Protecting players is top priority in 2012

In the aftermath of Black Friday, where players at three poker sites had their money frozen in by the U.S. Government, several online poker providers has found new ways to protect their customers' accounts.

PokerStars, which was one of the three companies that saw their customer's accounts confiscated during Black Friday, is one of the providers that have optimized safety. They have launched PokerStars Player Protection Plan, where an independent third party owned by IFG Group plc store players' money and ensure that the poker company has enough funds to pay all players' money back at any time.

At first, the protection program was established in the French market, but PokerStars hope that soon it will be spread out throughout the European market.

“The security of player accounts and the integrity of online poker play are fundamental to the ongoing and future success of the industry,” said PokerStars’ CEO Gabi Campos.

“We are pleased to partner with the thought-leaders in European regulation to establish an industry-wide standard for ensuring player funds are protected,” he continued.

In contrast to Full Tilt Poker, who had serious problems repaying their players after the freeze in of the players' accounts had PokerStars already then separated the players' money from the store's assets so that it was possible to pay the players, despite the fact that the page was shut down by the FBI. The new program is simply an improvement of the protection, in that an independent third party is now also coming in to increase security even more.