We wanted to take a moment to discuss our Terms of Service, Community Standards, Values and Moderation efforts with you. We will go into more detail on what that means for you, and how we’re monitoring and enforcing it. We have an awesome and mature community of players and know how important this is to you!

Values

Gaming should be fun, safe and inclusive, no matter what your background is and we will take a zero tolerance approach to anything that goes against providing a safe and fun experience in PokerStars VR.

When players behave inappropriately in the game, it goes against these values and our ability to provide that fun and safe environment. It also severely ruins the experience of many of our players, potentially forcing them out of the game forever. It’s our responsibility to make sure we are monitoring for, and removing toxicity from the game, in the form of temporary suspensions and permanent bans, both in game and on our Discord.

Conduct and Content

We understand this is an adult game, and some heated banter, trash talk and joking is always going to exist. As long as you can keep it fairly clean, and not targeted or harassing you won’t need to worry about being banned. Remember, we’re an adult community, swearing is not necessarily an offense you will be sanctioned for, just don't angrily direct it at another player. As a community, you have a responsibility to understand the difference between trash talk or banter, and harassment.

It might seem like a no-brainer but it needs to be said, don’t say or do anything that you wouldn’t want said or done to you! We won’t tolerate players who are abusive, toxic, or doing active harm to our community in any way, shape or form. This can include things like racial slurs, sending unwanted sexual advances In Game or on Discord, impersonating LuckyVR or PokerStars employees, abusing players with props, inappropriate profile names or pictures or general disruptive behavior at the tables or in the lobby.

Some examples of bad behavior you can be banned for include, but are not limited to:

Making fun of someone's physical appearance, cultural, religion or identity

For example, “Garbage win, but expected from someone who looks like you. GTFO out of my country.”

Uttering Racial Slurs within the game

This can include within/at your own group of friends. Remember that not everyone has the same context or familiarity you might have with some of the players at the table!

Uttering Homophobic, Transphobic or Misogynistic slurs within the game

This can include within/at your own group of friends. Remember that not everyone has the same context or familiarity you might have with some of the players at the table!

Encouraging self harm

For example “Can’t believe you won that! KYS”

Engaging in pranks that actively harm players ability to play.

Such as the Self Exclusion Prank

Targeted violent speech or threats, directed at other players, or at devs either in game, or in Discord.

For example “I'm going to kill you” or “F**k these devs, I hope they fall off a cliff.”

Some examples of behavior we won’t ban you for, but are not limited to:

Trash talking after winning a big pot or in general at the table.

For example “Get wrecked, can’t believe you thought you had me there!” or “F**k that, no skill involved there, you got lucky on the flop/turn/river.”

General Adult language as long as it’s not targeted or aggressive. We don’t encourage you to speak like this in game, but don’t cross the line and we’re good.

For example this fine - “What the f**k??! Can’t believe I f**king lost that!”

Legitimate criticism of the game or the developers in game, or in Discord.

For example “What are these devs doing, why haven’t they fixed this issue yet? I can’t even join a table right now.”

Critical posts on Discord, Reddit or other Social Media platforms
Leaving bad reviews

We always strive to provide you with the best possible experience, we will not enforce on you for leaving a bad review. We do respond to our reviews so if you leave a bad one, please check back for a response.

Consequences

Our enforcements are in place for a reason, we understand you don’t want to lose access to the game or any of its features, but our goal is to protect the safety of the whole community.

These community values and standards apply everywhere in our game and on Discord. We have the right to remove anyone that violates our Terms of Service or Code of Conduct from our game, or Discord. This is non negotiable, and designed to protect our community from abuse or harassment. If you continue to abuse your privileges we have the right to fully terminate your in game or discord account.

You will always have the right to appeal any sanction, and we will review your appeal. Keep in mind that we aren’t obligated to share more details with you than you were provided with when you were banned. We will always strive to provide you with a general reason and length for your sanction. Sharing more information puts our systems at risk, and can potentially violate other users' privacy. Attempting to circumvent sanctions, for example, by harassing community managers or creating new accounts to reenter the game can affect the integrity of the game.

We believe that players can make mistakes from time to time, so when a player's suspension ends or they successfully appeal a decision, we believe welcoming them back to PokerStars VR provides an opportunity for growth and education.

That being said, if we’ve provided players with an opportunity to contribute in a positive manner and repeated negative behaviors occur, we reserve the right to permanently remove those players from the game.

Please be mindful of this as you go through the process of appealing your sanction.

Below you can find a list of all the actions we could potentially take against you.

Remove you from Discord.
Suspend your account temporarily from being able to use voice chat and/or props.
Suspend your account temporarily from the game.
Ban your account permanently from being able to use voice chat and/or props.
Ban your account permanently from the game.
Escalate your account to Oculus or other applicable platforms.
Escalate to local law enforcement.

Links and Resources

Hopefully you found this article helpful, please find a list of handy links and resources below.

PokerStars VR Help Center: https://luckyvr.zendesk.com/hc/en-us

Ban Appeals: https://luckyvr.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=1900000862184

Discord: https://discord.gg/pokerstarsvr

It should also be noted that no matter where you are playing from, please always follow local laws. If you see any illegal behavior, please report it immediately.

PokerStars VR Terms of Service: https://www.pokerstars.com/poker/ps-vr/tos/