PartyPoker Scraps Withdrawal Fees

It was one of PartyPoker’s least popular practices, with customers charged a 3% processing fee to withdraw their money from the site. On the 31st July, however, PartyPoker overhauled its policy and now fees will no longer apply to withdrawals, including via such popular options as MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal. The changes come following feedback received during PartyPoker’s ‘Poker for the People’ campaign, with high withdrawal fees attracting the most criticism on its live player forums. Commenting on the issue, Director of Games Golan Shaked, said:
“We want to be the online poker site that champions what players want and we’re up for the challenge of making our players’ experience the best it can be. We are now looking at ways to eliminate withdrawal fees from the small number of payment processors who currently charge a premium for their services.”
PartyPoker is currently the 10th most popular online poker room in the world, with an average of 700 cash game players over a seven-day period, and 1,872 players at peak times. The site subsequently charges as much as $0.90 per pot for NL and pot limit games, and for $15/$30 fixed limit games and above that figures rises to as much as $19. With the poker room raking in so much money from the rake it charges, as well as charging up to 20% of buy-ins for tournaments, its easy to see why its players resented having to also have to foot the bill for the site’s banking transaction fees.
Adding further to player dissatisfaction is the fact PartyPoker/Borgata’s operation in New Jersey has never charged players a withdrawal fees, nor has the operators’ chief rival in the state, namely WSOP/888.
As companies continue their drive to expand their online gaming operations in a saturated market, the industry is likely to see a number of other deals struck with payment processors as they seek to avoid negative customer feedback and make their players’ experience “the best it can be”.