- PokerStars explains how it combats cheating in its newest Inside PokerStars video.
- Director of Corporate Communications, Eric Hollreiser introduces the video in a blog post, explaining that “the vast majority of poker players are fundamentally honest. But when you have more than 67 million registered players, with as many as 400,000 playing at a single time, there are going to be some who don’t play fair.”
PokerStars explains how it combats cheating in its newest Inside PokerStars video.
Director of Corporate Communications, Eric Hollreiser introduces the video in a blog post, explaining that “the vast majority of poker players are fundamentally honest. But when you have more than 67 million registered players, with as many as 400,000 playing at a single time, there are going to be some who don’t play fair.”
Two members of the team devoted to detecting and preventing cheating explain that even attempts to cheat are surprisingly rare. They analyze all player reports which point to potential cheating, the most common allegation being collusion—where two or more players are sharing information and acting together.
The reported incidents are analyzed by expert players, along with the players’ playing history to detect any “abnormal playing patterns.” Technical analysts check whether the alleged colluders are operating from the same physical location, using the same hardware and software etc. The Game Integrity Team that carries out this work consists of over 50 poker playing specialists.
Hollreiser states that a full 20% of PokerStars employees work in the areas of “protecting the integrity of the games and ensuring compliance with regulators.”
No technical information that could help potential cheaters is given out in the short video, but PokerStars explains that cheating by using “bots”—software that automates poker decisions—is countered by systems that look for “non-human behavior patterns.”
The last major story about cheating on PokerStars involved players at high stakes Pot Limit Omaha (PLO). In October 2013, players received over $50k in refunds from PokerStars after being affected by the illegal actions of a small group of players.
