GGPoker unveils the Poker Integrity Council to crack down on cheating in online poker
New body given powers to put dishonest players on an industry-wide blacklist
GGPoker has launched the Poker Integrity Council (PIC), headed up by five well-known industry executives to curb the rise in online poker cheating.
The five council members are Jason Koon, professional poker player and integrity ambassador for GGPoker, Andrew Lichtenberger from LearnWPT, Fedor Holz, German professional poker player who works for GGPoker as its global ambassador, Seth Davies from Run It Once and Nick Petrangelo from Upswing Poker.
The council will independently investigate suspicious behaviour that gets flagged at GGPoker tables, followed by a three-stage process to determine the course of action if required.
The first part in the process is the action gets flagged; then, the council will look at the relevant hand histories before ruling on the incident.
Punishments can range from a warning about behaviour to having cheating players’ accounts suspended or, in the most severe of cases, having their accounts banned entirely by GGPoker.
If a player’s account is banned, their funds will also be confiscated.
In the worst cases, the council could decide to put the player on an industry-wide blacklist. Blacklisted players will be barred from entering PIC allies’ events, including the World Series of Poker, World Poker Tour and the Asian Poker Tour.
Koon said: “I joined GGPoker with an important objective in mind; to help the GGPoker team make their poker games more secure and fair than ever.
“It’s an honour to launch the Poker Integrity Council and take another massive step in ensuring online poker is safe for all players. Our long list of allies also means that the wider community will be better protected via the industry-wide blacklist; we’re sending a united message that there’s no place in this game for cheaters.”