Picture from Al-Akhbar
It was brought to my attention that gambling and poker sites are no longer accessible in Lebanon. I looked up a bit online and tried opening some websites and they weren’t accessible indeed. The decision to block the gambling sites was apparently taken by the Ministry of Justice as stated in the text below, noting that it’s not an official statement.
I woke up Saturday, June 15 and could not open my Pokerstars client. A few other sites were unreachable either. After contacting my ISP, they informed me that they are blocking access to online poker sites as requested by the ministry of justice.
On Sunday, June 16. Only one site was officially functioning, Starsofholdem. Owned by a Lebanese, hosted in Costa Rica and operated by Stars of Holdem Group @ London – United Kingdom. As the info shows on their website.
I contacted StarsofHoldem support and they assured me that the online restriction in Lebanon will not affect their operations because THEY PAY TAXES TO THE GOVERNMENT!!!!
I know for a fact that gambling in Lebanon is illegal outside the Casino du Liban but I had no clue it included online gambling as well.
Some of the popular gambling sites that got blocked are:
Pokerstars
Fulltilt
bet365
williamhill
betfair
bwin
www.888poker.com (This one opened though on my connection)
Thanks Rob
The 888poker site opens and even the program opens and connects to the servers but we are unable to deposit from Lebanese credit cards as it was the case for the last 3 years i have been using the service
Yeah i’ve been trying to connect to my fulltilt account 3 days ago and it didnt work !!
WTF ?!?!?!??!?!?!?
YEP I THINK WE ARE DOOMED
stars of holdem is the only site that works
will not surprise me if the guys behind stars of holdem have smthing to do with all this banning
wasta style
double their profits
this country sucks from day to day
and btw
WHAT A JOKE CASINO DU LIBAN
cant play poker there
have rarely seen a place as horrible as this one
I mean they even have beggars in the slot machine room !!!
What about starsofholdmen.com ? Hope this ban didn’t happen to allow this poker website owned by a Lebanese monopole the market…
I read that they kept it because it’s paying the government taxes but that’s not confirmed of course.
What’s sure is that they now have the whole Lebanese market for themselves.
VPN
exactly!!
Doesn’t work. Tried it.
This is online commerce. Starsofholdem and all other online poker software companies don’t even have to pay taxes. The way they’re handling it is illegal in itself.
Access denied to starsofholdem.com !
give us more info about VPN and how to get it and use it …
Go to http://www.privateinternetaccess.com.
Wow Excellent it worked for me… ima back to pokerstars…
thnx anon 🙂
This is what they call democracy in lebanon. As if we are gambling for their money, khowing that their money belongs to
Us,the people all this is country is doing is just steeling people money and put them
In a cage. Ehat a shame on all those who consider them
Selvea
Educated people and goverment members.
starsofholdem is behind all this i am sure. their wasta is michel el murr which is a very influential politician that loves to rob people. lebanon , country of disrespect , will never evolve with people like michel el murr. dont play starsofholdem. boycott.
William Hill works if you access the mobile site on your pc. Might work for other sites.
Titan is working but u cant open the website.
BetSafe is still working.
How can we know which poker rooms are Blocked and what’s the future of online poker in Lebanon?
this sucks ! what s next? ban me from fapping during my free time !!! i despise all politicians
I have mixed feelings about this. Gambling is not really a business. It’s neither a business, a service, a cultural event, art or anything. Gambling is something that has to be regulated by the state, and most countries have regulations to prevent the outbreak of illegal gambling.
Moreover, a good question is whether these websites are actually businesses that pay their taxes on revenue/income. If not, then of course they should be stopped. It’s easy today to say that the government is impeding on business development if the said business operates in Lebanon but registers in the Caimans!
The same issue broke out when the government was limiting the access to Skype. You may say “hey, ho! Our freedom is being taken”. But Skype does not pay taxes in Lebanon. I live in Belgium, when I recharge my Skype account, I pay 21% VAT to the Belgian state. The “Lebanon” option does not exist. If online businesses do not pay taxes to Lebanon on the revenue they collect from Lebanese clients, then these businesses are de facto illegal!
blocking gambling sites has nothing to do with cultural terrorism. its about applying the law. in Lebanon gambling is forbidden, except if you get a license for it. and to get a license, you have to pay high taxes, and guarantee the denial of access for kids, money launderers, and make sure the game is fare, and no cheating is taking place. These conditions doesn’t apply on any of these sites. Same happened in the US where its blocked since 2006, and in all of Europe, except for websites that get a license from the said countries.
It is an easy game makes me to earn income for me and my family ad also easy to play in this site .