PokerStars Spin & Go Players Receive Mysterious Refunds

A number of Spin & Go players received unexpected refunds from PokerStars recently after they had apparently fell victim to some type of violations of the site’s terms of service. The refunds automatically raised concerns over the activities which may have led to the surprise move, especially with just the following email explanation having been released by PokerStars to accompany its refunds:
“PokerStars has become aware of a situation involving a violation of our Terms of Service, to the potential detriment of other players. You participated in games that were under consideration in this case and as a result, you may have been adversely affected.”
All indications, however, point towards a violation of the site’s ToS policy having taken place over a sustained period of time, with some of the speculated proposed activities including either data mining, or even the use of a poker bot. In its email, PokerStars then went on to explain that the site holds the integrity of the game of “paramount importance,” and that since discovering the ToS breach “the “offender(s) have been barred from the site” and they will not be encountered again.
Leaving more questions than answers, however, has caused major concern amongst the site’s poker community, and as one of the victims, “Don Stefanello”, subsequently wrote on the Two Plus Two Poker Forum:
“1k$ refund means something really big happened, and I wonder how much was I affected, considering that you always get a really small portion of confiscated money from cheaters. It really looks like there might be huge problems that we didn’t see in spins.”
The fact that PokerStars did not have to rely upon the observations of players before identifying the illegal activity at least indicates that the poker room is doing a good job of policing its site. Unfortunately, it also means that players are now unlikely to ever discover what actually did happen in the breach in question.