Will PokerStars Accept Bitcoin?

Bitcoin has been growing in popularity ever since it was introduced as an open-source software payment system by Satoshi Nakamoto in January 2009.  Despite the currency's fluctuation value, many people use this cryptocurrency to purchase items anonymously, incur lower transaction costs, or be able to do something differently than the previous norms society dictated.
 
Rumors were circulating late last year by many reputable sources including Gambling Compliance and Online Poker Report that the world's biggest online poker site, PokerStars, was preparing to accept this decentralized virtual currency as one of its payment methods.
 
Despite a few smaller poker sites already accepting bitcoin, this was potentially big news.  Bitcoin has already hit the mainstream world, with many big companies including Newegg, TigerDirect, and Overstock supporting this currency.  Additionally the D Las Vegas Casino Hotel and Golden Gate Casino accept bitcoin throughout their properties, with the former even having a bitcoin ATM machine on site.
 
Although no timetable was given to the poker community as to when PokerStars would potentially start allowing bitcoin transactions, when originally reported it seemed like it was going to happen soon.  Since the rumors began, the poker world has even seem one of the biggest players in the software industry, Hold'em Manager, begin accepting transactions in bitcoin.
 
Furthermore, it would not have been a stretch of anyone's imagination that if PokerStars allowed bitcoin transactions, that other major sites would follow suit.  After all, it would not be the first time the big players in the online poker industry copied what the industry leader was doing.
 
Despite these strong rumors and other signals that PokerStars was getting set to accept bitcoin, we are now getting some mixed signals.  According to the bitcoin news service CoinDesk, PokerStars has denied plans to start accepting bitcoin any time soon.  A PokerStars representative not only denied that the online poker room was close to accepting bitcoin, but also that it does not appear to be something even in its initial stages.
 
The representative told CoinDesk, "PokerStars has no immediate plans to implement bitcoin, and it is not our development roadmap."
 
If the poker community was told a few months ago that PokerStars had no plans to accept bitcoin transactions, it would not have been a huge surprise.  However, based on this timeline of events, it is a bit of a shock that it is being reported that this will not happen any time soon.

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