Racial profiling is something we ordinarily associate with the fight against terrorism, overzealous Minutemen-types patrolling Arizona’s borders or the sorry phenomenon of ‘driving while black.’ Now comes word that a form of geographic-based discrimination has emerged in the online gambling world.
After experiencing major problems with collusion involving Chinese players, PokerStars have now taken the drastic step of only permitting one Chinese player per table. While this will effectively make it impossible for Chinese players to collude, it will also make it more difficult for innocent Chinese players to find a game.
As reported on Calvinayre.com in May, a major collusion ring involving Chinese poker players was discovered in the spring. This was then fully investigated over the summer and according to some reports, Pokerstars ended up compensating players with more than two million dollars.
PokerStars’ decision to impose such a limit on Chinese players suggests two things: (a) a large proportion of the Chinese players on Pokerstars are colluders/fraudsters; and (b) the fraudsters have been able to outsmart Pokerstars’ anti-collusion system.
Players based in China reported receiving the following message from PokerStars Support Team:
PokerStars has introduced a new security feature which prevents players from certain countries playing at the same ring game table. This restriction means that only one player from each of these countries is able to play at the same ring game table.
You are able to play at any ring game table you wish, but once you are seated no other player from your country will be able to join the table. Similarly, if another player from your country is seated, you will be unable to join that table until they leave.
We regret the inconvenience that this has caused you, but this policy has been implemented to enhance the integrity of the games.
