Difference between revisions of "Online Poker"
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===Bots=== | ===Bots=== | ||
| + | "Bots" are the term in the poker industry for a player who is sitting at your table who is actually not a real person, but rather a computer program. This computer program can be programmed to play the most optimal <ref> https://www.masterclass.com/articles/learn-about-poker-what-is-gto-game-theory-optimal#gto-poker-and-mixed-strategy </ref> poker possible, making it virtually impossible to beat them. In 2019, an AI named "Pluribus" decisively defeated six of the best players in the world over a long duration of hands played. <ref> https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190711141343.htm#:~:text=The%20AI%2C%20called%20Pluribus%2C%20defeated,against%20five%20copies%20of%20Pluribus. </ref> While the bots played against aren't this computationally advanced, they are only increasing in ability as technology improves and are still far better than the average individual. | ||
===Gambling Addiction=== | ===Gambling Addiction=== | ||
| − | One of the psychological issues related to online poker is the idea of gambling addiction, or the the uncontrollable, compulsive urge to keep gambling despite the negative impacts that result from it. Gambling addiction occurs because the actions "activate the same reward circuits in the brain as drugs and the clinical characteristics of gambling disorder are the same as those of drug addictions or alcoholism"<ref> https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5797763/ </ref>. While this is a major issue related to gambling in general, it is compounded with the accessibility and improvements of the online gaming industry. Playing poker has never been easier as all it requires is to sign up online and make a deposit, a task that takes no more than five minutes. | + | One of the psychological issues related to online poker is the idea of gambling addiction, or the the uncontrollable, compulsive urge to keep gambling despite the negative impacts that result from it. Gambling addiction occurs because the actions "activate the same reward circuits in the brain as drugs and the clinical characteristics of gambling disorder are the same as those of drug addictions or alcoholism"<ref> https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5797763/ </ref>. While this is a major issue related to gambling in general, it is compounded with the accessibility and improvements of the online gaming industry. Playing poker has never been easier as all it requires is to sign up online and make a deposit, a task that takes no more than five minutes. This increases the urge to compulsively gamble as there are virtually no barriers from stopping someone from doing so. Additionally, it is hard for friends and family to know that someone has a gambling addiction when they are doing it online as it is not as evident. This results in the downsides of a gambling addiction to potentially be much worse than if they had to gamble in person. |
| − | + | ||
| − | Additionally, | + | |
All of these ethical issues are more and more relevant as the number of players increases. | All of these ethical issues are more and more relevant as the number of players increases. | ||
==References== | ==References== | ||
Revision as of 01:16, 12 March 2021
Contents
Beginnings
The rise of online poker has been evident in the last two decades, much of which is due to Chris Moneymaker. In 2003, Moneymaker entered an $86 buy-in tournament on Pokerstars and came in first place with the reward being a spot in the $10,000 buy-in World Series of Poker(WSOP) main event. He eventually won this tournament and $2.5 million in winnings. This led to a boom in the online poker industry as by 2006, the field for the WSOP main event increased ten-fold and there were more than 38 million tournaments hosted by Pokerstars.[1]
However, in 2006 President George W. Bush introduced the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), [2], which led to the illegalization of online poker in the United States. In 2011, Pokerstars was taken to court in United States vs Scheinberg, the founder of Pokerstars, for a multi-million dollar internet gambling business in violation of UIGEA. [3] This resulted in Europe being the powerhouse in online poker, evident still today.
Current Day
There are numerous big name sites that command thousands of players daily, such as PokerStars, Partypoker, and Americas Cardroom. This is a huge increase from the previous decade. There are cash games of stakes from $.01/$.02 up to $100/$200 and often tournaments with prize pools of over $1 million. Additionally, the emergence of Covid-19 in 2020 significantly hurt casinos but was extremely beneficial for online gaming.
Regulations in the online poker industry have become looser as time has passed. Most recently, Gretchen Whitmer passed the Lawful Gaming Act [4] which legalized online gaming, such as online poker, in the state of Michigan. The effects of this were recently realized, with Pokerstars being the first site available in Michigan and their MCOOP(Michigan Championship of Online Poker) series have already awarded over $2 million to users. [5]
Ethics in Online Poker
Collusion
A major issue within the online poker industry is collusion. This is when two players are sitting at the same table and give each other information about what hole cards they had in their hand, or other information that is unfair to the opposing players at the table.
Bots
"Bots" are the term in the poker industry for a player who is sitting at your table who is actually not a real person, but rather a computer program. This computer program can be programmed to play the most optimal [6] poker possible, making it virtually impossible to beat them. In 2019, an AI named "Pluribus" decisively defeated six of the best players in the world over a long duration of hands played. [7] While the bots played against aren't this computationally advanced, they are only increasing in ability as technology improves and are still far better than the average individual.
Gambling Addiction
One of the psychological issues related to online poker is the idea of gambling addiction, or the the uncontrollable, compulsive urge to keep gambling despite the negative impacts that result from it. Gambling addiction occurs because the actions "activate the same reward circuits in the brain as drugs and the clinical characteristics of gambling disorder are the same as those of drug addictions or alcoholism"[8]. While this is a major issue related to gambling in general, it is compounded with the accessibility and improvements of the online gaming industry. Playing poker has never been easier as all it requires is to sign up online and make a deposit, a task that takes no more than five minutes. This increases the urge to compulsively gamble as there are virtually no barriers from stopping someone from doing so. Additionally, it is hard for friends and family to know that someone has a gambling addiction when they are doing it online as it is not as evident. This results in the downsides of a gambling addiction to potentially be much worse than if they had to gamble in person.
All of these ethical issues are more and more relevant as the number of players increases.
References
- ↑ https://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2020/01/24/the-incredible-rise-of-pokerstars-cofounder-isai-scheinbergand-his-surrender-to-federal-agents/?sh=45d6c0ed4fb0
- ↑ https://www.gamblinginsider.com/in-depth/9636/online-poker-a-great-comeback-story
- ↑ https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/pokerstars-founder-pleads-guilty
- ↑ https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mgcb/Lawful_Internet_Gaming_Act_PA_152_of_2019_684325_7.pdf
- ↑ https://www.pokerstars.com/en/news/pokerstars-launches-in-michigan/69124/
- ↑ https://www.masterclass.com/articles/learn-about-poker-what-is-gto-game-theory-optimal#gto-poker-and-mixed-strategy
- ↑ https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/07/190711141343.htm#:~:text=The%20AI%2C%20called%20Pluribus%2C%20defeated,against%20five%20copies%20of%20Pluribus.
- ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5797763/
