This is not what online poker players want to hear
A couple years ago, I spent a fair amount of time playing poker (small stakes games) on one of those online poker sites. I was always afraid to put too much money at risk - the skeptic within was never really comfortable with the integrity of the game.
I’d “sit” down at a virtual table with 9 other players. I worried that some of my opponents might actually be working together, talking by phone while playing the game. And there was always the possibility, I feared, that someone at the table had the ability - through a computer hack - to see everyone else’s cards.
Well, here’s a story that reinforces those fears. Seems a well-known Las Vegas poker player has been implicated in an alleged cheating scheme at the UltimateBet.com poker site. The story doesn’t offer much in the way of details about the alleged scheme. But apparently it was pretty successful.
The amount of money allegedly stolen from players in the high- and no-limit games on UltimateBet has not been made public, but the KGC news release said that the site has so far returned $6.1 million to players impacted by the cheating.
Tim has covered a wide range of topics, including tourism, crime, aviation and gambling, since becoming a reporter in 1990. The Oklahoma native joined the Post-Dispatch in 2007 after spending nine years in Orlando. In his spare time, he's often exploring one virtual world or another. He can be reached at tbarker@post-dispatch.com. 
There was good reason that gambling was illegal for many years here in America, legalized gambling is BAD medicine. The proliferation of greed by individual States Governments chose to ignore the lessons from the past. It will come back to haunt us all.
All the more reason to bring the online poker sites “onshore”. It’s not illegal to play online poker in the United States; it’s just illegal for the sites to establish their businesses on US soil. So they set up shop in other countries, where local government can be persuaded to look the other way. Nobody tests the software for bugs or exploitable holes; nobody monitors user accounts for abnormal win rates; nobody pays attention when a superuser account suddenly signs on from Costa Rica.
The scandals that have rocked online poker sites in the past couple years are entirely preventable. Change the law and bring the sites onto US soil; regulate it, ensuring software audits and anonymous account monitoring; and tax it. Online poker players will have a safer environment, and Uncle Sam can collect a piece of the rake.