ACR Poker made several upgrades to its network designed to thwart online poker cheaters after the company found “a small number of players (who) worked together in ways that gave them an unfair advantage in certain games and certain tournament situations.”
Those cheaters used those methods to steal $184,000 from unsuspecting players. The money has been returned to the victims and ACR Poker made several security moves to try to protect its honest players from getting their pockets picked by players working together or using computers to help them play optimally.
Shoring up security leaks
The site banned the uses of virtual machines and real-time screen share tools that were being used to cheat. The changes makes sure the users are running ACR Poker from their native hard drive, and includes banning the use of tools that allow players to remotely access another computer or operating system.
An example of this is Team Viewer, but it applies to anything that allow players to take over machines not physically in front of them.
Players who are caught violating these rules — or any of the others listed in the site’s terms and conditions — receive a warning for the first offense, and their account suspended and permanently banned and funds seized if it happens again.
ACR Poker (former knows as America’s Card Room), is an online poker room that isn’t regulated by government’s gaming boards. While legal in other countries, it operates in a gray area here in the United States and isn’t subject to the rules set by state gaming boards.
Poker site found cheaters
In the press release, ACR Poker admitted that real harm happened to players on its site by cheaters using the now-banned methods. Eight accounts were recently banned for collusion, as were an additional 25 accounts as a “precaution due to suspicious activities and their ties to the eight banned accounts. The site released an apology for allowing it to happen:
“ACR Poker sincerely apologizes for any inconvenience caused and continues to invest heavily in technology and processes to proactively detect and investigate any potential violations in order to deliver enhanced player security.”
The site even put ACR Poker Pro and 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker to work in the press release.
“I’m sad that we have to engage in this high-tech game of Whack-a-Mole, but it’s important for us to try to stay ahead of the bad guys,” said Chris Moneymaker, ACR Poker Pro. “I’ve been playing online poker for more than 20 years now, and just as the cheaters get more sophisticated, so have the poker rooms. ACR invests heavily in technology and people to deliver as fair a game as any of the major sites.”
Players were told about the change in July, with the measures going into affect Aug 3.
The site ensured its users that it takes player security extremely seriously through its press release.
“ACR Poker engages sophisticated artificial intelligence and machine learning programs to identify bad actors, enlists dozens of game security and integrity specialists working full-time, and also leverages the input of hundreds of players when they report suspicious activities by players on the site.
Combined, these efforts match those of the other major online poker sites and provide the best assurance that ACR Poker is among the safest and most secure sites.”
Unfortunately in this day and age, online players must keep their eyes wide open, particularly on sites that are unregulated. Check out CardsChat guide on how online players can protect themselves for more information.
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