This week, allegations of bots on the William Hill Network surfaced on many poker forums when a player discovered another player with the name the name “bot771107” playing on one of the site’s MTT tables. Upon emailing the site, a site representative confirmed that William Hill utilizes bots to prop up games to increase liquidity. “In games offered via the Website which benefit from more players or greater liquidity,” the site “may deploy electronic players (known as robots, and whose usernames will be 'bot’) who are pre-programmed to play and join in with the game,” reads the site’s Terms of Service.
In addition to an online poker room, many of iPoker’s clients also feature distinct casino, bingo and “skill games” sections, the latter of which includes player-on-player live-action games such as backgammon and gin rummy.
Although a reasonable confusion, coming from a poker player named “bot771107” and a misguided customer service representative for the site, in actuality there is no suggestion that house bots that operate on the “skill games” section are also active on the iPoker network. Terms and conditions specific to iPoker’s poker room explicitly prohibit the use of automated players and bots.
Below is iPoker’s official response:
"Dear players,
We would like to take this opportunity to publish the network’s policy and stance on automated “bots” being used on iPoker, and to comment on some specific accounts that have been mentioned on several poker forums. We are sorry that it took us a while to compile the statement as we had to put a focus on our investigations first.
Our policy is clear:
1. A poker account is to be used exclusively by the registered account holder and the use of any automated “bots” is prohibited.
2. In all cases where iPoker security department is satisfied that an account is being used in any other way than by the sole registered account holder the account is closed.
3. This is done in every case regardless of how much rake the account has contributed, and forum posts that suggest iPoker ignores “bots” because of the rake they generate are very much wide of the mark.
The network’s security department regularly checks suspicious accounts at all stake levels and is freezing accounts for failing our “bot” testing procedures, as well as taking firm measures towards affiliates of such “bots” rings.
The integrity of the network is our highest priority and it is essential that players know they are in a secure environment. We will always investigate any account that we suspect of using “bots” and if the members of the iPoker network have concerns over particular accounts we request to receive these concerns and inquiries for investigation.
Below, a more detailed answer on specific questions that came up in the discussion:
Q: What happened to the accounts that were mentioned in the PokerStrategy.com forums?
A: The accounts have been under investigation even before they were published on this thread : http://de.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread...readid=1376547.
Some of the accounts will remain frozen until we get to a final decision regarding the nature of the accounts usage.
Q: How many bot accounts were closed? On which limits did they play?
A: Our security teams are reviewing a high percentage of the networks active accounts; either suspected accounts or randomly selected. We cannot disclose the exact number of accounts, but can only advice we show zero tolerance towards non legitimate accounts.
Q: Will legal action be taken against the developers of the bot software?
A: Our legal teams are acting both on commercial and legal level to reduce the risk on the networks integrity. We will show zero tolerance towards any affiliate or operator who involved with non legitimate operation within our network.
Q: What is iPoker doing in general to prevent bots better in the future?
A: We continue to investigate on a daily basis all accounts that are flagged by our security tools. The activity of these accounts is reviewed in depth by the security department. The review includes all gaming activity, betting patterns, behavior patterns and multiple tests specifically designed to reveal activity that is not compatible with real human play.
Q: How can players report suspicious accounts?
A: Players should report any suspicions to the support or security department of the operator they are registered with.
Q: Does iPoker or skins on iPoker use bots to prop up traffic?
A. Absolutely not. iPoker launched in August 2004 and has NEVER utilised bots for any purpose whatsoever.
B. In addition , We’ve noticed that in some cases , a legit account users are using the term ‘bots’ within their table alias , even though there’s absolutely no bots usage .
As a new policy iPoker will prohibit the usage of ‘bot’ term within the table alias and will act to change all existing account nicknames in the near time .
Q: Why then is clause 10.1.1.4 in the William Hill T&C? Will this clause be removed?
“10.1.1.4 in games offered via the Website which benefit from more players or greater liquidity we may deploy electronic players (known as robots, and whose usernames will be "bot") who are pre-programmed to play and join in with the game in order to assist the liquidity or the number of players gaming although we will not use bots without making such usage clear to You. [next part was updated already]We can categorically confirm that We do not deploy electronic players (known as Robots or Bots) in our Poker software and will take active steps in conjunction with our software providers to prevent their usage by any users of our service; and”
Link: http://williamhill-lang.custhelp.com/cgi...hp?p_faqid=6719
As per the email from William Hill Head of Poker this clause should be amended within the next hours. Nevertheless, that is absolutely not in line with iPoker’s anti bots policy.
Q:Which other games if not poker are meant regarding automated bots?
A: Skill games such as dominos and the full list can be seen at the above link.
Q: Why was the customer support of William Hill and PaddyPower stating in two from each other independent chat statements that there are bots?
A: These two incidents were examples of support staff performing very poorly. This has added to player fears and we certainly wish they had answered correctly but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. The staff work for two different operators (and not for iPoker) and their management are taking steps to improve support staff knowledge.
