Cyberclinic: Texas Hold-On-A-Minute
My own online gambling activity is restricted to occasional games of backgammon for embarrassingly small stakes. But over 1.5 million UK residents play online poker on a regular basis, and it continues
to be a booming, lucrative industry. Of course, its success relies on the fact that we trust cybercasinos to operate fairly, that the electronic generation of cards is transparent and random, and that we have as big a chance of winning as our neighbours at the virtual table.
Which is why players of online poker across the world have been shocked by details that emerged this week, which may suggest that a game at one particular site, Absolute Poker, might not have been a fair contest.
Back in mid September, a player with the online name of CrazyMarco came second in an online tournament hosted by Absolute; he suspected that the winner might not have been playing fairly – and, specifically, that he was somehow able to see the hands of the other players. One could easily pass this off as the whining of a bad loser – indeed, baseless accusations of cheating are rife throughout the world of online poker – but in this case Marco opted to make an official complaint. Absolute issued a denial and emailed Marco a spreadsheet file containing the logs of the game, so he could review each hand as it was played.
The document was huge and full of
indecipherable data, and Marco put it to one side, scratching his head.
But this week he emailed that spreadsheet to a few friends to analyse
it – and it was found to
contain not only the details of each
game, but also the private hands, email addresses, IP addresses and
membership numbers of everyone either playing or watching at the table.
It threw up some interesting information. Not least that the game was
proceeding perfectly normally until one particular Absolute player –
with membership number 363 – logged into the table to watch the game;
and from that moment on the winning player couldn't put a foot wrong.
I don't know much about poker, so when I'm told that the winner "called on-the-turn with 9-10 when their opponent was holding 9-2 for a busted flush draw", I'm none the wiser. Analyses of the game that have appeared on the net reveal several other anomalies that go way over my head. But I think most of us would find it a little odd that a player opted to immediately fold after being dealt a King and Queen – until the game logs reveal to us that another player at the table was dealt two Aces. The accusation is that the winner knew the existence of those Aces – possibly from information supplied by member 363.
Since these accusations surfaced earlier this week, the story has been moving incredibly rapidly. Absolute issued a statement categorically denying any wrongdoing, stating that their software systems are secure and that it was impossible for any player to have a "superuser" account which would allow them to see other player's cards. But on Wednesday evening this was followed by an announcement that a former employee of the company – who has reportedly had no involvement with Absolute for the past year – was to be the subject of a formal investigation, and that the company themselves would be submitting to a third-party audit.
Then, early on Friday morning, the company have stated that their system had indeed been compromised, and that they'll be releasing a further statement very soon.
This story could have enormous repercussions, because it's the first major accusation of cheating at online poker that appears to be backed up with evidence - evidence provided, perfectly innocently and properly, by the company themselves. Of course, online gaming is in the main properly regulated, generally safe, and this is very much an isolated case. But the trust online gamers have in the websites they use is bound to take a hit. In the future, said one particular blogger, he'll stick to playing with a real deck of cards, on a solid table.
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