After having his winnings from a poker tournament withheld by the site, former World Series of Poker Championship Event runner-up Gordon Vayo has sued the number one poker site in the world, PokerStars.
Vayo won an event during the 2017 Spring Championships of Online Poker (SCOOP) for a score of $692,460 but, after further investigation, PokerStars determined that he had illegally played from the States of America rather than a country that PokerStars can legally serve. PokerStars states that Vayo used a virtual private network (VPN), which allegedly would allow Vayo to play from a computer in the States by running the operations through a system in a legal setting. The punishment for the transgression is stated fully in the Terms and Conditions (T&C) of any poker site: that any funds won while violating their rules are confiscated (the money is then either divvied up between the players or, in this case, was set to be donated to charity).
Vayo dissented with the PokerStars decision and filed a lawsuit in the Central District of California-Western Division U. S. District Court. In his legal papers, Vayo alleged that he had provided evidence to PokerStars to demonstrate that he had played the first two days of the tournament in Canada (on May 20 and May 21) and that PokerStars didn’t disagree. He also stated that it would have been “impossible for him to travel to the U. S. in the middle of an active, intensive, major tournament that required nearly around-the-clock play and focus, leaving time for only brief periods of rest and nourishment.”
PokerStars, in its response, has said that it doesn’t dispute Vayo’s contentions but that the evidence was insufficient because he couldn’t prove it was “inconceivable” that he hadn’t traveled to the U. S. for the final day of the tournament (May 22).
While the above accusations are enough to garner the interest of the poker community, some of Vayo’s other allegations indicate that PokerStars does this on a regular basis to players. PokerStars allegedly encouraged Vayo and others from the U. S. “to play on the PokerStars.com site for months and years.” Furthermore, “during this time, Defendant (PokerStars) turned a blind eye and was indifferent to the location…(of) users.” Then Vayo drops the bombshell which, if true, could have a seismic effect on the PokerStars operation.
“Only after a user won a significant amount of money on the PokerStars.com site would Defendant conduct an investigation into the location of the user’s play and access of the site,” Vayo alleges. “In this way, Defendant was able to take the money off Plaintiff and other users of the PokerStars.com site with impunity while depriving the same users of their largest wins if and when such wins occurred.” Vayo is looking for his winnings from that 2017 SCOOP tournament to be released to him along with additional interest and penalties for PokerStars (court and attorney costs).
The case could hinge on a couple of different things. With the case being filed in the U. S., the question arises as to whether there is jurisdictional coverage of the case. Because PokerStars’ ownership is Canadian and Vayo is a U. S. citizen, there is a solid case that could be made that there is no jurisdictional coverage in the U. S. for PokerStars. The same argument could be made in Canada, however, in that Vayo as a U. S. citizen doesn’t have protections (even though he has invested in a residence there).
The second question could be regarding the legality of online poker in the U. S. While Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware all have a legalized system of internet gaming and poker, the remainder of the country exists with different interpretations of the law. Some locales have NO regulations regarding the activity while a few have expressly outlawed the activity. Under the law, there is the tenet of “clean hands,” basically meaning that you cannot claim injury under the law if you were in fact breaking the law at the same time.
A third question arises from Vayo’s legal documentation. If he can prove he played from Canada on May 20 and May 21, why can’t he provide the same documentation that he did so on the penultimate day, May 22? It does make one wonder if there is something to the PokerStars investigation.
For its part, PokerStars is remaining mute on the subject. A spokesperson for The Stars Group, the ownership behind PokerStars, simply said, “We cannot comment on pending litigation matters and our investigation into this particular matter is ongoing. However, as operator of the most regulated poker site in the world we believe that we have a duty to protect the integrity of the game and ensure we provide a safe and fair poker platform by enforcing our terms of service. We have paid out over half a billion dollars in tournaments winnings this year alone and will continue to implement rigorous security procedures to protect our players.”
