Poker Bots Win $1.8m At Stakes Up To NL500

Sweden’s state-owned gambling company, Svenska Spel, has announced it has locked 14 of its poker accounts after discovering an alleged bot-based cheating conspiracy that netted its perpetrators $1.8 over the past year. However, most of the winnings came over the past 6 months at stakes of  NL50 up to NL500.
Amazingly, Svenska Spel first became aware of possible poker-bot activity around 4 months ago after a player reported suspicious activities by certain online “players.” However, the company has now admitted it should have been quicker reporting the matter to Swedish police and by the time the police became involved just $108,000 of their stolen $1.8 million remained in the accounts.
As well as the Swedish police now having launched a fraud investigation, the Swedish Gaming Board has also become involved and Svenska Spel has said it is expecting a “hard time answering detailed questions.”
Poker bots are unlawful computer programs that will automatically play online poker for hours on end and have the advantage over humans in terms of not suffering from fatigue or tilt. However, until recently, they did have significant drawbacks in terms of not being able to read players, bluff or adjust to an opponent’s strategy. A couple of years ago, Professor Tuomas Sandholm from the poker research group at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, commented that poker bots “can rival good players, but not the best — yet.”
After the latest high-profile incident in which the bots managed to win $1.8 million at stakes up to the medium level, it would now seem poker-bot programmers have come a long way over the last few years.
Of course, when playing online its not just poker-bots you have to look out for and the companies operating the sites must be continuously vigilant for all sorts of nefarious activities. In 2010, for instance, PokerStars seized 49 accounts from Chinese players who had colluded to win $2 million from their unsuspecting victims.