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Gordon Vayo Sues PokerStars After They Refuse to Pay for SCOOP Win

Last year, 2016 WSOP Main Event runner-up Gordon Vayo won SCOOP Event #1-H $1,050 NLHE for $692,000. This was an impressive win for the pro, but the aftermath of that win has been anything but impressive. According to an article on Forbes on Tuesday, Vayo has been forced to sue PokerStars after they have refused to pay him his winnings.

According to the suit, PokerStars determined that the pro had played at least part of the tournament in the United States, a violation of their terms, and subsequently refused to pay him. Vayo claims that he provided proof that he was physically in Canada during the entire event and that PokerStars is running a sham operation to trick US citizens into playing there but later refuses to pay them money owed.

Vayo Wins SCOOP Event – Forced to Sue When Payment Refused

Last spring, Gordon Vayo won Event #1-H of the 2017 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) on PokerStars playing under the screen name “holla@yoboy.” On July 25, 2017, Vayo attempted to cash out his PokerStars balance and was unable to do so.

When he attempted to do so, his account was immediately frozen for “investigation of suspicious activity.” The following comes directly from the text of the lawsuit filed U.S. District Court for the Central District of California:

“What ensued was a nearly year-long inquest, during which Defendant engaged in an appalling campaign of harassment, prying into every aspect of Mr. Vayo’s record, demanding Mr. Vayo produce detailed retroactive proof of his location, and even opening meritless investigations into his friends’ accounts, in order to gin up a pretext for not paying Mr. Vayo what he had won.”

Vayo indeed provided proof that he was in Canada during the event and during other periods that he played on PokerStars but the company still determined that it was “not inconceivable” that Vayo had played at least part of the even in the United States and therefore refused payment.

In addition, PokerStars has threatened to sue Vayo for not complying with an “exclusive venue” clause in their terms which basically means that he has to go through the Isle of Man legal system, making it next to impossible to sue PokerStars.

Vayo May Have Used VPN to Play on PokerStars – While He Was In Canada

According to the lawsuit, Vayo believes that he was investigated because he used a VPN to access certain websites that he could not access normally while in Canada. This probably resulted in him connecting to PokerStars while still connected to said VPN. Connecting to PokerStars via a VPN is technically a violation of their Terms of Service.

However, something that seems very damming against PokerStars is the fact that Vayo did not have any out of jurisdiction logins, a point that is apparently supported by PokerStars. According to the lawsuit:

“Defendant made this assertion despite the fact that Defendant itself did not even allege that there were any out of jurisdiction logins to Mr. Vayo’s account during the SCOOP tournament, and despite the fact that Mr. Vayo had submitted uncontroverted evidence – which Defendant did not contest – that he was in fact in Canada on the first two days of the SCOOP tournament, on May 20 and 21, and it would have been virtually impossible (not to mention inexplicable) for him to travel to the U.S. in the middle of an active, intensive, major tournament that required nearly around-the-clock play and focus, leaving time for only brief periods of rest and nourishment.”

This situation looks bad for PokerStars as it appears that they are merely trying to come up with a way to forego paying Vayo despite having proved he was located in Canada for the event. PokerStars has been under a lot of fire in recent years due to multiple rake increases and unpopular changes to their rewards programs. This is just another black eye for the company.

Worse still, Vayo is still officially listed as the winner of the event and the first place prize money is apparently still in limbo. In the past, those deemed to have violated the TOS of the company forfeited the prize money, were disqualified and the first place money paid to the next highest finisher. At present, it appears that PokerStars is holding onto $697,000 in prize money with no details on when or if they will pay it out.

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