A bill that would require the Nevada Gaming Control Board to list people who have been suspended or banned from online poker sites for cheating has been written.
Submitted by Assembly Speaker Steve Yeager (D-Las Vegas), Assembly Bill 380 would have the Nevada Gaming Control Board create regulations that include making public the full name, date of birth, and account handle of people “who have been suspended or banned from an interactive gaming system for cheating.”
Players will have the right to appeal.
“There needs to be some kind of transparency and some kind of accountability. When the WSOP or somebody decides that something is egregious enough that they’re going to ban a player, I think the poker community ought to know that, Yeager, a poker hobbyist, told the Nevada Independent.”
The bill has been referred to the to Committee on Judiciary.
Support for a global ban
Nevada only has one online poker site, Caesar Entertainment’s WSOP.com. But since Nevada is one of the members of Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA), players in Nevada also play against players in Michigan and New Jersey.
The bill, in its current draft, appears to also require gaming boards from MSIGA member states to provide a list of players who were banned for cheating by WSOP.com. Yeager indicated that AB 380 would most likely be amended before being weighed on by lawmakers.
Online poker sites are in a constant battle to sniff out cheaters, and players are often banned. But the names of the players or the reasons they were sanctioned are never released, not even when the people behind the banned accounts for cheating are award-winning players like Ali Imsirovic and Jake Schindler.
Both these high-rollers have been apparently banned from GGPoker for cheating, but it hasn’t been absolutely confirmed. They haven’t been active on the site since GGPoker announced they banned 40 accounts in 2020, and they have faced consequences from their online behavior from those within the industry– they were suspended from competing on the PokerGo Tour in September because of the accusations.
According to one of the biggest names in poker, Imsirovic hasn’t learned his lesson. Earlier this month, Daniel Negreanu took to Twitter to call him out and encouraged every site and live venue to permanently ban him.
Before knowing about Ali Imsirovic’s transgressions I thought he was a lifer who loved the game and would be a tournament fixture for a long time.
I’m hearing that he is continuing his antics and is likely irredeemable at this point
All operators both online and live should…
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) March 8, 2023
Negreanu is one of many pros who are for a global ban for players who are caught cheating online. This would require the sites to work together, which may be an impossibility. At least one company has indicted it would be willing to discuss the logistics of implementing a global online poker blacklist, but cautioned it wouldn’t be easy.
In a blog post, Partygaming’s Head of Game Integrity Juha Pasanen outlined several issues online poker sites will have to face if and when the industry moves towards a blacklist. That includes getting permission from the many jurisdictions the sites operate in: Partygaming alone operates in 14 different jurisdictions.
“Trying to get a universal set of rules in place will be a legislative mountain in practice but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, though,” he wrote.
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