I have met a person who plays online poker and who explained how it works.
I have no interest in such games but I asked this poker player what would prevent two or more persons who know each other to logon to an internet poker game and sit at the same table while talking on the phone to each other unbeknownst to other players? And in so doing these players could cheat the other players by passing information over a phone line during the game.
He said that would be illegal. And then he appeared chagrined that I had pointed out a weakness in the online gambling model. Because without seeing your opponents, they could very well be talking about what they have in order to use that information to cheat.
The same carries over to BlackJack or any game where a player has information that is possible to shield.
And lastly in a game such as Craps or Roulette, the 'House' can program the online game to be in their favor.
The entire idea of online gambling smacks of an opportunity for major fraud.
I have no interest in such games but I asked this poker player what would prevent two or more persons who know each other to logon to an internet poker game and sit at the same table while talking on the phone to each other unbeknownst to other players? And in so doing these players could cheat the other players by passing information over a phone line during the game. He said that would be illegal. And then he appeared chagrined that I had pointed out a weakness in the online gambling model. Because without seeing your opponents, they could very well be talking about what they have in order to use that information to cheat.
Well, of course it's true that people can try to collude together and cheat. But of course, this is just as true at a real life casino. In a real casino, a system of signals have to be devised and communication between players is certainly possible with a little chicanery (stacking chips differently, body position, etc). Now, online, people can collude. I've even tried it with a friend - not to cheat but as a proof of concept kind of thing. Here's why it's not that easy to cheat, even with a colluder. First, you have to wait for a situation where you have a good hand, someone else has a hand good enough to call you, and your partner would have to stay in to bump the pot up. in real life, where the cards get mucked and no record is kept, it would be hard to track this. But online, the records of every single hand are kept. They can tell which people are playing together consistently, and they can track whether or not people are betting in their own best interests. So... is it possible to cheat by colluding? Possibly, but it's not as profitable as just playing good solid poker. Does cheating exist online? Probably, but it's a lot more rare than you think. There's no doubt that regular card rooms would have more collusion and that sort of thing going on than an online card site.
The same carries over to BlackJack or any game where a player has information that is possible to shield. And lastly in a game such as Craps or Roulette, the 'House' can program the online game to be in their favor. All these games are different in that the gambling site has a financial incentive to cheat. They could skew the cards or dice programs to give them as little as a 1/2 of 1% larger advantage and clean up. However, these sites are tracked so they can't get away with anything real blatant. The point, though, is that these games are different from poker. The site makes exactly the same amount in a poker game no matter who wins. They have no interest in making a particular customer lose, since it only benefits other customers, as opposed to benefiting themselves with those other games. I did a fair amount of research on this sort of thing before I started to play serious online poker - let me know if I can answer any other questions or clarify the above - I know this has been kind of a ramble...