PokerStars is facing fines once again in New Jersey after a technical glitch led to a self-exclusion failure. A player that was on the self-exclusion list was able to access the brand and wager over $500,000. This was a huge misstep and PokerStars was hit with a civil penalty for not protecting the player.
The Division of Gaming Enforcement sent a Notice of Violation to The Stars Group, the parent company of PokerStars. The notice was sent in late January and included a $1,000 fine for the issue. Two gamblers were able to access its site in New Jersey, despite being self-excluded. However, only one of the individuals gambled funds.
The gambler who was able to access the site and bet had asked for a six month stop on their account in September 2018. By February 2019, the player asked to be entirely self-excluded from the online casino and poker room.
By July 2019, the player asked to be given access to his account again via support. His account was reactivated due to the original six-month cool down request had expired. A technical glitch did not show the self-ban, which allowed the player to get back into his account.
From that point on until April 2020, the player was able to gamble via PokerStars. He made deposits of over $11,00 and cash out just over $112. In the time frame, he was able to place almost $550,000 in online casino wagers. He also bet around $91,000 in the poker room.
In the process, PokerStars was able to generate around $16,000 in profit from the players gambling. The provider had to pay the $1,000 fine on the breach and let go of this profit as well. PokerStars found out about the incident and shut down the account immediately, alerting the DGE of the issue. The technical issue was detected and since repaired.
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