Aside from the legalization issues, I think poker bots are the biggest threat to online poker. Do you think it would be a good or bad idea to make operating bots a criminal activity? Do you think the threat of possible prosecution would reduce the number bots on sites?

I say yes. And the penalties should be high. Prison time baby.

Bots are the number 1 threat* to online poker in the future. I agree that the punishments have to be severe to deter as many people as possible.


*besides Sheldon Adelson the CEO of the Las Vegas Sands corporation and notorious anti-poker ahole

JoelBerg is a bot.

but back to the question...
yes, bots should be strongly discouraged, not because they play well (some do, some dont), but because of the fact that if they are known to be common, it would discourage casual new players from getting involved in online poker.

No. Let's make them non-criminally illegal instead. We can give out far harsher penalties that way.

Yes, 6-24 months in solitary confinement with 20 daily lashings.

I don't think that simply blocking suspected accounts from the site is a sufficient answer. Another account will be opened and the operation will continue. There has to be some penalty to deter it.

Please don't talk about my sex life in public.

Before you made this thread, did you ever think to do your research first? If you did, then you would know that bots are already against Nevada regulations.

^^^ Thumbs Up..

yes, HUDs should be strongly discouraged, not because they play well (some do, some dont), but because of the fact that if they are known to be common, it would discourage casual new players from getting involved in online poker

yes, training sites should be strongly discouraged, not because they play well (some do, some dont), but because of the fact that if they are known to be common, it would discourage casual new players from getting involved in online poker

yes, team viewers and sweating sessions should be strongly discouraged, not because they play well (some do, some dont), but because of the fact that if they are known to be common, it would discourage casual new players from getting involved in online poker

yes, staking should be strongly discouraged, not because they play well (some do, some dont), but because of the fact that if they are known to be common, it would discourage casual new players from getting involved in online poker

I don't think bots will be the number one threat to online poker. If we get good regulation passed in the US then you will need to verify your identity to play. If you get permabanned for botting then it will be an internet poker death penalty for botters. One and done. Never able to play again.

That being said yes it should be criminally illegal.

This may work for sites that only accept players from NV (or maybe the US), but it's basically impossible for "world wide" sites; you'd never get all the countries in the world (or even many of them) to make botting illegal.

if we just make them legal... we'll all have access to them!