[Phil153]

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It's not hard to create a bot that is slightly profitable. Whether that's a worthwhile pursuit is simply a question of scale.

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I agree. Which is why aggressive bot detection by the sites and a strong anti-bot stance by the community is so important. Mr. Bornart is right that they will never be eliminated, but they can be managed. ID verification, play analysis, popup Turing tests, and most importantly, funds confiscation for offenders (which Mr. Bornart seems extremely aggravated about in other threads) are the way to keep this threat under control. Very resourceful cheaters will find a away around it, but if they're harassed sufficiently the ratio of legitimate to bot players will always be very good.

And being vigilant like the OP is an important part. Mr. Bornart wants people to believe that bots are inevitable, and there's nothing we can do. And he's wrong.