Five players initially found guilty of serious fraud after they used an online poker bot on the Swedish online gambling site Svenska Spel, have been acquitted by an Appeals Court.
What happens if you get caught raking in half a million dollars using a bot to play online poker?
If you are playing in Sweden, you get away scot-free.
Two years have passed since Sweden’s state-regulated online gambling mecca, Svenska Spel, handed over evidence to the local police, and gambling regulator, showing at least 14 players had used an online poker bot to rob players of a heck of a lot of money.
The accounts of those 14 players were locked way back in February 2013. Svenska Spel quickly advised their community that the bot was wreaking havoc playing Hold’em games between NL50 and NL500.
In June of that same year Svenska Spel CEO, Lennart Käll, announced that after the inspection of ‘millions of hands’ SEK 3.8m ($569k) would be returned to an estimated 25,300 players affected by the abuse.
“It feels good to be able to repay the money.” Said Käll at the time.
Of the 14 people initially thought to have taken a cookie or two only five were sent to face the beak. Initially, all five of them were convicted of serious fraud and handed a probationary sentence. Svenska Spel wanted sterner punishment doled out; the players wanted leniency – both parties lodging an appeal.
Pokerfuse scribe, Jocelyn Wood, reported that the appeal went ahead, and the Court of Appeal acquitted the quintet of any wrongdoing.
“It is not proven that the procedure entailed harm to the plaintiffs or gain to the defendants in the manner required for liability for fraud.” Stated the Court of Appeal.
It’s a terrible blow to the online poker industry.
Online poker sites come under a lot of scrutinies for not doing enough to not only prevent these breaches of security but to ensure those culpable are dealt with accordingly.
In this instance, Svenska Spel seems to have ticked all the boxes, and the law has not done its job.
Perhaps, the judge was a bot.
