The online cheating scandals, a positive or negative for online poker?

[Smoothcall]

Now that some big name online players are getting caught with their hands in the cookie jar what will it do for online poker? Is it a positive or negative for online poker?

I personally believe for poker players that already play online it is a MAJOR positive! The reason being is online players already knew there was cheating going on just not sure where. But yet they play becasue they know they can still win despite the cheating or for fun and what not. But now that players are getting caught and other players have there eyes on the next to fall it will stop many cheaters cold from continuing to cheat(well won't completely stop them, but will decrease it a signicant amount imo). Which can only increase pros(who don't cheat) earn online. And any player for that matter. Players will have a better chance at getting a fair game.

Now the negative side. It looks bad to the general public and to these senators voting on whether to legalize online poker which may hurt its chances of being legalized.

So what do you guys think? After weighing the good and the bad is it a good thing these scandals are coming out?

[TStoneMBD]

huge huge negative. if you ever go to a casino and someone mentions internet poker there are always people who say sites are rigged or that online cheating is rampant. now their suspicions appear to be confirmed. very bad.

[ColdCaller]

Huge negative, less people are going to play online because they see this as the reality. Reports of people getting caught just make people think that they were the exception, and that cheating is massively rampant.

Why do you think Party and Stars don't publicize their collusion decisions?

[fnord_too]

I think positive. This may make some people blieve that on line cheating is rampant in the short term, but I think the fact that people are getting busted will eventually result in more confidence. There are all sorts of shows on how people cheat in Vegas, but there are also a lot of shows on the security measures taken to prevent cheating (well, prevent dealer theft which happens to also help fight cheating).

A lot of the people who "know" on line poker is rigged are just looking for a reason (other than they suck) that they lose. The fact that sites are actually doing something about the situation should raise the level of confidence players have that they are getting a fair shake. Most people know that it is possible to cheat in B&M cardrooms, but have some confidence that the game will be fair because the casinos take steps to thwart cheaters.

Also, as SC points out, less cheating is immediately good for all winning players (who don't cheat), and should mitigate some of the short term loss due to reduction of new players caused by the stories (if in fact they do cut down on the number of new players coming in).

[Ungoliant]

It's bad publicity in the short term, but in the long run it's a very good thing that these cheaters were discovered and outed. Multi-accounting has almost certainly been significantly reduced in the last couple of weeks because people now have a real fear of getting caught. The sites have received a serious wake-up call, which will probably lead to implementation of better anti-cheating measures. It sucks that there was cheating going on, and I'm sure there will be people who overreact to the news ("OMG online poker is all cheaters!!1!"), but there's no question that online poker is better off today than it would be if we had all just remained blissfully ignorant of it.

[Meeler09]

I personally don't think it is that big of a deal...

Do you think most fish even have the slightest clue any of this is going on?

[dragon14]

I see it as a big negative. I took for granted that people could not use the same IP address for multiple accounts and that online sites checked for such obvious cheating. Instead it appears that without someone directly reporting a cheater that nothing happens.

I would like Party to scan all of it's large weekly tournaments for duplicate IP addresses, bar everyone who does this, and report to the public exactly what has been going on.

[prrmike]

I was on a site where the security people were crowing as if their great security work blew the thing wide open. As everyone knows, the guy admitted it on a forum and Party Poker seemed to be the last to know. Then, and only then did somebody wake up and say--hey, you think there might be anyone else doing the same thing? If they had caught JJ themselves, it would have given players more confidence in poker site security. In my opinion, I think the whole thing has made them look kind of foolish.

[Kneel B4 Zod]

it's a non issue for 99.9% of the population. the only people who know about it are hardcore poker forum surfers.

Your average online player doesn't know about, nor does mainstream media.

and for the small amount of people who are aware of the problems, I doubt it's changing playing habits much

[sandsmarc]

I agree. I can't believe such a low-tech form of cheating was successful for huge stakes.

As long as I continue to win, I'll continue to play. But if zj got away with THIS, I can only imagine...