gjshand said:
I read a good article on this the other day, long story short the quote i thought was spot on is:
"If someone actually designed a program which could sit at an online poker table and make decent money, why would you be able to download it for $100? Would it not make more sense to keep it quite and run it themselves?"
I used a similar quote myself a while back regarding someone asking about "see your opponents hole cards" software. I don't really see it as relevant here though.
There are a couple of differences. Firstly, bot-programming software is readily available, and this is a fact (I don't want to give names obviously though, but anyone with Google could find out easily enough).
Secondly, it's risk/reward. A bot, might grind out maybe 1BB/100 in the long run against weak players, but this is obviously subject to variance. Also, considering the fact that a bot has to sit at tables for a long time grinding it out, there's the chance it could be detected and funds seized. It's far simpler for the 'manufacturers' of such a bot programmer to sell it and rake in guaranteed profits than to use it exclusively to grind out a small long-run gain.