TOP ONLINE POKER ROOMS REACT TO ABSOLUTE POKER DEBACLE (Update)

23 November 2007

Poker rooms say there is no real-time exposure of hole cards on their sites


Despite the paucity of progress reportage from Absolute Poker on investigations into the tournament cheating scandal that has engulfed the company for the past three months, it continues to be the subject of intense player discussion and media coverage.

After first denying that there was a problem when the player community exposed the cheating, Absolute Poker later admitted that a flaw in its software had enabled a company consultant to view other players' hole cards and win up to $800 000 unfairly. The company's Kahnawake licensing jurisdiction, which has ownership connections to the firm, ordered an investigation into the incident by Gaming Associates, which is ongoing.

This week the respected editor of Poker News, Earl Burton conducted an informal survey of major online poker sites, asking specifically if a reprise of the Absolute Poker debacle would be possible on their sites. Not surprisingly, the unanimous answer was "no."

Burton asked the sites if they had security or software procedures in place to prevent outside players from looking at hole cards, together with policies on employees playing on the sites, procedures for investigating allegations of irregularities and vigilance with regard to "out of the ordinary" play.

"Site staff responded within a few days, and what they said indicated that many of them are concerned about what occurred at Absolute," reports Burton.

Full Tilt Poker replied in an e-mail that went into great detail regarding the site's fraud prevention mechanisms.

"We wish to assure you that keeping our games safe and secure is of paramount importance to Full Tilt Poker," said a company security and fraud spokesman. "Our software was developed on this principle, and we continue to work to ensure this is the case. Due to the potential security risks, we made sure there was no way for a user, internally or externally, to see another player's hole cards in real time.

"We do store hole card information, though not in real time, so our Security and Investigations Team can later review any suspicious or questionable activity. In over three years of dealing cards, there has never been a security breach on Full Tilt Poker."

Full Tilt's security team continually monitors the site for potential issues, too: "We work hard around the clock to ensure the highest integrity and security of our games. Rest assured we investigate any suspicions from our players that someone may be using prohibited software on our site. Our security team is working 24/7 to ensure our players are playing in a fair environment."

PokerStars was adamant that what happened at Absolute could not occur on its site, advising: "We recognize that the online discussion may make some people generally doubt the security of other online poker sites. PokerStars' software was developed under strict security controls. Here are some facts about the PokerStars software and its development.

"In the early days of software development, the concept of having a program that could view hole cards live in order to help testing was discussed. [We] explicitly decided against that idea, specifically to avoid any potential problems like the one that is being discussed in the forums. That decision stands, and no such software has ever been developed in PokerStars software to view hole cards live in real time.

"PokerStars does record all of the hole cards in all real-money hands. This is an important tool to help us investigate fraud and collusion. However, this information is not accessible to anyone until after the conclusion of the hand; it is not transmitted to our database until all action is completed and the pot has been awarded.

"To be clear: Nobody at PokerStars can see or know the hole cards of any hand in progress. Nobody in senior management, none of the software developers, no support representatives. Nobody at all."

He then revealed the method PokerStars uses to manage changes to software, to reduce the risk of it being compromised internally.

"All software updates are reviewed by several people before being deployed. All sensitive changes are also personally reviewed by the chief software architect to help ensure they are stable and secure. In our company history of more than six years, we have had no indication of any breach that would allow anyone to see the hole cards of other players.

"We are aware that there are some programs that claim to make it possible to see other players' cards. We have investigated many of these programs and have not found any that do what they claim to do. Some of them are actually malware programs that compromise the security of whoever installs the software. But mostly they are simply scams; attempts to steal money from people who believe incorrectly that they will get a competitive edge. In truth, they do not compromise PokerStars security.

"We have a large team of Poker Specialists in our Support Team who review all suspicious situations and escalate to the Game Security team if they find anything, which in turn will escalate to the senior management team if any serious problems are found. The security and integrity of our games is of paramount importance to PokerStars."

Absolute Poker's sister site, Ultimate Bet, commented: "Ultimate Bet has been dealing cards on the Internet since the year 2000 and we have implemented strong safety measures to ensure the trust and security of our customers.

"We take the security of our system at Ultimate Bet very seriously. Whenever you access our web site or game any confidential information passed between us is encrypted. Our web site uses secure server technology to ensure that when you perform a cash-out, access hand histories, make deposits etc., your communications are protected using the same technology as online banking sites. All communications between your computer and our servers are also encrypted using public/private key encryption. These keys are changed frequently.

"Please rest assured that we follow up on any wrong playing offenders."

Online Casino News courtesy of InfoPowa