From our position inside the ‘poker bubble’ it can sometimes feel like the noise around online poker security never goes away. From concerns over real-time assistance, multi-accounting, collusion and ghosting - not to mention ‘the b-word’ (bots) - it seems some people will never have the confidence to play online.
But do these voices of concern represent the majority, or are they simply the loudest in the room?
That’s one of the things we set out to learn in our State of Poker Survey, inviting over a thousand players across the USA to weigh in with your opinions. Having previously explored the growth of poker, attitudes to live and online poker brands, and your favorite poker content, our final look through our survey results shines a light on current attitudes to online poker security.
And it looks like our fears for the reputation of online poker may have been somewhat unfounded.
The majority have no concerns around online poker security
All players, recs and pros alike, should be extremely concerned with getting a fair game online. Currently, very few sites, and certainly no apps, are able to prevent common cheating mechanisms such as mass collusion and real time assistance. The sites are doing better at detection, with the help of the community, and for that they should be commended. I'm holding out hope that resources will continue to be funneled towards security in an attempt to continue to innovate on behalf of players' safety.
While we the PokerOrg news team always have our ears to the ground for any rumblings of impropriety in online poker, it’s far less of an issue for most of those at the coalface.
Two-thirds, 66%, of survey respondents answered that online poker is ‘safe and secure enough’, and that they have no concerns to the contrary.
That leaves 34% of those polled with concerns over online poker security, of whom 24% identified bots and cheating as their primary worry, and 10% pointed to the safety of deposited funds.
While stories of bot rings infiltrating online player pools continue to make headlines, some players will naturally be concerned over the possibility of having to compete against these types of AI accounts. And while the seizure of player funds is hopefully something left in the past, those who suffered the impact of Black Friday can be forgiven for remaining wary of keeping significant bankrolls online. Likewise, those who may have had fingers burnt in the past with unregulated mobile apps and private poker clubs.
When we take a closer look at the kind of security issues that are of the biggest concern, bots and real-time assistance top the polls, with 32% labeling it as their biggest worry.
The next three areas of concern are based around site integrity - 19% are worried about rigged games and 18% about the security of their deposits - as well as player-based issues such as cheating, ghosting and collusion (18%).
Should solvers be banned?
As we progress towards understanding perfect GTO (game-theory-optimized) play, many feel that poker is being solved and worry that the essence of the human-to-human mind game is being lost. Others, however, see GTO tools - such as number-crunching solvers - as a great way to learn and improve.
While around a fifth of our survey respondents were unfamiliar with solvers, and a similar number felt they were not an issue, more than 60% felt they should either be banned during play, or banned completely.
Of that number, however, many said solvers were good for learning and improving at poker, and we know many elite pros who would agree.
So it’s clearly an issue that online sites need to address, with the majority of respondents conceding that a ban of some type is necessary. As is so often the case with technological advances, however, there is no easy, obvious answer to this conundrum.
Beyond security, what are the biggest issues facing online poker today?
Security is a topic that obviously dominates a lot of the discourse around online poker, but it’s not the only one.
We wanted to find out what else online players might be worried about, and… more than a quarter have no such worries. Of the remainder, 28% reported that rake and fees are too high.
Much of the world is facing a cost-of-living crisis, with prices increasing in many areas of daily life, and online poker is no exception. PokerStars raised its rake in certain formats only last month, to pick just one example, so it’s understandable that players would notice and ‘feel the pinch’.
Other critiques of online poker center around software not being good enough (17%), a lack of game choice (15%) and tournaments not being big enough (13%).
Mobile software is an area we’ve already touched on, with many of our respondents highly critical of sites’ current offerings. When it comes to more choice and bigger tourneys, however, those seem to be problems that come about due to low player numbers; when more players are online, tournaments will be bigger, more tables will be filled and more games can run.
This is a problem with an easy fix - increased regulation allowing more players access to online poker in the USA - but, as we know, getting there is a hard road.
How will things change in 2024? Will more sites address the issues around bots, real-time assistance and collusion? Can sites address lingering concerns over financial safety and overcome trust issues? Will the USA see progress when it comes to widespread, legal online poker?
We’ll be there to find out.
Thanks to everyone who took part in our State of Poker Survey. If you’re interested in taking part in the next one, the first thing you should do is sign-up to our free weekly newsletter, The Org, where we can share exciting news, projects and developments with you directly.
