Poker Stars Group announces an exit from Australia.

Recently Australian lawmakers have passed a bill that negatively affects online gambling, online poker in particular. This bill very recently got through the Australian senate and will go into effect in September 2017. Before this bill even passed 888 poker announced it’s exit from the Aussie markets. Now, Poker Stars has decided to call it quits in Australia as well. They recently sent out emails to clients claiming that they would be pulling out of Aussie territory “some time in September.” Other poker sites have already announced they will step in to fill the void.

Dear …..,

The Australian parliament on August 9 passed the Interactive Gambling Amendment Bill (2016) effectively banning all online gambling sites that are not locally licensed under Australian State or Territory law. We’ve been aware of this day coming and have done our best to keep you informed, but we can confirm that we’ll be closing our real money poker tables to players in Australia, most likely around mid-September. We will contact you as soon as a firm date is confirmed.

Your funds are, and will continue to be, safe and available for withdrawal. Remember to open any unopened Stars Rewards Chests you have, and you can continue to spend your StarsCoin in the Rewards Store. A $1 Cash Rebate has been added to facilitate converting your StarsCoin to cash. Any tournament tickets and tournament money will be converted to cash for withdrawal, effective from the market exit date. We have provided a FAQ page here.

We’re proud to have seen the Australian poker community grow so strong over the last decade. We do respect the Australian Government’s decision in taking steps to protect consumers and hope that in time we’ll be able to serve real money poker to you again. In the meantime, we will continue to offer play money poker and we hope to continue to welcome many Australian players to our tables.

We’d also like to thank the Australian Online Poker Alliance for their campaigning on behalf of the game and suggest that you consider lending them your voice if you’d like to see a regulated return of online poker to Australia.

Regards, PokerStars

Source: http://professionalrakeback.com/pokerstars-to-exit-australia