There’s no doubt about it. Today poker is as popular, if not more so, as it’s ever been. Beyond the obvious appeals of the game itself, one of the key reasons for this is the ever-growing number of online poker sites. Everyday millions of people all round the world enjoy playing on these for fun or, in some cases, for serious money. But whatever level they are playing at it’s important for them to know that the site they’re playing on is secure. Fortunately, all reputable sites take a wide number of steps to ensure that this is indeed the case.
Keeping players secure
Encryption
Playing on a poker site inevitably involves the exchange of personal information. This is exactly the sort of data that hackers want to get hold of in this time of increasing cyber crime and this is why sites use high levels of encryption to shield this data. They have followed the trend of messenger services to use increasingly powerful methods that mean it would take many lifetimes for even the most skilled and determined hacker to unscramble any useful data.
Firewalls
Another line of defence that all reputable poker sites use is a solid and robust firewall that acts as a defensive shield preventing outsiders from getting through to their network for malicious or criminal purposes. While these are obviously not invulnerable, as many recent cyberattacks have shown, they do provide a very high level of security.
Player verification
Before any player is ever dealt their first hand it’s also vital for the poker site to confirm that they are who they say they are. This means that personal documents such as utility bills or driving licences showing the would-be player’s address are often needed to be submitted when they first register on a site. Used in unison with other personal information such as bank details this helps to ensure that they are genuine. There is also often checking of their IP address with some sites being able to detect when a VPN is being used and barring players who try to conceal their actual location.
Password protection
Players themselves have to take some responsibility for their own safety and security and they can do this by ensuring that the password they use to gain access to a site is a strong one. An increasing number of poker sites have also started to employ two-step authentication though measures such as a unique code being sent to the player’s phone or email address whenever they want to log in to play. The use of biometrics such as fingerprint and face recognition is also on the increase.
Ensuring fair play
Anyone playing on an online poker site needs to be 100% confident that it’s going to be a fair experience. After all, it’s never going to be quite like a game played with physical cards being dealt from a pack.
The randomness of the offline world is therefore created by a piece of software called a random number generator. To ensure fairness, the effectiveness of these is checked regularly by an outside and independent body. This is generally a requirement of the poker site’s licence which can be withdrawn if it isn’t checked often enough or is found not to be truly random.
Anti-cheating measures
Unfortunately, there are also always going to be people out there who aim to game the system to give themselves an unfair advantage. They might do this by various methods but one of the most common is to use a poker bot to take on a large number of games at any one time and allow its algorithms to do the rest.
This means that sites are having to introduce increasingly sophisticated security measures to identify this kind of activity and to block or close down the accounts that are using it.
Of equal concern is the use of so-called “solvers” by players. These are pieces of software that can analyse the cards that have been dealt and suggest the strongest possible hand a player can make, based on assumptions about what other players may have in their hands.
This obviously provides an unfair advantage so the use of solvers can also lead to an account being blocked.
Safe and secure payments
Last, but not least, players need to know that their money will be safe in the hands of their chosen poker site. So, all offer a wide range of secure payment methods. These range from bank transfers to debit cards as well as the use of digital wallets like Skrill, Neteller and PayPal.
So it all adds up to a secure playing environment where players can be confident that the highest levels of fairness and safety are being deployed – leaving them to enjoy the game they love.
