Underage online poker player sees $500k prize go to charity

After a Dutch player finished in 3^rd place in the 5^th anniversary PokerStars Sunday Million -good for a $518,902 score-a local newspaper decided this would be a nice little story to run and telephoned the player in question; which is where things started taking a very bad turn…

It turns out the player using the account was Jimmy “zeurrr” Jonkers, but the account is registered in his father’s name, since young Jimmy is only 17 and therefore cannot legally play at PokerStars. The newspaper grew suspicious of the elder Jonker’s claim that is was he, and not his son, who played in the Sunday Million, and after further investigation determined that it was in fact young Jimmy who played the tournament. And this is where PokerStars got involved…

After a nearly two-month investigation the following E-Mail was posted on 2+2 where an ongoing thread has been updating the goings-on:

Hello,

Thank you for your email about the recent Sunday Million 5th Anniversary Tournament.

PokerStars is able to advise that the registered account owner of ‘zeurrr’ did not operate the account during that tournament. Further, the account was operated by an individual who was seventeen years of age, in breach of PokerStars‘ strict rules against underage gaming.

As you might imagine, underage gaming is a very serious issue for PokerStars. It is a violation of PokerStars‘ license agreements and it is crucial that we behave responsibly in dealing with these matters.

PokerStars‘ Responsible Gaming webpage states the following:

“Any underage player who has provided dishonest or inaccurate information regarding their true age may have all winnings forfeited and could face criminal prosecution.”

You can view this on our website here:

http://www.PokerStars.com/about/responsible-gaming/

In accordance with this policy, we have decided to close the PokerStars account of the offender, and further, to seize all monies held in the account.

The funds from the account will be donated to charitable organisations which specialize in preventing underage gaming. We have made this decision because the player did not receive any advantage over other players, and we have acted in accordance with our usual policy on these issues.

I trust that this email clarifies our position on the matter, but if you have further queries, please feel free to write back any time.

Regards,

Michael J

PokerStars Game Security

While many of the 2+2 posters feel the prize-money should be redistributed amongst the players -perhaps bumping every player up one spot and paying them accordingly-PokerStars has decided to donate the over $500,000 to charity, specifically charities that help underage gamblers, which should serve the double purpose of solving the problem at hand, as well as sending a positive message to the US government that they are a responsible gaming site!