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| Online Poker Subject to Cheating and Manipulation |
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Dec. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Internet-based poker games can be subject to manipulation, a top Federal Bureau of Investigation official said.
“There are several ways to cheat at online poker, none of which are legal,” FBI Assistant Director Shawn Henry wrote in a letter to Representative Spencer Bachus of Alabama.
“Technology exists to manipulate online poker games in that it would only take two or three players working in unison to defeat the other players who are not part of the team,” Henry wrote. “The online poker vendors could detect this activity and put in place safeguards to discourage cheating, although it is unclear what the incentive would be for the vendor.”
Bachus, the top Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, released the Nov. 13 letter today at a hearing on Internet gambling.
Committee Chairman Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, has introduced legislation to reverse a 2006 law that makes it a crime for financial institutions to process online gambling transactions.
On Nov. 27, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury gave U.S. financial companies six more months, until June 1, to comply with the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.
At today’s hearing on the bill, technology and gambling industry executives said their technology can protect against identity theft, thwart money laundering and block minors from gambling online.
“Today’s illegal online gambling is a Wild West affair,” said Michael Brodsky, executive chairman of Burbank, California- based Youbet.com Inc., which accepts online wagers on horse racing. Internet betting on horse and dog racing is legal in many states.
“The only way to put any controls on Internet gambling is to legalize it and regulate it,” Brodsky said.
Youbet.com said last month that it would be acquired by Churchill Downs Inc., of Louisville, Kentucky, which hosts the Kentucky Derby, in a cash-and-stock transaction then valued at about $126.8 million.
source : Bloomberg.com
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