Winamax Sued By Players Over Poker Bots

An investigation and eventual determination by Winamax into the use of poker bots by two specific players didn't satisfy a number of players who claim to be affected by the botters, resulting in the players filing legal action against the France-based poker site.

The bot haters, originally six in all but recent reports indicate that almost a dozen more players joined in the proceedings, each want between €10,000 and €50,000 from Winamax. Perhaps even more important is whether the case sets a precedent as to the responsibility and safeguards that a poker site is liable for in protecting its customers from other players who use the artificially intelligent poker robots.

Human-like or Robotic?

The case stems from the play of "twopandas" and "VictoriaMo" on the Expresso tables. After complaints initiated by other players, both were asked to report to Winamax' Paris office to play online poker and prove that their play wasn't robotic.

VictoriaMo did so, satisfying investigators who returned his account balance, but suspended him nonetheless. Twopandas stayed home, his funds seized.

Affected players were promised compensation by Winamax, and some apparently received funds. However, the amounts were said to be woefully inadequate.

Transparency Please

When the players asked for clarification as to how Winamax calculated the compensation totals, they were met with the following message (translated from French to English): 

"We regret that we can not provide you with the details of this control transaction and the associated offsets due to our privacy policy. "

That prompted the players to hire an attorney and take the matter to court.