REALLY SILLY STUNT

16 February 2007

It may have generated some publicity, but was the Pokerbandits.ca hoax responsible or professional?

In the current hostile climate toward online gambling generated by the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, website operators need more than ever to operate with care and professionalism. Those two qualities were not much in evidence this week when a Canadian online poker information site succeeded in drawing attention to itself, probably with an eye on its imminent re-launch.

How did they go about this? By slapping fakes of FBI, US Department of Justice and Canadian government banners all over a bright red landing page announcing that the site had been closed down. This irresponsibility alarmed legitimate portal owners and players alike as possibly another manifestation of aggressive US officialdom's war on Internet gambling.

It ignited a small blizzard of what turned out to be unnecessary calls to American and Canadian official sources from Internet news sites, and was not even an original concept - a more clearly light-hearted variation having been tried years ago as an April Fool's dodge on a leading information portal.

This week, the anonymous owners of the Canadian site admitted the whole stupid ploy had been a hoax.

In a statement, the equivocating webmaster said: "We apologize to all for any inconvenience that may have resulted by our recent hoax, however we found it necessary to perpetuate given the current state of online poker in the United States."

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa

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