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Partypoker and ACR Ban Bots To Tune of $900k

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One of the biggest concerns of those playing online poker is poker bots. These AI programs that sometimes seem completely unbeatable tilt the balance against players and only benefits the people using them.

Both partypoker and America’s Cardroom recently announced actions against suspected bots, refunding approximately $900,000 to players.

Partypoker Refunds $734k and Banned 277 Bot Accounts

Last Wednesday, partypoker announced that they had closed the accounts of 277 players running bots on the site. The bots spanned a period from December 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019, and were taken down by the Poker Fraud Team at the company.

In total, players were reimbursed $734,852.15. While that sounds like a lot of money, that only breaks down to about $2,652 per bot banned. Partypoker didn’t release a list of bots but did give details on how they discovered the activity.

The company recently expanded their Poker Fraud Team and it now includes former poker pros whose job is to seek out suspicious activity, including bots and suspected collusion. Former pros may know better than anyone how to spot suspicious play and whether a player is just “running good” or running unnaturally.

Partypoker ambassador Patrick Leonard spoke about the recent slew of bans, stating, “Two years ago it wouldn’t have been possible, but after seeing the security department first hand, the team working there and the tools they are using, I’m very confident now that they can tackle people trying to play against the rules. In my opinion, it isn’t worth somebody trying to bend the rules because, in the words of Liam Neeson: ‘They will find you, they will catch you and they will …. ban you!’”

America’s Cardroom Bans Two Major Cheaters – Reimburses $200k

America’s Cardroom announced on Sunday that they had banned a Latvian bot player by the name of FoxRox. The ban resulted in $175,728.80 being reimbursed to 4,001 players. Also, the site announced a new “transparent, verifiable reimbursement policy” against bots.

However, this new policy looks a bit hinky when you look at the details. First, they claim that they are reimbursing to a cap of $25,000 per offending player and those impacted by the bot will be refunded from the most recent occurrence to the oldest. So if the bot won more than $25k and you were one of the first players to lose money to them, it appears you’re out of luck. I’d also like to know what happens to any money above $25k won by the bot?

Also, looking at some of the Twitter responses to the announcement, in order to qualify for a refund, you must have played in a tournament with the bot and cashed in a higher position than the bot. If you cashed lower, you don’t get any money.

This policy is already being enforced as there is a new player, Gluckauf, listed on the banned list. ACR reimbursed $25,134.60 to 1,057 players. The bot was also from Lavia.

Partypoker Does It Right – ACR Needs Improvement

First, let me applaud both ACR and partypoker for taking a stand against bots. Many sites don’t bother to protect their players and it’s great to see two sites take steps toward that end. Partypoker appears to be taking huge strides towards protecting players, even at the cost of company profits. It shows why the site has become one of the most popular in the world.

ACR has taken a couple of fantastic first steps, but I would like to see a bit more. A $25k cap looks a bit suspicious on paper, especially since the first account they banned had stolen at $175k from players. This is going to raise a lot of accusations from players wondering how much money that’s being won by bots and not disclosed by ACR. A further explanation behind this cap I feel is warranted.

If they are finding that most bots are winning $25k or less, then let people know. Otherwise, people are going to raise some eyebrows when you reimburse $175k from the first bot and then cap the rest at $25k.

Regardless of my gripes, I still like the fact that ACR is taking this step. While still unregulated in the traditional sense, they are taking steps to win the trust of players throughout the United States.

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