Canadian poker pro Gordon Vayo has sued the world's top site, PokerStars, for not paying out to him the prize money worth $692,460.92 that he apparently won during the 2017 SCOOP series via his online username "holla@yoboy", according to a Forbes SportsMoney article. The lawsuit is currently pending in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, and it includes counts of fraud [...] Read more » Poker Pro Gordon Vayo Sues PokerStars for Unpaid $692,000 Win
I think this is not unusual to be honest, their terms of service grants them every right to do this. It is really unregulated territory what is going on right now for US players playing out of "Canada" since black friday, but still a bit interesting why he sued from California. Neither him nor the company resides there.
Joined: Jan '14
Location: Romania
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 13310
This is really a very interesting news. I can not say who is right but this player was supposed to say this thing in 2017. It's been a year since that tournament and he had to do so publicly in 2017 not in 2018. The first chance to win this process in this moment has pokerstars but let's see if the player will prove that and he was in Canada at the time.
Joined: Oct '14
Location: Serbia
Age: 34 (M)
Posts: 4358
so you wanna say that pokerstars took 700k$ of players money, that should be distributed as payouts that should be on vayos account and keep it for themselfs... interesting...if they took from vayo that money than they should compensate with winning players and split those money amoung them.... but take that aside... vayo won it fair and square.... even if he was in states, they should pay him off and after that if they had suspicion than ban him from pokerstars... thats just my opinion, and one more of endless steps that confirm how pokerstars is terrible place for player, and they dont care about players at all...
Their ToS clearly stating what are their rights in cases like this. Not saying it's fair nor right what they doing, but they have the upper hand here IMO.
Joined: Oct '08
Location: Germany
Age: 49 (M)
Posts: 2025
Posted by bowie1984: Their ToS clearly stating what are their rights in cases like this. Not saying it's fair nor right what they doing, but they have the upper hand here IMO.
agreed. its his own fault using VPN. he should have better know.. to avoid probs like this.
another bad action on the part of PokerStars .... a site that used to be the standard of poker sites and where a lot of people play from all over the world it's getting worse and worse .... but if this prize was won not by a famous person but by an ordinary player from some a small country? .... awful
Joined: Jul '10
Location: Brazil
Age: 43 (M)
Posts: 480
earn an amount of this and simply maguinifico because with all this money to do what you want to do I would play many more tournaments and surround me with lots of woman and beautiful girls kkkk and would spend a black gram in casino and would be very crazy
Joined: Mar '14
Location: Japan
Age: 49 (M)
Posts: 8946
Posted by bowie1984: . . . but still a bit interesting why he sued from California. Neither him nor the company resides there.
“Plaintiff is a citizen of the State of California and Defendant is a citizen of the Isle of Man.” “Plaintiff Gordon Vayo is an individual residing in Los Angeles, California and is also a part-time resident of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Mr. Vayo is a world-renowned professional poker player.”
I'm not quite sure what “a part-time resident of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada” means. Maybe he's got a girlfriend or poker buddies living there. How long will it take to travel from Los Angeles to Ottawa, by the way?
Joined: Oct '14
Location: Serbia
Age: 34 (M)
Posts: 4358
Posted by T3ddyKGB:
Posted by bowie1984: Their ToS clearly stating what are their rights in cases like this. Not saying it's fair nor right what they doing, but they have the upper hand here IMO.
agreed. its his own fault using VPN. he should have better know.. to avoid probs like this.
They dont know if he ised vpn... only pokerstars asune he used it... vayo says he wasnt, and that he have proof that he was in canada for those 2 days that tournamet was running...
Joined: Jan '14
Location: Romania
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 13310
I'm curious, all the Pokerstars ambassadors from what locations they play in tournaments when they are in Sua? I understand that: they can play from Las Vegas and New Jersey. This is true or i did not understand well? This player has the chances to win but if he does not prove it, will lose a large amount and his whole life will have a bitter taste when he will hear about the Pokerstars name or Amaya Group.
Joined: Oct '13
Location: Canada
Age: 60 (F)
Posts: 324
US Customs and Border Protection/Homeland Security know when the plaintiff last legally entered and exited the USA. Whether they will release this information to the plaintiff or defendant is another matter.
Defendant will be requesting financial and communications information to see what if any transactions were made in the US during the period in question. Plaintiff will probably be providing same information to prove he was in Canada.
There's always the possibility he covertly hiked across the world's longest unprotected border, or made some other illegal entry via coastline/tunnel/parachute drop/spaceship, but that seems a bit farfetched.
Wouldn't be surprised to hear of some undisclosed settlement in the future.
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14136
If he has used vpn, since it is in their rules, they can deny him the money. And i doubt any court could justify him. And this is a very good reason why, to not use a vpn while playing. If you get caught you can lose everything...
Joined: Jan '17
Location: Lithuania
Age: 66 (M)
Posts: 1756
To me it is very strange situation because as player i want to play from where i want and it is very bad that some site can tell me that i cannot do this, of course sometimes it is government that is for reasons but i am nit happy ti this situation
Joined: Mar '11
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 55 (M)
Posts: 7371
Imagine winning this amount of money and not being paid out?? I would be devastated if this happened to me and i look forward to seeing if he does get his money or the case is upheld
Joined: May '09
Location: Croatia
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 20474
If he really played from canada and he didnt done anything wrong,then poker stars should be shame that they must do things like this and when somebody win big amount,they want to take them that!on that way you can accuse every usa player that he play from usa territory!
Joined: Jan '14
Location: Romania
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 13310
There is no player to be satisfied when the pokerstars and amaya group confiscate 692.000 dollars. There's a lot of money and even if you are a millionaire this is frustrating. Honestly i am on the side of this player and i want as he to received all the money back.
Joined: Jul '10
Location: Brazil
Age: 43 (M)
Posts: 480
what about a tournament of this size where high numbers are played and if you are lucky you can win something tagrande that will change your life forever very good it
Joined: Mar '14
Location: Japan
Age: 49 (M)
Posts: 8946
I guess Gordon Vayo did play the tournament when he was located in Canada. However, if he has ever played real money games while in the United States using a virtual private network with or without the intent to evade detection of unauthorized access will be considered a violation of the PokerStars terms of services.
Joined: May '09
Location: Croatia
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 20474
well if he was stupid to play from USA territory,that this was his mistake and poker stars have every right to take his money,but if not that this is very bad move from them and they should be very shamed!if they think that they can just take money from players,they are wrong!
