Many people cheat. Some would defend this practise by saying that we as humans are ‘hard-wired’ to want the biggest slice of the pie; therefore, cheating is not inherently bad. Others would defend it by asking ‘if a tree falls in a forest but no-one sees it, did it really fall?’ Let’s hope you do not share a round with one of these people at one of your favourite online poker sites.

There are different types of methods that players use to try to con the poker site out of money. This has an effect on everyone in the industry. The biggest effect that it has is that it affects the reputation of something that, for a growing number of people world-wide, has become a lifestyle. Just as legitimate a lifestyle as that of a biker or a golf player.

The reputation of online poker gets a hit whenever some players try to con the system and extract large sums of money, which could’ve gone towards the site’s hosting, wages paid to the employees, or towards players who won the money in ways not involving collusion.

Another downside to this is that some online poker sites receive so many enquiries that they struggle to respond to every enquiry that comes their way. This results in customers who feel dissatisfied and who may feel tempted to take their money to a different online poker site instead. These feelings of ill-will could have been prevented, though the online poker site is not to blame in this particular instance: we should blame the players who try to cheat their way into living the high life.

This is why companies spend as much money on security as they spend on marketing, bonuses to their employees, and software development. They need to do this because they can lose even more money – and players – if they don’t do something to stem the tide of players who excel at conniving against online poker rooms. Many sites are indeed struggling to evict players who feel no gumption when they receive winnings that they did not earn but this does not mean that poker as an industry is broken or defeated. This just calls for more individuals who live the lifestyle to not give up on something that means so much to them – online poker.

Author bio:

Piggs Peak Poker wrote this article about the challenges that some online poker sites deal with.