In light of the recent negative media in regards to online poker and the security issues at several major poker sites, the minds that run these operations need now be taking a more serious approach to the issue that has begun to define the trust a player has in his chosen poker site.
Suffice to say that Party Poker and Poker Stars have consistently led the way with the toughest security on the market and have certainly gone a long way in actually defending the safety that its players should expect when depositing and then playing with their own money online.
Up until now, the other major internet poker site, Full Tilt Poker has lagged behind the two power units in the market in its security policies. One of those policies is certainly being a public external audit where anyone who is interested can analyze the card distribution and since being able to determine if the randomizer program in use at Full Tilt is actually fair. The other major security issue is the lack of policy with regards to third party "black hat" data mining software being used for profit on the Full Tilt tables against unsuspecting players.
Full Tilt experienced a bonanza of business last year when Party Poker (being a publicly listed company on the London Stock Exchange) was forced to pull out of the American market to avoid getting into a legal legal battle with the Government of the USA. Within weeks of the legislation, Full Tilt became a major player in the market leaving behind many other poker sites of its comparative size like Ultimate Bet, Absolute Poker, and Bodog for example. Those sites are now suffering in their own right with "soft" security and need to make some big decisions if they can expect future growth.
So given that Full Tilt may have had some growing pains, it could have argued that they had other things on their mind than security. In a recent communication with the company however, I have been informed of at least these issues which are now being addressed at this point.
An external audit is now being considered as a Full Tilt company representative stated – "As for a third-party independent audit of our shuffling and dealing processes, we are currently considering our options in that area and hope to have a related announcement soon." I really hope they follow through with this because an external audit will go a long way in drowning out the bad beat drama found in so many poker forums about full tilt hands that went terribly wrong.
Next is the enforcement and crackdown on the data-mining activities of third party software like Poker-Edge. This software has always been the nemesis of Poker Stars and Party Poker where those sites actually scan your hard-drive now to determine if you are using such software. You will get a warning of account deletion and authorization in about a New York minute if you are actually using it.
Only recently Full Tilt actually put up a list of prohibited software that included Poker-Edge. Now it is one thing to have a list of prohibited software and actually do something about it, which up until now "Full Tilt did not really" prevent "its use. That all changed when operators of Poker-Edge actually boasted on their own forum that Full Tilt does not even care about using the Poker-Edge on their tables and cited thatingly "Poker-Edge does not have a b2b affiliation with fulltilt such that if you signup with fulltilt through the poker-edge link … you'll get poker-edge for free (for three months).
Well that tidbit irked the sleeping giant to the point of identifying Poker-Edge as being in breach of their alliance agreement and have now cut off association with that software, and further as stated by the Full Tilt rep "As far as the data-mining issue is concerned, we are currently reviewing our options, which may include the introduction of countermeasures that will deter and prevent the use of such programs and / or databases. Tilt Poker, as they have been since ourception. "
Given that Full Tilt Poker has now deemed these issues a priority as well, I should think that would be a wake-up call to Bodog, Ultimate Bet, Absolute, and the rest of the aspiring poker sites that want to progress in this game of capturing new players and deposits. You are simply going to need the highest security standards and policies as part of your infrastructure.