The announcement this week by Pokerstars that it intends to introduce a small margin on foreign currency deposits and withdrawals has triggered a slew of player opinions, many of them negative, on the online poker forums.
The company says it will charge the margin on all deposits and withdrawals where a financial transaction is conducted in a currency other than that in which the player’s account is held.
It will impact players who have chosen to hold accounts in one currency, but fund them with another from their country of permanent residence.
Pokerstars PR chief Michael Josem defended the imposition of the margin on the twoplustwo forum, confirming that his company has switched from a policy of applying the midmarket XE.com exchange rate to a margin that is more in line with the market, and opining that Pokerstars’ previous policy gave a rate lower to that which would normally be available from the banks or processors.
“The policy change does move us more in line with the market, but we´re very confident that the new rate applied to your selected currency is still going to be extremely competitive. In fact, we´d say that it´s better than that offered by most banks, card issuers and payment providers,” Josem argued.
Players were immediately critical of Pokerstars for not specifying in their announcement exactly what the margin to be applied will be, with some calculating that it could be as high as 2.5 percent. Others complained that it would penalise players already smarting from a perceived reduction in the Pokerstars VIP Rewards program.
One as yet untested solution suggested by some players may be to create a multiple currency wallet in the PokerStars Cashier.