Online privacy at Poker Sites

Finding secure, safe, and stringently regulated online poker rooms is a major concern of those who trust online poker sites with their bankrolls, and their in many cases, their credit cards.

How are the online poker rooms handling privacy issues?

It is concerning because this is an unregulated industry in the United States. While these poker rooms are legally operated, and oftentimes regulated by governing agencies in many other countries, the United States, who in most cases can’t keep it’s nose out of other countries squabbles, seems to have no interest in protecting her own citizens from Internet fraud in the casino and gambling industry.

Maybe that’s a good thing though? I know it sounds crazy, but had the United States came in and regulated, and therefore taxed Internet Poker before other countries beat them to it, maybe we would have learned to depend on that blanket of security? Our money could have been more safely insured, rather than stolen by the government, but we’d have had to pay for that too right?

Besides, this means that there is not a lot of time spent on these issues in the government. It seems to be a taboo subject that no one really wants to talk about anyway, sort of like legalized marijuana. Because of this lack of talk, a number of problems like privacy issues had to be dealt with early on.

Who Should I Sign Up With?

When most people begin there journey into online poker rooms, they wonder which rooms they should sign up for. Privacy issues are a prime concern for most people along with issues about if they will be able to withdraw their money once it is put into the site. Since this is such a gray area in the United States, it makes sense that people would be worried. Since it is so taboo, many people do not want it known that they play poker in these rooms. The best option is to choose a site that many people use and that is well advertised. Those are the big name sites that are frequented by so many people that there should be less worry about privacy.

There are only about 10 online poker rooms still accepting players from the United States, even less for Washington Residents.

If you’re NOT located in the United States the best plan for choosing an online poker site would be to:

1. Use a site like this one to gauge the reputation of the online poker sites you’re considering.
2. If you’re still not convinced, go with a site such as Party Poker that is publicly traded on the London Stock Exchange.

Sites that are publicly traded are forced into complete transparency, they utilize the latest in privacy technology, and there are clear consequences for any non compliance.

If you are in the United States:

1. Research United States Friendly Poker sites on a site such as this one.
2. Stick to well known and highly recommended online poker sites.

For those in the United States, the top 2 online poker sites are Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, PokerStars however does not accept players from Washington State, therefore those players are limited to PokerStars as far as the huge reputable sites go.

What Should I Do To Protect My Privacy?

There are things that Internet Poker players can do to protect their privacy at online poker sites. The first of which is to simply learn about phishing, and not fall victim to phishing scams via email.

Protect your own Internet passwords, that’s a big one, all to often people leave themselves logged in on public computers, or give out their passwords and later lose funds from accounts involved.

Some things that really go the extra mile toward privacy protection include the use of a disk encryption utility for the storage of information.

What Are The Sites Doing To Protect Privacy?

Because the poker room websites understand that this has become a bit of an issue, they are working on ways to help you feel more comfortable. After all, they want you to feel free to come and play poker at their site without feeling any threat to your privacy. The competition for players among these sites means that they have had to update to stay ahead. One thing that many of the sites have done is made it possible for you to hid information about yourself from other players. Whereas it used to be much easier for other players to see what your actual name was and what part of the world you are from, this is not as easy to do anymore on most sites. Often you do not have to give the website your credit card number directly anymore. You often use third party payment services to deposit and even withdraw your money from the poker websites.

What Updates Will We See In The Future?

Privacy updates that are coming in the future are a little harder to predict. We don’t know exactly what the sites are going to do, but we do know that things will only continue to get better. They are such tight competition with one another that they have no choice but to update.