People have been cheating at pretty much everything throughout the course of history. Gaining an unfair advantage over the competitors can make all the difference between winning and losing. Unfortunately, it is in human nature to use all possible tools, including the forbidden ones, to win at something. Such people are in minority, but there will always be someone who will try to beat the system utilizing non-allowed weapons.
We've witnessed numerous scams and cheats in almost all segments of life. After all, how many people have cheated on their significant others? How many famous sports athletes have used illegal substances to win trophies? Now, when you have a game where the money is involved, and when you have humans playing it, what are the chances that someone would try to cheat? Whatever your answer is, the reality is usually harsher.
Poker: A Game that Awards Cheaters?
More about online poker on Somuchpoker: The Biggest Losing Players in Online Poker History: 8 Dates That Shaped the History of Online P.
Poker is an ideal game for cheaters, offering so many ways for them to act. Fortunately, we live in an era where online casinos use the most developed artificial intelligence systems to prevent scams and protect fair players. Lists of such sophisticated gambling hubs are extensive and can be found at bountiful online sites nowadays, AmericaGambles.com being one.
- The Winning Poker Network reached for all-time highs with its currently-running $8 Million Guaranteed Venom tournament. The $8 million in promised prize money gives this edition of the Venom the distinction of offering the largest guaranteed prize pool of any U.S. Online poker tournament in history.
- Online poker came and grew as quickly as the internet itself. Read here about the history of online poker and how it has changed over the years.
- Poker History is the only site in the world giving a detailed overview of the history of online poker. You can find graphs from 2002-2013 and read about networks, poker history and find poker stats.
However, technological advancements bring a host of negative sides as well, allowing the swindlers to do their job in a much wider array of ways that before. In such circumstances, we have combat between powerful corporations who own online casinos and skillful individuals or groups of hackers. The formers are much more successful on a larger scale, but there are still some exceptions. We are going to deal with these exceptions below. Keep reading to learn more about the biggest hacks in online poker history. It is hard to highlight only a few, but we did our best.
The Cereus Poker Cheating Incident
We will start with the 2007 Absolute Poker scandal. Scott Tom was one of the founders of a poker room Cereus Poker Network. Back at the time, it was among the top ten largest online networks in the niche, consisting of Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker. The latter was a room that faced serious accusations of cheating in early-2007. Numerous players reported suspicious actions, but nobody had any kind of genuine proof. Nevertheless, a blend of an accidental information leak and a strong detective effort by a group of poker enthusiasts revealed one of the biggest scams in the online poker industry.
What happened at Absolute Poker? Numerous players who were active on Cereus Poker Network were convinced that a scam had occurred claiming that a certain player could see their hole cards. The requested hand histories from one of the tournaments. It is a common practice for online sites. However, instead of standard hand histories, the poker room mistakenly sent them a file that contained private data.
IP Addresses, Hole Cards & Much More
The file included all players' hole cards, the list of those who observed the tables, and even the IP addresses of all participants. It was everything the players needed to begin their detective work. They discovered an observer who watched all hands played by the alleged cheater, starting from the hand No 3. The cheater folded the first two hands before the observer appeared and then went on to see every single flop for the next 20 minutes. His maiden pre-flop fold occurred when one of the opponents had a pair of kings. Things became even more interesting when the detectives found out that the observer's IP address pointed to Scott Tom, one of the Absolute Poker owners.
As mentioned above, the Ultimate Bet was a part of the same network as Absolute Poker. Not surprisingly, they had their own Scott Tom in the shape of Russ Hamilton. Mr. Hamilton won the 1994 WSOP Main Event but is known as one of the greediest poker players to have ever played the game. Russ had an access to the mighty account at Ultimate Bet. The account allowed him to know each player's hole cards. He used it to win more than $18 million from regular online players at Ultimate Bet. Cereus Poker Network has never recovered from such two scandals.
