PokerStars and Fox Bet Sportsbook are now back online in Pennsylvania after experiencing outages starting on Friday, February, 4.
Fox Bet vice president of communications Eddie Motl said:
“We are back up and running with FOX Bet Sportsbook, PokerStars, and Stars Casino in all states. Functionality of our Casino offering via website will be forthcoming. We’ve started the process to settle bets and review outstanding free bets as well as promotions. We will be in touch directly with customers soon. We apologize again for the inconvenience.”
PokerStars and Fox Bet Sportsbook down for over three days
PokerStars USA tweeted on Feb. 4 at 5:15 p.m. EST to its Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Michigan players that:
“Due to unscheduled maintenance, all MTT’s have been cancelled until Monday at 10am EST. Our apologies for the inconvenience and thanks for your patience”
Fox Bet Sportsbook has been down since Feb. 4 in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Colorada, and Michigan. A spokesperson from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board said they have been in contact with Fox Bet and working with them continually since the outage. Play Pennsylvania spoke with a Fox Bet representative on Monday morning and he said that accounts are safe and they are working on getting back online soon.
Fox Bet said in a statement:
“Our sites are currently down due to an unscheduled maintenance issue and our tech team is working hard to get all back up and running ASAP. Customers across all verticals (FOX Bet Sportsbook, PokerStars & Stars Casino) can still manage their accounts. We do not anticipate any impacts to customer account balances – this is not a data breach. We thank customers for their patience and apologize for this inconvenience.”
PokerStars players left out in the cold
According to Downdetector, reports of issues with the website started coming at about 12:30 p.m. EST. They rose throughout the evening and by 8 p.m. there were 100 reports.
It’s not a great weekend for PokerStars to go down/have unscheduled maintenance. Temperatures will be hovering near freezing in PA, NJ and Michigan. Sunday is the biggest day of the week at PokerStars. They offer thousands of dollars in guaranteed prize pools in Sunday majors named after the day of the week called:
- Sunday Warm-up
- Sunday Storm
- Special
- High Roller
- Supersonic
Why is PokerStars down?
Aside from the details, they provided in their tweet of “unscheduled maintenance,” we don’t have more details. (I’m physically located in PA and tried to access PokerStars on Friday night. It is down – the online casino and poker.)
PokerStars responded to a question on Twitter regarding withdraws and deposits and said:
“Since the maintenance is unscheduled, we aren’t able to provide any concrete timeframes. Rest assured it is not a privacy concern, just some technical issues that popped up. The cashier should be available on our downloadable software. We appreciate your patience.”
Some Twitter comments to news about PokerStars not working were:
- “I think players deserve an explanation further than this.”
- What about Sunday monthly free roll. I see my ticket has went away so assuming they don’t plan to have it up and running by then.”
- “WTF 3 days?!”
Fox Bet Sportsbook not working
Starting on Friday night, Fox Bet Sportsbook was not working in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Colorada, and Michigan.
Fox Bet Sportsbook tweeted at around 5 p.m. on Feb. 4:
“Our apologies. Our App is currently under maintenance. For the time being. You can still manage your account by signing into the app. For urgent requests please contact support. Thank you for your patience.”
No time is ideal for a sports betting app to not work. But at least it wasn’t during the NFL playoffs or next week on Super Bowl Sunday. However, there is still plenty of NBA, college basketball and other action and it’s never a good look for a sportsbook to go down for prolonged periods.
How long will Fox Bet be down?
They replied at 7 p.m. to a tweet with:
“While we hope to get everything back up soon, since the maintenance is unscheduled, we aren’t able to provide any concrete timeframes. We appreciate your patience in the meantime nonetheless.”
As of Feb. 6 at noon, Fox Bet Sportsbook was still not working.
Online poker options in PA
Pennsylvania is one of the few states with multiple options for live, real money online poker.
In addition to PokerStars, they are (tech partner in parentheses):
Poker rooms and tournaments in Pennsylvania
- Live! Casino Philadelphia ((weekly tournaments)
- Live! Casino Pittsburgh
- Parx Casino
- Mohegan Sun Pocono (weekly tournaments)
- Mount Airy Casino Resort
- Rivers Casino Philadelphia (weekly tournaments)
- Rivers Casino Pittsburgh
- Hollywood Casino at the Meadows
- Wind Creek Bethlehem
