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GVC Holdings-owned online poker operator PartyPoker has recently revealed that it has claimed more than $700,000 over the past four months from a network of online poker bots thanks to the efforts of its Poker Fraud Team, its specialist fraud task force. Poker bots which are computer programs that are created by shady individuals to play against human opponents in order to give the perpetrators an unfair advantage have been on the rise for quite a while now. While they are technically not always bad, the online gambling industry has had to deal with a disturbing trend that involves the rapid increased in their use to gain an unfair advantage against genuine human players.

Unlike the early days of online gaming where bots were rather easy to detect and beat, these days everything has become more complex with some bots even being able to emulate human behavior. Technological advancements have facilitated this evolution and therefore there needs to be just as much investment in viable solutions especially for online poker rooms which are among the primary targets of these bots.

The Poker Fraud Team

PartyPoker has always been dedicated to finding great ways of improving the players’ gaming experience and one of the key considerations for this happens to be assuring them of fairness. This is where the poker operator’s Poker Fraud Team comes in – it consists of experienced and knowledgeable poker professionals who have played a monumental role in the detection and subsequent removal of the poker bots that have plagued the online poker industry in the past three years.

The Poker Fraud Team first spotted nefarious activity on the online poker site on December 1, 2018, and since then the company has worked effortlessly to find a solution to the problem. Up until March 31, 2019, the company was able to shut down a total of 277 bot accounts and recovered a whopping $734,852.15.

“Two years ago, it wouldn’t have been possible, but after seeing the security department first hand, the team working there and the tools they are using, I’m very confident now that they can tackle people trying to play against the rules,” PartyPoker ambassador, Patrick Leonard said.

Bots are clearly becoming a menacing problem for online business since, as it turns out, they are even causing problems for other kinds of services including ticketing and even free-to-play online games. Fortunately, steps are being taken to reduce the damage that they are course and with companies like PartyPoker leading the way, there might be hope for some change in the near future.

More Changes to Come

Over the past couple of years, PartyPoker has increasingly increased its efforts towards becoming a player-focused business through the introduction and implementation of several player-friendly initiatives. In addition to cracking down on the bot accounts, the online poker operator is also planning to ban all kinds of tracking tools in a bid to further level the playing field for all its customers.