Darren Woods
Darren Woods won a World Series of Poker bracelet in 2011. He was by all means a talented player but still wanted an additional edge by trying to take advantage of numerous opportunities for cheating online. Darren was found guilty of a series of online frauds from 2007 to 2012. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison and was forced to pay back $1 million to those defrauded.
What he did was setting up fake identities while hiding his real one at several online poker rooms. He would simply enter a specific table with multiple entries and win money with ease against unhelpful players. He thus had seven distinct seats and played against just a single player at an eight-seat table. The other player was thus drastically handicapped with zero chances to get away from that table victorious.
Woods was obviously not the only man to have performed this kind of hack. Many other players have done the same, including Josh Fields. JJ Prodigy (his nickname) multi-accounted his way to stars since he was 15. He was given lifetime bans to pretty much all serious online poker hubs following the admission of scamming.
Conclusion
These were only some of the most famous online poker frauds. Of course, the list of scammers is much longer and we can add more and more players to it on a regular basis. Nobody guarantees the scams will not happen again, but what we do know is that the regulation around online poker rooms and casinos has never been stronger. It is thus much safer to play online now than it had been in the past. However, if you by any chance spot any kind of suspicious play or behavior, report it instantly and let the authorities do their job.
While much of the online poker news of 2014 was promising, it also left a lot to be desired. Although polls and surveys tend to indicate popular support for online gambling, moneyed self-interests have apparently found ways to buy support where it counts, namely in the US Congress. As is often the case in politics, there's no guarantee the outcomes will have much to do with reason or fairness, despite both scholarly and law enforcement opinions siding with responsible adults having the freedom to make their own decisions about their entertainment. That's why it's important to make your opinions known to those who will ultimately make the decisions.
In New Jersey, online gambling revenues were 27% better in December of 2014 than in November, and a breath-taking 93% better than December of 2013. Numbers like that should make other states sit up straight and listen to the possibilities for important tax revenues. Caesars Interactive Entertainment's New Jersey's World Series of Poker site did it's part by teaming with 888Poker in an agreement to pool players, resulting in a noticeable 50% increase in player traffic, enough to shoot WSOP and 888Poker past PartyPoker and Borgata as the top New Jersey sites.
Online Poker History
California Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer introduced bill AB167 that would make online poker legal in California. Its provisions are comprehensive, covering everything from player age to all aspects of licensing. It also does not explicitly prohibit interstate player pooling.
Although US Senator Lindsey Graham grilled Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch concerning her positions on online gambling, she held her ground with the Senate Judiciary Committee, saying she most likely would not reverse the Justice Department's previous decision that the Wire Act isn't applicable to online casino games.
Biggest Loser In Online Poker History
In more plus column news, Delaware and Nevada took steps to share poker player pools, while Republican Representative John Payne introduced bill HB649 to legalize online gambling in the Pennsylvania. Payne's reasoning included both the sensibility of using regulation to make the online gambling experience of responsible adults as safe as possible, and the fact that state coffers would benefit significantly.
Not to be outdone, brick-and-mortar casino operator Sheldon Adelson apparently greased the right palms to have what's being called the 'Restoring America's Wire Act' (or RAWA) bill positioned for a first hearing in March. This bill would reverse the ruling of the Justice Department that created an opportunity for online legal betting in 2011. The hearing took place on March 26th.
Witnesses used in support of the bill used mostly outdated arguments that have been refuted numerous times by studies from academic institutions. Witnesses used to oppose support for the bill emphasized state's rights and pointed out how states that have already passed legislation are regulating and monitoring online gambling very effectively, with the benefits over prohibition abundantly evident. Future hearings will continue to explore the pros and cons.
In humorous related news, anti-online gambling Senator Lindsey Graham admitted to having never sent email in all his life, causing many to wonder how someone with such lack of modern technology experience could be trusted to make sensible decisions about online gambling.
Online Poker Player History
All in all, it's been an interesting year already for online poker, to say the least. Stay tuned to PokerSites.com for all the latest news and developments throughout the year. We want you to be the first to know when important decisions are handed down that could affect both your game and your freedom.
