5. Threats against online poker and you as a player
Tax and legal issues
For US citizens it is not completely clear whether or not playing online poker is legal. In practice, authorities are very lenient towards individuals and no one has been charged for playing poker online.
On the other hand, there are no licenses for online poker rooms to be operating legally out of the US. The US authorities have also been very active in blocking out advertising opportunities for online poker rooms despite any legislation backing up these policies.
The opponents to online gambling argue that it lead individuals to compulsive gambling and debt problems. Also the anonymity of online gambling makes it possible for under aged persons to gamble, for example by using their parents' credit card. At a casino there is greater control and much harder for under aged people to gamble.
Importantly, poker is clearly a game of skill, which sets it apart from most type of wagering and gambling. In classical casino games such as roulette and black jack it is virtually impossible for the player to gain an edge to be a consistent winner. Poker as a skill game, or sport, may well affect legislation concerning online poker.
But still the climate in Washington D.C. seems to be moving against online gambling. In October 2002 the US House of Representatives approved the Unlawful Internet Gambling Funding Prohibition Act (HR 556), which purpose is to outlaw credit card usage, electronically transferred funds or other instruments used to pay for online gambling. During the last couple of years most major credit card companies, and also PayPal, have decided to block online gambling transactions. Instead many people use the Canadian-based company NETeller. Transfer from NETeller to the poker rooms are instant and free of charge. Transfers from the poker rooms to NETeller are also free of charge, but it might take up to 72 hrs before the money is in the NETeller-account.
For most European citizens it is legal to play poker online. If the poker room is operating with a European gambling license any profit is tax-free for the European player. If the poker room is operated with a non-European gambling license it is not clear whether or not profits are tax-free.
Another danger of playing online is the risk of the poker room going bankrupt, thus leaving the players without any chances of getting their money back. A way to reduce the risks involved is simply to cash out often and then deposit again if needed. This is also an incitement to play at the more established poker rooms whenever you are playing for any kind of serious cash. The likelihood that one of the bigger poker rooms would quickly be going bankrupt is very small.
Cheating and collusion
#As in most games there exists a possibility of the players cheating. While playing online you don't have to worry about someone making a false shuffle or peaking at your cards. What you have to worry about are players who play as a team, uses more than one computer, abuses the all-in protection or are using robots.
Players who have teamed up can gain a small edge by sitting down at the same table and give each other information about their respective hands. This type of cheating is used in very small numbers and doesn't have a great deal of effect in your wins or losses when you are playing at a full table. The fact is that most players who cheat in this fashion probably lose more or win less than they would have had they just focused on their own game. More dangerous are players who are co-operating to escalate pots in which one of the players has a good hand, typically by raising each other to "boat in" the victim. However, this type of cheating is very easy for the poker room to detect with both automatic and manual reviews.
Players who uses two computers and two different identities while still playing at one table, is another related type of cheating, which is also easy to detect over time for the poker room. This is another time when checking hand histories can be helpful.
The all-in protection abuse cannot be abused for a long period of time before the poker room will take action. However, it unfortunately is impossible to completely protect users from this cheat as long as the protection is available for players.
The chances of someone hacking into your computer while playing are very slim. If you still worry about someone hacking into your computer while playing you should install a firewall. Most cable connections come with firewalls.
Robots
Robots are different because they are not real players but rather a computer program which plays good poker and can play 24 hrs a day, to make profit for their master. There are also theoretical possibilities for players to use a robot for tactical support in games, where heads-up games are the most vulnerable. These are harder to catch but there are several ways reviews by the poker room will spot these robots. At a full table you should know that robots do not affect your game in any other way than a good player at the table would have. It can't affect the outcome of the cards or play in a manner that makes you win or lose more than you should have had the robot been a good player.
Robots are probably the single largest threat to online poker's growing success. In fixed limit games, robots can consistently beat mediocre opposition and in heads-up poker the best robots are extremely strong, only loosing to great physical players. The robot play has strongly affected real money online games such as Backgammon, where the robots are literally unbeatable.
Still today there are very few robots actually playing in real money games and several of the leading poker rooms are developing counter measures to track automated play. Thankfully it is not an easy task to sit down and write a program that can beat a table of experienced players, the game is simply too complicated. Poker is different from other online card games, chess and backgammon, in the way that the program must be able to "think" and know how to bluff and lay traps. There is much more information hidden from the "bot" in poker compared to other games making it hard to create programs that can be consistent winners.
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