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Top 5 Ways to Get Your Online Poker Account Banned
German pro Tobias Duthweiler recently had his account suspended on GGPoker and his fund seized. He had been banned from sister site Natural8, but later started playing on the GGPoker flagship site. It took a while to catch him because he set up his GGPoker account using different information than that used at Natural8.
Getting banned from poker sites is one of the worst things that can happen to a poker player. Sometimes it is a misunderstanding that can be corrected. Other times, the player made serious mistakes that facilitated the ban. Today, we give you five things that can get your online poker account banned. We give this information to help you avoid making those mistakes.
Using False Information to Create an Account
At some point, your information will need to be verified by a site’s security department. Whether it is to approve withdrawals or prove that you’re playing in a legal location, you will have to verify your identity and location.
If you provide blatantly false information when setting up an account, this may result in your getting your account suspended. Blatantly false information would be giving a fake name or claiming that you’re playing in Canada when you’re actually in the United States. If you happen to have an old address on your profile or your maiden name for female players, this usually isn’t going to be a big deal. Just update your info and move on.
Playing Online Poker Using Bots
This almost goes without saying. However, there are many people that still try and use online poker bots to play online poker. Some sites do not take sufficient actions to stop bots while other sites like partypoker and PokerStars actively battle bots.
If you get caught using a bot, you can expect to have your funds seized and your accounts banned. Why take the risk?
Playing Team Online Poker
Back in the early days of online poker, you would hear of teams of poker players that would fleece players at poker sites. These teams consisted of two types. The first are groups of players that would play in the same room or house but using different computers and accounts. The other are groups where multiple players were playing on the same account, often at the same time.
The latter is the team poker that will definitely get you banned. If you live with another poker player and play on separate accounts, that’s fine. Playing on the same account or together on the same computer violates the TOS of the site. It’s also blatant cheating. While you don’t hear of this as often in today’s game, it still exists and you should avoid it to keep yourself from getting banned.
Using the Poker Site as a Bank
This is something that I’ve personally had problems with in the past. Back before Black Friday, I had some clients that would pay me via P2P funds transfer on Full Tilt Poker or PokerStars. Things were fine as long as I didn’t try to cash out. Once I did, that’s when problems arose.
On multiple occasions, my withdrawals were denied because it was apparent that I wasn’t playing enough online poker to cover the funds being sent to me. This was entirely true, but I didn’t know that this was a problem.
As the customer service agent told me, “online poker sites are not banks.” As such, you can get in trouble if you do too many P2P transfers without playing. Eventually, I ended up having to sell off my funds to other players to get some of my money off the site.
If you have a lot of volume online, this won’t be an issue. It’s for those that try and use poker rooms as banks where the issue arises.
Playing Over VPN
If you want to guarantee that your account will be banned, get caught playing on a VPN from a banned location. For example, if you’re in the United States and play on PokerStars using a VPN, you’re going to get banned at some point.
Gordon Vayo learned this the hard way a couple of years ago, and other poker players have received a banhammer for playing on VPN from a banned location. No matter how careful you are, poker sites eventually figure out the con.
