A resolution seems to be on the horizon for professional player Gordon Vayo and the PokerStars platform, as both sides have taken the decision to drop their lawsuits.
In the midst of fighting Vayo in court, PokerStars put forth a countersuit that demanded he should pay $280,000 for legal fees incurred in court. The poker room has now seemingly retracted that countersuit.
Vayo and PokerStars have been duking it out in legal court battles since the platform took a stand and refused to provide a pay-out to the pro player. Participating in the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) in 2017, Vayo reportedly won a huge $692,460 prize. However, the poker room accused the player of utilising a VPN to access the site from the restricted United States region of New Jersey. Vayo fired back against the platform, stating that he had entered the tournament from Canada, where he said he had a home.
This led to Vayo suing the site for not paying out his full winnings. However, now, more than a year after the events that transpired, the lawyers representing both sides of the argument have chosen to drop the case.
Was Vayo Playing from a Legal Location?
Vayo’s second-place finish in the 2017 SCOOP event may have been disputed heavily by PokerStars, but the professional player fired back saying that he could prove he was at his home in Canada. However, as it turns out, Vayo may have fabricated his so-called proof regarding this statement.
In October, he chose to rather abruptly drop his lawsuit against PokerStars and nobody was given any reason as to why. Yet, just a few weeks after this, lawyers accused him of forging bank and cell phone records that had been submitted in court. Those records seemingly made it look like he was living in Canada at the time.
This was blasted by REEL, who claimed that it was an attempt to defraud the court. It was then that a claim against Vayo for the $280k in legal fees was filed.
So, if there was proof that the information was forged, why did PokerStars choose to drop their side of the suit?
Well, potentially, the platform wants to put everything to bed, ending any bad blood between itself and Vayo. The court case has been going on for several months now and PokerStars has quite the year ahead to plan for with the ever-changing US poker market.
It was only earlier on this week that PokerStars announced it could be re-entering the Pennsylvania gaming market. It received a gaming license from the Keystone State, giving it the possibility of providing online poker to the state once again. For the moment, it isn’t clear when this will take place, but early 2019 has been pegged by some speculators. And with the interstate poker network currently in operation between New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware, it is expected that PokerStars will push Pennsylvania into this, too.
