BetOnline is a U.S. friendly sportsbook that started offering poker in April 2011. The poker room originally claimed that they were on the Hero Poker Network. As it turns out, the poker room is on the troubled Action Poker Network. This poker room has been the subject of several public complaints in recent weeks.
There have been four recent complaints by BetOnline poker players. BetOnline accused all four of these players of chip dumping and the player’s accounts were locked. Chip dumping occurs when one player purposely loses chips to another player. This can be done for a variety of reasons. In a tournament, one player might dump chips to another player to give them a bigger chip stack. In a cash game, a player might dump chips that were obtained fraudulently to another player in an attempt to cash out chips that were stolen through a fraudulent deposit such as a stolen credit card. At BetOnline neither of these standard chip dumping scenarios applied.
In one example of chip dumping that occurred at BetOnline, one friend dumped $50 to another friend to help boost his bankroll. The player that did the chip dumping had over $10,000 in his account and those chips were won in a legitimate way. BetOnline locked the player’s account and kept the five figure balance even though this was a very minor offense. A bug in BetOnline’s poker software allowed this chip dumping to happen. Unlike most online poker software, the software allowed this player and his friend to sit at the same table from the same IP address.
After it let the players play, their action was flagged by the BetOnline security department. Since the software allowed the players to play at the same table but flag their play, the poker player was out over $10,000 that BetOnline appears to be keeping all to themselves. Most poker rooms would have told the players that this was not allowed and warned them not to do it again.
Another BetOnline complaint came from a player that had $65,000 in his account. He then received the run around when he attempted to cash it out. After several exchanges, and several reversed cashout attempts, he was told he had to wager his original $1200 deposit one time in the sportsbook even though the player had only played poker. The player placed a $1300 wager on a random tennis match and lost. After doing this, BetOnline still refused to cash the player out. Like the others, he was accused of being involved in a chip dumping scheme. BetOnline accused the player in several emails of being a fraudster and refused to provide any proof of their accusation. BetOnline finally agreed to email the player all of their hand histories but after about a week the player still did not have these hand histories. After a long public battle in poker and sports forums, BetOnline caved and agreed to pay the player the $65,000 he is owed. The maximum withdrawal per week is $15,000 and the player has made that request by bank wire. At this point, he has yet to receive the bank wire.
Two other players have also publicly complained about having their accounts locked by BetOnline’s poker department. One player appears to have committed fraud. The other player settled privately with BetOnline.
In addition to these issues, BetOnline’s poker software security has come into question. BetOnline has tried to hide their association with the struggling Action Poker Network. When BetOnline first launched they claimed to be on the Hero Poker Network. They are actually on the Action Poker Network. Action Poker has been slow paying players and affiliates for about two years. There are some security bugs in the network. In addition to multiple players being able to play a cash game together from the same IP address, a player can actually sit at the same table in two different seats. By logging into Action Poker and BetOnline at the same time, a player can take one seat at a table on Action Poker and another seat at the same table on BetOnline.
This is cause for alarm as no other poker network has this flaw. Most poker networks will only allow a player to have one version of their software open at the same time. If a player tries to open a skin on a network when they already have another skin’s software open, they will receive an error message. Not at BetOnline and Action Poker. The software allowed a player to sit at multiple seats at the same table, even from the same computer.
While the sportsbook has not been the subject of any complaints, players should use extreme caution playing poker at BetOnline. Players should also be aware that they may be required to rollover their deposit one time in the sportsbook before cashing out, even if they had no intention of betting on sports. Players should avoid playing at the same table with any players that may be associated with by IP address or computer sharing, even if you are playing from different IP addresses. Using caution at BetOnline Poker could be the difference between a smooth cashout and a chip dumping accusation.
