We chat to Robin Attenborough and Gavin West from iPoker about the challenges of online security at a poker network.
What security challenges or advantages does a network like iPoker have compared to a standalone poker room?
Robin Attenborough: Being a network presents some challenges regarding the work our Game Integrity Team does. Players accounts are opened with the individual Licensees, so the first interactions with the player and any KYC checks are done by them and we will not see any of their personal details or financial transactions.
Data protection is really important to us and our Licensees so this arrangement protects the genuine players but obviously presents us with some challenges a standalone card room wouldn’t have to identify potential “bad actors”.
As a global network, we have the advantage of a broad spectrum of players, along with data from our network partners’ private promotions and the network offerings giving us a hugely diverse data set to analyse.
Over the years this has enabled us to develop tools to monitor the activity on the networks and very quickly identify any nefarious activities.
Having this limited access to player details ensures our decisions are objectively based purely on the game activity.
If a player gets penalized for any violation on one iPoker room, will that apply to all other accounts in the network as well?
Gavin West: There is no automatic ban across operators, simply because we don’t have access to the personal data of the accounts.
However, we do have other ways of pairing up accounts, so for the most part, offending players do not have a ‘get out of jail’ card by using an account with a different operator.
“We recognised early the threat of RTA”
iPoker has a publicised relationship with GTOWizard, what more can you tell us about that?
Robin Attenborough: The relationship is still in its infancy, we have found they are as committed to maintaining the integrity of online poker as we are, as seen with the release of their “Fair Play check tool”.
Our Game Integrity team are working very closely with the team from GTOWizard and the tools they have developed. We see this as an opportunity to perform even more sophisticated analysis of game play.
This is an important component in our war against RTA use.
Several other poker rooms have shared data on how many cheats have been caught and by what methods, what can you share with us about that?
Gavin West: Our policy has always been not to publish data on how many cheats have been caught, we do not see any value in doing so as it lacks context and frankly says little about our capabilities to keep the games clean.
We do not reveal information about our detection methods as this could provide insights into how to evade or circumvent these methods.
What specific measures can you tell us about iPoker taking to combat RTA?
Robin Attenborough: We recognized quite a while ago the development of RTA was going to be a real threat to online poker.
While we cannot go into specifics for reasons touched on above, broadly speaking, we have numerous methods and tools which allow us to fingerprint the play styles of accounts to assess the likelihood of RTA being used. In addition to this, our partnership with GTOWizard also greatly assists us in being able to analyze player tendencies and their adherence to GTO strategies.
And of course, we will continue to develop our tools in order to always stay ahead of those tempted to use RTA tools.
“RTA is at the forefront of our security plans”
What specific measures can you tell us about iPoker taking to combat MDA/Data mining?
Gavin West: When players sit down at tables, we anonymize opponents’ nicknames until it’s time for posting the big blind. This prevents the mining of data by inactive observers. We don’t object to a player using their own legitimately sourced data for study purposes.
What specific measures can you tell us about iPoker taking to combat bots?
Robin Attenborough: Again, we are unable to go into specifics, but broadly speaking, we routinely conduct audits on all accounts across the network, looking at gameplay patterns, volume, playing tendencies etc. We fingerprint certain aspects of their play which can then be used to determine if a bot is being used. Along with statistical analysis, we also conduct real-time Turing tests on accounts with CAPTCHA’s and requests for videos of play.
Which of the above issues are most concerning to iPoker?
Gavin West: The integrity of the networks is always our primary concern and unfair play in any form is never acceptable to us.
The growing sophistication of RTA and other prohibited software is at the forefront of our development plans as it poses a potentially major risk to online poker.
The Game Integrity team are continually working on developing our detection methods so we can ensure the iPoker networks are a safe and fair place to play poker.
Robin Attenborough is the Network Servies Operations Manager and Gavin West is the Game Integrity Manager at the iPoker Network.
