German Players Moved to PokerStars.eu

Effective 19 July, 2012, poker players from Germany are migrated to the PokerStars.eu client, maintaining full access to the .com player pool.

PokerStars migrated its German users to the .eu domain of the room, which is promised to affect them in a positive way only. Sharing the player pool of the .com client, the sole purpose of the move is to have German player under a more beneficial tax system.

PokerStars.eu is licensed by the Lotteries and Gaming Authority Malta (LGA), while the .com domain is licensed on the Isle of Man. Since many European countries, including Germany, allows income from gambling within the EU member states to be tax free, it is more profitable for European players to be registered under the Maltese licence, as opposed to having to pay taxes after winnings from outside the EU.

Prior to migrating German players to the .eu server, the Swedish, Finnish, Polish, Slovenian, Romanian and Dutch players had already occupied it.

“Regulatory developments within the European Union in recent years underscored that there are numerous advantages (for players and for PokerStars) to maintaining a base of operations in Malta, an EU member state where we hold a global e-gaming license. Since taking that license we have gradually transferred players from various EU countries to the Malta license in order to benefit from the EU regulatory environment,” PokerStars Head of Corporate Communications Eric Hollreiser said in a statement to PokerFuse.