PokerStars take major steps to tackle bots
Some high volume players have been reporting that PokerStars have asked them to film their sessions to prove they are not using bots.
Several high stakes players have reported getting an email request from PokerStars to film themselves playing a normal poker session. The email made the following stipulations:
- At the beginning of the recording, we must be able to clearly see your face in order to confirm your identity
- Before starting to play, you must rotate your camera 360 degrees to show us all of your surroundings
- You must start your playing session from an empty computer desktop, whereby you initiate the PokerStars client and log into your account
- After logging in, you must play a regular session of yours
- Your playing session at the tables must be for a minimum of 70 active minutes
- During your play at the tables, the recording must be of sufficient quality to see and track the activities that are taking place on your desktop. In addition, the recording must capture your surrounding environment including your monitor, keyboard, mouse and the movement of your hands
- Audio must be included in the recording
- You must minimise the amount of individual video files. Longer, continual recordings are preferred
- You have 10 days to complete this task
Suspicous accounts
The players have been told that the tendencies they show in the video will be compared to the ones they have shown previously online. If poor quality videos are submitted, the request will be repeated until a better quality video is submitted.
It is only accounts that have aroused suspicion who have received this request, it appears this is not going to be a request for all high volume players. Those accounts who do not comply in time or are discovered to be using bots it is presumed will be banned and possibly have their funds seized.
This is not the first time PokerStars have asked suspected bots to film their play. Way back before mass multi-tabling was commonplace, Hevad Khan was asked to prove it was indeed him playing 24 SNGs at once:
