Please see the changes posted today on the Priority Club Page
IMPORTANT NOTICE: We are disbanding our Priority Club in its current form and the benefits that go along with it. These benefits include:
• Priority Prize Draw
• Birthday Bonus
• Final Table Jackpot boost
• Bubble Insurance
• Dedicated service team access
We will continue to award 10% rakeback for reaching 10,000 points in a month as well as the current silver, gold and platinum tiers up to receiving 20% rakeback for reaching 50,000 points. These will continue to be credited on the 1st of each month. November will be the final month that you can make Priority status meaning you will continue to receive your Priority benefits in December but these will no longer apply from January 1st.
Comments
The various rakeback tiers for 10,000 points or more in a month will continue as normal.
With regulation/compliance
Shouldn’t all players receive the same amount of % rakeback regardless of volume?
the issue is due to legislation come in sites now have to do affordability checks on anyone who is considered vip. Though its not clear exactly what these affordability checks are, and to my best understanding that would be due to the site to decide, they would need to show stringent checks had been done.
To check every single member of priority for affordability would be a costly endevour.
I doubt many if any people hit priority club level if they are losing players, since it costs £1000 in rake to hit priority. if someone is a rec/fish/casual play raking £1000+ a month they also are paying the rake + ROI of the winning players and this would obviously be very costly. I may be wrong though.
Personally I think deposit limits for a particular period eg week month year etc, are the most appropiate forms of affordability checks/ restrictions. However with more regulation coming out all the time this could soon be the end of online poker in the UK for most of us or potentially even all of us.
Hopefully not though.
That's not the way I read it but I've sent a note up & will confirm either way some time tomorrow. (The chap I need to speak to is unavailable today).
"November will be the final month that you can make Priority status meaning you will continue to receive your Priority benefits in December but these will no longer apply from January 1st."
I don't think it would be that costly an endeavour to check affordability for all priority members (we aren't talking about that many individuals, maybe 150 is it?) when for lots it is a simple thing as saying they are a winning poker player so the affordability is they fund their account through poker winnings.
Anyway I am not quite sure how affordability checks would work its why they scare me.
I have always been profitable on sky, I have never had the record that you have or many of the other top players have. unlike quite a few of the players on sky I have a day job as I have not previously shown the figures to justify doing this for a living.
I would not be surprised if a few of the top players on sky own a property or two that they are renting out and can class that as an income as well as poker winnings. Or some other form of investments.
However if ones only income is poker winnings it seems concerning with new legislation because it is currently unclear how that would be classed and if that could count.
What has happened in Germany in recent months is scary if it gets echoed over here online poker is dead for any hope of income.
You know they discussed £100 a month deposit limit for the whole country well for my personal circumstances I would be okay with that.
not sure if the current eco system on sky would have significant changes though.
I have seen people lose to me in several games at the £5 stakes and then move up to face Alancarr and Alvez and I am like if you cant beat a £5 reg why do you suddenly think you can take a £100 or £200 reg?
They normally give those guys a few games too. Maybe these people make priority.
I dont really want to be splitting families up, or causing vulnerable people to kill themselves, in order for me to make money. if that's what it takes for me to make it big in poker I guess I would rather remain doing min wage work.
However I also do not want draconian restrictions on myself or my opportunity to make decent money if I am skilled enough too.
I google this stuff fairly often gambling safety news and laws etc. Its not really clear what is coming.
In my personal opinion they should just have deposit limits that way it is easy people losing money at a faster pace then they can afford will be hindered/protected, whilst profitable or sensible players monitoring they performance and playing within their means will remain unaffected/unhindered everyone wins.
However what happened in Germany shows their is a real possibility that common sense may not win out.
I understand there WILL be one last Prio Prize Draw on January 1st for those that qualify.
I would assume so, yes, as the notice stated;
November will be the final month that you can make Priority status meaning you will continue to receive your Priority benefits in December but these will no longer apply from January 1st.
if we hit 10000 points in a month we get 10% rakeback is that paid on the rake we generated that month or is that paid on the following month?
eg if I hit 10000 points in dec does that mean I get £100 at the beggining of jan or does it simply mean i get +10 % rakeback throughout the month of jan?
also points awarded are not always constant eg some games tournies which charge 15p count this as 2 points and 25p as 3 points etc rounding up.
so if i exclusively played 3334 5.25 games then I would have 10002 points but my actual rake would have been £833.50 so would my rakeback be based on points eg £100.02 or would it be £83.35?
further how do promos that affect point generation affect all this?
The weekly payment is a points based payment so if you get points by double points promo etc it is better for your weekly (and gives you a better chance of making the higher prio levels and therefore higher RB % levels) but your monthly is a rake back payment based on rake paid so your payment will be effected by you having paid less rake.