Poker Bots – Are they a real Threat to Online Poker?

Concern is growing in online chat rooms and news groups devoted to poker that sophisticated card-playing robots – known as “bots” in the nomenclature of the Web – are being used on commercial gambling sites. The premise underlying online poker is that all players are humans. But with the growing availability of free poker "bot" downloads, it is becoming difficult to detect whether a player is real or a possibly unbeatable bot.
Poker playing computer programs helps human players hone their skills, but now that researchers have made programs that claims they can beat any human player, are online poker sites under threat?
Well because there's no real way to tell a program from a person. Some players could enter programs, or poker bots, as people.
Ian Fellows of the University of California in San Diego (who make the Poker Bots) concludes "It wasn't until mid-2000, [when] an algorithm was developed, that [bots] could even come close to a competent player. But now online computer poker playing may become a thing of the past," said Fellows.
Fell Omen is based on an artificial intelligence algorithm called "fictious play." The algorithm enables bots to use imperfect information. Unlike chess, for instance, players do not know what cards are held by other players. (In chess, all information is known to both players.) Normal game-tree searches like those used by chess-playing bots cannot be used for poker. Fell Omen "is all based on decision trees that tell you at any point in the course of the game, What's the probability you should raise, call or fold? Then it generates a random number and goes with that action," said Fellows. That strategy is combined with randomness that prevents other bots from guessing its strategy.
But skeptics argue the complexities of the game and the changing strategies ensure that creation of a program that can “read” opponents’ cards using screen scanning techniques and respond in real time is years away at best. They point to the handful of commercial products that claim to give online players significant advantage, which they deride are inadequate, as proof today's bots are no match for humans.
“It is pretty much a certainty that bots are playing online,” said Gautam Rao, a 43-year-old Canadian poker pro who regularly plays three high-stakes Internet games simultaneously. “… What we don’t know is how strong they are.”
Widespread use of bots capable of beating your average player would pose a significant problem for the online poker sector, which has grown exponentially in recent years and is expected to top the $1 billion revenue mark this year. Without some way of verifying the identity – and humanity – of players, the business could be significantly undercut.


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Ladbrokes set to accept US poker bets

Ladbrokes had made the decision to enter the US market prior to the passage of a bill making the operation of an online poker room illegal in the States.
“This follows with the guidance we gave earlier this year,” John O’Reilly, Managing Director of egaming said. “We intend to take advantage of our position in the market and invest heavily in player acquisition and sign ups are up 30% on last year, and we have set a 20% growth target for NGR between now and 2010 and we are bang in line with that.”
Commenting on Ladbrokes’ decision to join the Microgaming poker network and accept US bets, in particular for its high stakes players, O’Reilly said: “Most of the poker rake is generated by the high stakes players and we have taken the decision to offer them US liquidity from the states where there is less of a legal risk. We have evaluated the legal situation and are happy with our position.
Nearly all the publicly traded Internet poker companies retreated from the US market following passage of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act in October 2006.”
Ladbrokes is a member of the FTSE 250 Index and was once part of the Hilton Group, owning the hotel brand outside of the United States.
Group pre-tax profits for the six month period to the end of June fell to £170m from £192.7m over the same period last year, the company said this morning. Excluding high rollers, gross win increased 13% to £583.3 million, pre-tax operating profits fell 2% to £130m and UK retail gross win increased 6.5% to £394.3m. Chief executive Christopher Bell commented: "The group's performance has continued to show resilience against a challenging economic backdrop. In UK retail, following a strong first four months of the year, June suffered a string of poor results affecting all channels, most notably Royal Ascot and the early stages of Euro 2008. Notwithstanding a poor fourth week during July, Group gross win for the period from 1 July to 5 of August was up 11% overall and up 6% in UK retail."
Ladbrokes owns over 2,200 retail betting shops divided between the UK, Ireland and Belgium. It also operates several online gambling websites offering sportsbook, poker, casino, games, bingo and backgammon. Ladbrokes uses the OpenBet system from Orbis Technology.
Online sports betting had performed well, O’Reilly said, with in-running revenues up 50%. “In-running will continue to be one of the drivers for us on that side of the business. Our online sportsbook is a long tail business, where we offer thousands of markets and all the small bets create a critical mass once they are added up. We have also signed a deal with the Perform Group for more live streaming events, which will add to our in-running activities,” he said

For more information about these and other Poker news events go to Online Poker News at LTDPoker.com. You can register for the Ladbrokes festival and the Gala Casinos British Poker