Digital Gambling by César Albarrán-Torres

Author:César Albarrán-Torres [Albarrán-Torres, César]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Media Studies, Games & Activities, Gambling, General, Video & Mobile
ISBN: 9781351398213
Google: qnlTDwAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 38726084
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-03-28T03:11:13+00:00

It would be pertinent to add that the presence of pokerbots (fully digital players generated by the machine who camouflage as real players) is one of the foremost and most insidious worries that players have to face. As McMullan states in regard to Wood and Griffiths’s 2008 study analysing the main concerns of Swedish online poker players, “players believed that poker bots operated by gambling sites, as well as computer viruses operated by other players, were depriving them of winnings” (McMullan, 2012, p. 101). Ed Miller, a self-proclaimed “poker authority”, wrote on his website, www.notedpokerauthority.com, that “two excellent players who have mastered colluding will be damn near unbeatable” (Miller, 2006). He also stated that “the most direct threat to online poker is colluding bots. By themselves, bots are a major threat to online poker. Bot software is now available to the public at a very affordable price” (Miller, 2006).

The lack of strict government intervention due to the partial legality of many online poker sites has triggered instances of community self-regulation, such as the forums in online casinos such as PokerStars or comment threads in casinos’ Facebook pages. In Australia, the legal framework that governs online gambling is determined by the Interactive Gambling Act 2011, which was subject to a review in 2011 to accommodate new technological and industry trends. However, the implementation of the recommendations emanating from this review has been inconclusive.

Generally, online communities are formed to tackle each one of these issues. Since the early days of online gambling in the early 1990s, forums have been created where players act as cyber-watchdogs of sorts, identifying malpractices and newly acquired skills to trick the machine and other players, which constitutes cheating or at least uneven competition. Casinos take advantage of one of the fundamental shortcomings of digital gambling – the uncertainty over the fairness of the games – to assert their trustworthiness. Casinos earn customer loyalty by acquiring industry-generated certifications.

Digital gambling networks provide gamblers with new forms of agency. Forums such as Cards Chat: A Worldwide Poker Community (www.cardschat.com) allow gamblers to disseminate tips and appraisals of online casinos outside of the official channels provided by casinos. It is unclear, however, if casino personnel are involved in these chat rooms as ‘lurkers’ or even as supposed gamblers. Websites such as Casino Scam Report (www.casinoscamreport.com) keep track of malpractices in the industry via crowdsourcing, and prevent gamblers from “being scammed by online casinos that don’t pay out winnings to their players” (Casino Scam Report, 2013). Websites such as these establish new dynamics of accountability for casinos in which users help define how trustworthy each casino is.

The digital media practices described in this chapter reframe the routines associated with gambling and open up avenues for new modes of engagement, seduction and control.

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