That was a pretty good article , though regarding legal issues, I think the case made is a little overwrought.
Players who are banned from sites or have money confiscated seldom contest the decision. The most famous case recently was Gordon Vayo who idiotically fought his $700,000 winnings being frozen by
pokerstars when they could prove he had used a VPN. He lost. When Ali Imsirovic and Jake Schindler were kicked off GG Poker and GG Poker made a song and dance of confiscating money for the PR exercise, nobody heard a peep from either. But then we venture into murky ground because I am fairly sure they did not have their true winnings confiscated. I believe they got a slap on the wrist financially and were then told to disappear ( I explained this elsewhere). Then, we have the case of Ivey vs The Casinos regarding the ill-fated edge-sorting case where, big surprise. the courts sided with the casinos.
So the scenario of a Casino or
poker site being sued into bankruptcy by a player(s) seems just a little far fetched.
But, there is prime example of Casinos enforcing a blacklist which is well known, without legal standing and yet is seldom if ever contested - that of counting cards. Card counting is not illegal but casinos relentlessly monitor
blackjack for offenders and then kick them out. It has been proven casinos have circulated a blacklist of players among themselves so as various properties can be aware of potential counters. So, in this case you have casinos acting to bar players who are technically
not cheating in the first place. Not only that, there are numerous examples of such players balking at being ejected faced with the casino calling the police as they then claim they are 'trespassing'. Without fail, police will escort them off property because they know the casinos have the right to refuse service to anyone they want.
So I have no idea why Ali Imsirovic and Jake Schindler when registering for the 100K and 50K high rollers early days at the
wsop could not have been turned away and told they would not be welcomed to any other WSOP 2022 event - as the European Tour and Triton had done just weeks before. This is where I will agree with Wallace. Lack of concern and desire and as these guys are high rollers, the rake the casinos receive.
Second key point where I agree with Wallace, players lack of concern, contrary to the song and dance some are making. For instance at the above 100K only Shaun Deeb and Dan Smith confronted Imsirovic somewhat briefly. Two of the players noted as most vocally calling for the 'blacklist' Alex Foxen and Chance Kornuth both played the same tourney, regardless. And of course these fields contained some of the most noted players in the world and I heard of no one actually skipping in protest. Obviously, the dilemma is these are opportunities for such players to make a big score so they are not going to take a moral stand. Okay, I get that (sort of) but then spare us the pontificating if you aren't willing to demonstrate you can take a hit on some potential income short term in order to take a meaningful stand.
And as all roads lead to Negreanu, I found it odd when Wallace cited Poker Big Names that needed to take a stand, Hellmuth, Brunsen, Polk and Ingram... he neglected to mention Negreanu. Why? Because Negreanu is the face of GG Poker and GG Poker is now the largest
online poker site and a major sponsor of the WSOP. They were also the site which hosted the two latest cheating scandals and have been pretty determined to avoid a full reveal of what took place on their site. Specifically with Bryn Kenney and the fact that they were blatantly allowing US based players to use VPN's to access their site. Which is why i previously argued if a widespread position was taken against players then they might dish the dirt on GG to show it was allowing all types of questionable activities in its site. That's a black eye the industry in terms of the WSOP, PokerGO and GG itself does not want to take. So regarding enforcing a broader blacklist (as in events not just their own site) then I feel it is unlikely it will happen
I had some degree of optimism following the EPT and Tritons stand against cheating but that evaporated with the commencement of the WSOP. Patently, both Paris and Bally's took no position on the matter, neither did the WSOP themselves and as GG Poker and Poker Go are intimately involved as sponsors and production they are not going to assert themselves further either.
My sense is, unless another big scandal erupts which is actually aired transparently in public, momentum will slowly dissipate. and the 'blacklist' will become little more than background noise.
