Friday, March 26, 2010

Will the Online Poker Cheat Scams Ever End?...Or At Least Will They Slow Down?

The answers to those two questions are "No and No"...or maybe "No and Perhaps a Little".

In asking whether online poker cheating scandals will ever end, the answer will always be the same basic truism that applies to where the money and availability to steal it is. I'm sure you've heard the famous question asked to the Newton Boys back in the 1920s about why they chose to rob banks for a living. Their response made as much sense as any: "Because that's where the money is."

Same thing applies to online poker cheats. They will always be out there because online poker is not only where the money is but affords one of the great cheating and stealing opportunities that abound on the Internet.

Many people supposedly in the online-poker-cheat-know have blogged that after the huge UltimateBet cheating scandal we would see a marked decrease in poker cheating scandals online. I laughed reading their positive cheat prognoses. Of course that never had a chance of being reality. The proof has been in the pudding ever since, emphasized dramatically by the two recent online cheat scandals surrounding Stox Poker. The first was when so-called online poker coach Jason Ho got exposed as being a complete fraud without the slightest poker-coaching credentials, ripping off online-poker-wannabees for thousands of dollars a pop. Then just a week later, Nick Grudzien, a highly respected online poker player was revealed as an online poker cheater specializing in multi-accounting, to which he has admitted, and probably collusion play as well. We should be seeing more evidence of the collusion cheating very shortly.

These two are only the recent tips of the online poker cheating iceberg who have been caught. Remember, just like in all criminal and cheating activity, there are dozens if not hundreds more online poker cheats operating successfully for each one who gets caught.

So why do I say online poker cheating might slow down after all? Well, it will. The law of averages says so...but the slowdown will only be temporary.