If you visit the PokerStars website and click on the promotions you will see that they are offering a $600.00 sign up bonus when you make your first real cash money deposit. This seems to be a leftover bonus offer from before their website was seized by the United States government in Feb, so don't get your hopes up. Although the site still appears to be under seizure, you can play for fun money on the site, but real cash winnings appear to be blocked, particularly for United States Players, pursuant to the published notice on the website.

Public Notice You See When You Visit The Domain

"This domain name has been seized by the F.B.I. pursuant to an Arrest Warrant in Rem obtained by the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York and issued by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Conducting, financing, managing, supervising, directing, or owning all or part of an illegal gambling business is a federal crime. (18 U.S.C. – § 1955)
For persons engaged in the business of betting or wagering, it is also a federal crime to knowingly accept, in connection with the participation of another person in unlawful Internet gambling, credit, electronic fund transfers, or checks. (31 U.S.C. § § 5363 & 5366)

Violations of these laws carry criminal penalties up to five years' imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000. Properties, including domain names, used in violation of the provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 1955 or involved in money laundering transactions are subject to forfeiture to the United States. (18 U.S.C. § § 981 & 1955(d))"

You Can Still Play For Just Not For Real Cash Money

Even though the above notice is prominent on the site, at any given time you can see the real time player update is over 80,000 players, so the site seizure hasn't cramped the sites player traffic. However, players may have to download the "play money" casino software and be unable to wager for real cash money. We are still trying to hunt down details of whether other jurisdictions other than the United States are able to play for real cash money as some of the site information seems contradictory since the seizure. However, from what we know now, it seems that anyone playing on the site is subject to the play money software rather than actual cash wagers and wins.

There is sad news today for residents of the Western American state of Washington as leading online poker website Poker Stars has announced that they will no longer be providing cash games for these people.

Poker Stars which is an Isle of Man licensed website stated that they feel they have made the right decision to block real money play by Washington residents on the Poker Stars website and they also went on to say that this policy will remain in effect until the law changes or subsequent legal challenges succeed.  They have stated that this decision to block real money play for these residents does not affect the balance of funds in any of these customers' accounts and these will remain completely safe.  Washington state residents can contact the payment services team if they require help with any withdrawals.

Poker Stars further stated that they regret that they had to make this decision and said that they are committed to making responsible decisions that are based on the most up to date legal advice.

This really is sad news for players in Washington who may have enjoyed playing the real cash poker games on this websites but the law is the law and until that changes these players will be forced to find another website to accommodate their needs.  If you require any further information on this you can contact the customer services department on the Poker Stars website who will be more than happy to help with your enquiry.

Poker Stars is one of the most popular online poker website and they have just celebrated their 50 billionth hand.  This happened last week and they celebrated by awarding one micro-stakes no limit hold'em player with a massive cahs prize of over $56,000.

This very lucky online poker player goes by the usename of tbyle and he took home a massive $50,500 in cash last Wednesday 22^nd Feb 2026, after his pocket queens were enough for him to win against five other players in a $0.02/$0.05 hand.  That's not all, this lucky online poker player also won an additional $5,640 for the points that he had earned in the previous 50 hands along with $46.25 for winning the game.  In total he took home a whopping $56,186 in cash.

For everyone of the milestone hand's, participants took home $500 in cash plus an additional $500 for each point that they had earned over their previous 50 hands at that particular table.  They also received free entry into the $5,200 buy in World Championship of Online Poker which is due to start this Sunday 3^rd Feb 2026.

As part of their celebrations, Poker Stars also rewarded players in every millionth hand beginning from 49.7 billion. They stated that they will continue to offer promotions for sit and go players and there will also be three special $50,000 freerolls for all depositing players on Saturday.

There is some fantastic stuff happening on the Poker Stars online poker website at the moment and if you are a member then you need to make sure that you don't miss out on all the action.