Poker Bot Farm causes some concerns for online poker

Recently, a video demonstrating a 'bot farm' on Ignition/Bovada has been circulating on social media. The video had prompted several online poker sites to post on social media themselves. Essentially, they sought to reassure their customers that they are committed to protecting the security of their players and will continue to do so.

In the meantime, Ignition/Bovada responded with a message of their own stating the video was from 2022 and 'all bots have long been suspended'. Their full statement and the short video are included in the link below.

Video of Poker Bot Farm Ignites Concerns about Online Poker​

To be fair they have done almost everything possible to protect the bots- no huds, no names,no sharkscope, no talking, no accountability.

IMO it's naive to think that this still isn't going on constantly, and AI tools will only make it easier.

This kind of thing is always worrying to see, even if the video is old. Bot farms are probably one of the biggest fears for online players, because they directly affect trust in the games. When something like this goes viral, it makes sense that players start questioning how safe the ecosystem really is, especially on sites where transparency is already a sensitive topic.

That said, it’s good that poker rooms feel pressure to respond and explain what they’re doing. I think the key issue is not whether bots existed in the past, but how strong the current detection systems are and how often they’re updated. Clear communication and regular action against bots are the only way sites can keep player confidence long term.

Shells said:

Recently, a video demonstrating a 'bot farm' on Ignition/Bovada has been circulating on social media. The video had prompted several online poker sites to post on social media themselves. Essentially, they sought to reassure their customers that they are committed to protecting the security of their players and will continue to do so.

In the meantime, Ignition/Bovada responded with a message of their own stating the video was from 2022 and 'all bots have long been suspended'. Their full statement and the short video are included in the link below.

Video of Poker Bot Farm Ignites Concerns about Online Poker​

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thank you

It's very difficult to have very definitive proof that online rooms use bots. You need to gather a lot of information, compile it, show that there's a statistical probability that bots are being used. And people would still not believe you. The rooms are the only ones who have access to the data and it's not in their best interest to talk about bots. It's bad for business.

The scary part for me isn’t even the hardcore bot farms, it’s the gray area stuff. RTA tools, solver assistance, shared accounts, etc. Those are way harder to detect and probably way more common. Even solid regs can dip into that territory. So yeah, while everyone focuses on big scary bot farms, the ecosystem might already be leaking in quieter ways

When big names like Justin Bonomo for example did it, who can say who more are doing these...

As this is from 2022 I believe that modern poker Apps have evolved in noticing poker bots ( I am hoping )

Its pretty easy to identify bots, thats why so many individuals have identified bots with the help of their hud.

Its just sites like Bovada, ACR, BetOnline/Sportsbetting and the old Cake that ignore all the signs of bots. Bovada went as far as to remove player names, remove chat, and make huds worthless - thus removing any chance a player has of identifying a bot.

All those sites made a conscious decision to ignore the bots.

Bots or bot farms or colluding accounts on cash games are not sth new . A video I saw months ago , some guys playing all together same cash games from the same room . And so many open mobile's working automatically with poker software . A real farm to steal money from players systematically . These happen always . But when we see this on a video we get shocked . Hmmmm

The fact none of those sites really said anything after is quite telling

Ai will be better then ppl in less then 5 years so if you want to play you'll need to go live again.

beware if you play serious stakes online !

It has been going on for years, unfortunately. Are there any tools to check if you are playing a bot? or general things to look out for?

Bots are a chronic threat to online poker due to AI. Players risk losing money, especially without strict regulation. It's better to choose platforms with proven security!

On twitch, when you click on the poker session, there is often a channel advertising a website for bots. I have zero faith that these sites would be willing and able to catch bots, after seeing how they run their customer service departments.

There will always be options for botting online poker.
You can create visual recognition and tunnel it through a VPS to avoid detection.

With different kind of players evolving towards a playstyle that is based on GTO strategy, the profitability of those bots will generally drop. As it gets tougher to beat rake on poker platforms by solely playing GTO. Exploits rise in value, and as bots lack human insight on spots that are outside of their automated GTO strategy, they will automatically become less profitable.

Besides of that it is possible for networks to detect automated software, even without any software running on the PC the poker client is running on. AI will also be able to spot out certain patterns.

Edit: It's also another step to bypass KYC and adds risk of being caught in general
Just my 2 cents GL

Yontox said:

There will always be options for botting online poker.
You can create visual recognition and tunnel it through a VPS to avoid detection.

With different kind of players evolving towards a playstyle that is based on GTO strategy, the profitability of those bots will generally drop. As it gets tougher to beat rake on poker platforms by solely playing GTO. Exploits rise in value, and as bots lack human insight on spots that are outside of their automated GTO strategy, they will automatically become less profitable.

Besides of that it is possible for networks to detect automated software, even without any software running on the PC the poker client is running on. AI will also be able to spot out certain patterns.

Edit: It's also another step to bypass KYC and adds risk of being caught in general
Just my 2 cents GL

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All VPN/VPS are forbidden on all major or minor sites and can be identified clearly by their security checks on your system, also exit points of VPN services are mostly well known.
The poker room services to check client systems goes up to kernel level on all computers.
They interfere heavily with your operating system and can also crash systems with a lot of blue and black screens if implementation is poor.

The only way to set up optical/visual recognition is done by using a secondary machine (no virtual machine, these are also not allowed) with a good camera that films/photographs your screen. This system could then make RTA GTO optimzed plays posssible on a third screen, and it also should not be in the same network/network group (best no internet connection - no direct GTO wizard) as the playing computer.

This setup could reduce detection risk.
But the investments are big such a setup has to be extremely powerful because of RT OCR of boards and RT GTO calulations on this machine.
But most bigger sites like PS and GG have GTO detection or are working with GTO-woizzard, so this will be detected sooner or later.