two Plus Two last weekend showing emails they had received from Stars Support informing them that PokerStars would be exiting the region as of 1 September. The emails also provided details of how to withdraw funds from their player accounts.
Flutter had last week offered a hint as to such intentions in its 1H20 results announcement, stating it had identified “a small number of The Stars Group jurisdictions that Flutter had previously determined it would not operate in and in such cases, we have now switched these markets off.”
Real money online gambling is mostly illegal in China, Macau and Taiwan although PokerStars, among other sites, has until now been easily accessible.
The Stars Group has in recent years blocked real money play in other jurisdictions where online gambling was illegal or limited but has for the most part continued to offer its free play site to users.
