Is cheating on online poker illegal?

Well you can go to jail for almost anything these days, so I’d say be careful yo!

I’m thinking if it costs the website money or other peoples money then probably could be considered illegal. But if it is just a video game I see nothing wrong.

You are right. It’s just a video game. We cheat? Seriously!

Only if you get caught…

If you’re in doubt at all, I suggest you stop now. If there’s any doubt in your mind whatsoever, stop immediately! I cannot stress this enough. The authorities are huge on prosecuting these infractions.

If your cheating at anything with money involved it is probably illegal.

@DarkScribe: Good answer! Im going with you

cheating is wrong and immoral if it may not be “illeagl”

@justwannaknow , sick birds aside, many people find gambling in itself to be immoral.

agreed!

Not if you can get away with it. :)

If you are playing actual pay online poker, then it is certainly not just a game at all, it’s gambling and you would be liable for whatever laws exist in the place of business (likely wherever the server is located). Furthermore you are subjected to the guidelines you agreed to when creating the account, so yes, if they found you (which is very easy, all of your computers are likely on the same network, thus they all have the same IP address, this is the first flag they look for) they could close your accounts. Would they sue you? Probably not. Is it a worthwhile thing to do? Not really.

If it gets found out, you’ll be shut down and probably lose all your money. It’s not necessarily that it’s illegal, but that it’s a violation of the contract you agreed to when you sat down to play.

Generally, the way online poker works is that you charge your chips to your credit card, and then once you’ve played for a while, you can get your winnings sent to you as a check. If you get caught cheating, you’re likely to forfeit all your winnings, which is counterproductive.

Also, online poker rooms have a lot of software built into them to detect just this sort of collusion and to notice bidding patterns that don’t make sense. You’d probably be caught within a week.