Triche online: la réponse de Pokerstars

Fidèle à sa réputation de meilleur support des rooms online mondiales, c'est Pokerstars qui me répond la première suite à mon questionnement sur les comptes super user et la sécurité des sites de poker. Voilà la réponse (attention, accrochez-vous, c'est long...):

"Hello XXX ,

Thank you for your email referring to the recent media coverage of Absolute
Poker and Ultimate Bet and SuperUsers found on them. Your email was
escalated to me as a member of the PokerStars Game Security Team.

At the outset, let us clarify that we have *no* connection to Absolute
Poker or Ultimate Bet, aside from being competitors in the marketplace.
We are based in different countries, we have different owners, and we
are regulated by different jurisdictions. We don't share software, we
don't share information, we don't share computers. We don't share
anything with them. Furthermore we have no connections to the Kahnawake
jurisdiction mentioned in the broadcast.

In fact, what happened at Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet could not
happen at PokerStars, as no one has the ability to view the hole cards
of other players during a live hand at PokerStars. Nobody in senior
management, none of the software developers, no support representatives.
Nobody at all. Our software simply doesn't have this functionality, as
the result of a security decision that was made when the PokerStars
software was first written many years ago (and long before this scandal).

It is crucial to recognize that this story is confined to those two
sites, which are owned by the same company -- one company out of
hundreds of poker sites operating today. To draw an analogy with another
industry, the problems uncovered at Enron did not mean that other
companies within the energy sector were engaged in willful corporate
fraud and corruption. The problems at Enron were rightly limited to
that company. Similarly here, other operators within the online poker
industry should not be tainted by this scandal.

As some people have commented, the 60 Minutes story implied that playing
online poker in the US is illegal. This allegation is clearly
incorrect. There is no US federal law that prohibits an individual from
playing poker online. Moreover, we are unaware of a single instance
where US federal or state authorities have even attempted to prosecute a
US citizen for playing online poker, let alone achieved a conviction.

We operate under license in the Isle Of Man, which is a Crown Dependency
of the United Kingdom. We chose the Isle of Man as our home
jurisdiction for a number of reasons. Most importantly, it has close
connections with the UK and the government here has been approved by the
UK regulatory authorities. The Isle Of Man also has one of the most
highly regarded regulatory systems in the world, with the threat of
heavy penalties for anyone that breaks the regulations.

Make no mistake, if something similar was uncovered by our regulators we
would expect our license to be revoked at a minimum. In addition, it is
certain that those involved would be sentenced to a term in prison.
This combination of factors protects the interests of our players and
should give them confidence that they are playing on a safe site.

One important point to take away from the 60 Minutes story is that you
don't have to just take our word when we say that our games are fair.
Because online poker is all electronic, all of the hand histories are
recorded after each hand has finished playing. This evidence led to the
uncovering of the incidents at Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. From the
time we opened our doors in 2001, and continuing to this day, we have
freely provided individual real money hand histories to any player who
requested them, and we will provide a copy of all your hand histories to
you if you want to check them.

On top of this, PokerStars is working with an independent third party,
'Cigital' (www.cigital.com), on a number of security measures, including
the verification of controls that are in place to prevent problems like
the ones reported in this story. Cigital is a leading software security
company which has worked with clients such as MasterCard, the US Air
Force, and many others. Cigital is the same company that audited our
shuffling methods; see

http://www.pokerstars.com/poker/rng/

for more information.

Finally, we strongly support the licensing and regulation of online
poker in the US, and we are working with industry bodies to help make
this happen. This would benefit both players and responsible operators.

I hope that this information puts your mind at ease, and you now
understand that there was no connection between PokerStars and the
situation at Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. Same as you, we are
outraged by what has happened at those sites, and we will continue to do
our best to provide the most highly respected and trusted games of
online poker in the world.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to email us again
anytime.

Regards,

Michael Josem
PokerStars Game Security Team"

Moi, je dis : la classe! C'est un des membres de la sécurité qui me répond directement et qui donne tous les détails quant à la façon de fonctionner de PS... Chapeau bas, donc! Là, je crois que c'est bon, ma confiance à Pokerstars est renouvelée... Sans aucun doute.


À suivre, les commentaires d'AP et de Party (s'ils retrouvent la touche "répondre" dans leur logiciel mail...).