PokerStars issues mass refunds following server outages

The Stars Group (TSG) has refunded PokerStars players following a server outage for the second weekend in a row.

TSG managing director Séverin Rasset announced on Twitter that PokerStars had reimbursed customers for the entirety of their buy-ins after a server outage on Friday evening left users unable to play online for hours.

Customers, whether they were playing in one or several tournaments during the outage, have been fully refunded.

However, customers in Belgium, the Czech Republic and Sweden are yet to have their funds restored while PokerStars ensures the refunds are fully complicit with local regulations.

Rasset said: “I would like to apologise to all players. You could not play for a few hours and for us it is very important to be reliable, so I am deeply sorry for that.

“Thank you very much for supporting us and for your loyalty. We are working hard to make sure that it does not happen again,” he concluded.

Last Friday’s server outage represents the second consecutive week in which PokerStars has been blighted by technical issues.

The operator suffered an outage during the main event of its MicroMillions tournament on Sunday 29 November, which had a buy-in of $22 and a guaranteed prize pool of $1m.

Although participants were unable to play for around an hour, the clock kept running, resulting in blinds continuing to rise incrementally which left players with shorter stacks in comparison to the blinds once play resumed.

Aggrieved players took to social media to vent their fury at PokerStars’ decision not to cancel the tournament and refund players their buy-ins.