PokerStars Temporarily Withdraws Online Casino Games from the Spanish Market

Spanish online casino players were the first to get the opportunity to play casino games at PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker company after the room launched its first blackjack and roulette tables in October 2014 via the license obtained by Reel Plc., PokerStars subsidiary in Spain. However, online gamblers operating in Spain received some shocking and disappointing news during the Christmas holidays. PokerStars was compelled to remove blackjack and roulette from their Spanish website owing to the inability of online players to access their blackjack and roulette game history directly from the room’s client, a mandatory requirement by Spanish gambling regulators.

The room informed all registered players its decision to put the casino games on hold via a note. The note stated, “We are removing blackjack and roulette casino games from the PokerStars.es software. This is necessary to fix a minor technical issue whereby blackjack hand histories are not available to all players from directly within the software, as required.”

PokerStars further said, “The issue resulted in no negative impact on the playing experience nor the integrity of our games. Nevertheless, we are taking these steps to ensure that our software is 100% compliant with all relevant requirements. Blackjack and roulette will return as soon as possible, likely in a matter of weeks.“

Though PokerStars.es has been offering real money casino games since Oct’14, it`s foray in the online casino market has not met expectations with low traffic on the tables. PokerStars was not offering any loyalty program benefits or welcome bonus for its casino customers. Not surprisingly, the online giant has failed to draw substantial number of players from other online casinos.

Given PokerStars undoubtable technical ability to implement software updates in little or no time, it is surprising that the online casino has been shut for weeks. It is speculated that PokerStars Casino has exited permanently from Spain. There are both concrete and plausible reasons for the abrupt exit. The exorbitant licensing fees prevalent in Spain along with administrative fees and a whopping 25% tax on gaming profits makes making profits very tough. Also PokerStars faces shortage of micro-stakes losers that are required in substantial numbers to balance the winnings of high-stakes players. However the hard reality is that very few players were playing at the online casino site.

One can only wait and watch to see if the temporarily suspended online casino feature comes back on PokerStars.es by the end of January as promised.