PokerStars’ Greek player contingent is up in arms after the online poker company announced the imposition of a daily withholding tax on winnings, effective Friday (22). The news came as Stars shifted its Greek players to a .gr site jointly operated by Maltese company Diamond Link Ltd. (PlayBet.com) which in addition to being licensed by Malta’s Lotteries & Gaming Authority also holds an interim online gaming license in Greece. On Thursday, a PokerCity forum member posted a communication from Stars support stating that the changes were necessary “to be able to continue offering poker to our players in Greece.”
A message was subsequently posted on the Stars.gr site detailing the specifics of the tax. Based on a 24-hour period starting at 7am local time, Greek players will pay 15% tax on daily ring/cash game profits between €100 and €500, rising to 20% on profits over €500. Buy-ins for tournaments and Sit & Go’s will be deducted before taxes are applied, but the rates on winnings remain the same. The new tax also applies to Stars’ other brand, Full Tilt Poker (FTP). Full details, including sample tax calculations, are available here.
Stars has also temporarily blocked Greek players from accessing tournaments with larger prize pools “to ensure that the impact on players of working under the Greek regulation, particularly in the area of player withholding tax, is minimized.” Stars hopes to restore the tournament offerings “in the very near future.” The restrictions don’t apply to FTP, because “at the present time we do not have the capability to similarly restrict the range of games” available to FTP’s Greek players.
The post went on to say that Stars was “very much against the concept of players paying tax on profits calculated in this manner however to continue to be able to offer our product in Greece we need to respect the current regulations.” Some outraged Greek players are already declaring this to be their own personal Black Friday, as the inability to balance out hot hands with prolonged losing streaks makes the much-derided French poker market appear downright reasonable.
In more positive news, FTP has released a Rush Poker iOS app in Canada, Germany and Ireland. A temporary version of Rush iOS had been released in these markets back in May, but the full-fledged product was previously available only in the UK. Perhaps gonzo Toronto mayor Rob Ford will give the release some free publicity once he learns that fast-fold poker is somewhat addictive.
