No one likes a cheater. Yet it seems no matter what type of activity we enjoy, there is always someone trying to work around the rules. In online poker, a cheater is someone who uses unwarranted software to their advantage. Online poker rooms such as Party Poker and PokerStars have been making changes to their online poker sites to create a more recreational player friendly environment.
Gone are the days when online poker rooms cater to the professionals, the elite class of gamers. Online poker rooms now want to bring in larger traffic numbers and can do so by appealing to the average Joe. The goal of the sites is to level the playing field and provide an outlet of entertainment for every type of player. This means, certain software tracking systems will be banned for online poker game play.
Following in the footsteps of online poker rooms, the UK Gambling Commission is now going to take matters into their own hands and try to make the game safer for all players. A statement was sent out just last week by the UKGC on the subject of online poker gaming. The governing body will be conducting an investigation into the third party tracking software available on the market today as well as bots. Bots are software that are used to play autonomously based on scripts.
The first portion of the investigation will focus on unfair games and will be done so by a survey on major operators and their licenses. The surveys will be completed to gather information on the operator’s views on tracking software, bots and cheating. The goal is to assess if the current guidelines of the platforms of UK online gaming are being abided by and are sufficient to protect every player. This would include going over the Remote Gambling and Software Technical Standards, the Codes of Practice and the License Conditions.
If the UKGC finds that the protocols currently used are not sufficient, then they will move forward with changes to the technical aspects to provide a safe online poker environment for players. This would mean that online poker sites who have licensing in the UK would need to implement new software that would prevent player tracking as well as offer additional safeguards to avoid collusion and bots for player exploitation.
Before the announcement of the investigation by the UKGC, both Party Poker and PokerStars had outlined ways they planned on changing to be of benefit to recreational players. This includes tracking software, fairness of games and game selection. Both have made it more difficult for players to track their opponents game play statistics by using third party software.
At Party Poker, the operator has removed the cash game manual seat selection. This was done to try and prevent stronger players from targeting the weaker players. With the third party software, players could locate the weaker players and sit down at their table. Without the option to sit where they like, the recreational players cannot be targeted by the more experienced members.
The goal may be to provide a more player-friendly environment, but essentially the sites are also trying to avoid collusion. In recent months, many stories of collusion have come to light including an issue at PokerStars involving a bot ring that ran out of Kazakhstan and Russia. By taking away the tools used, online poker sites can avoid collusion and players having an unfair advantage.
It will be interesting to see the findings of the UKGC once the full investigation into online poker is complete.