Initially declining to comment on the seizing of players funds, GGPoker have released this statement:

“We acknowledge that this case became complicated as the player signed up on multiple skins, where the GGNetwork security team does not have access to personal information including email addresses. Therefore, our security detection was limited to IPs and Mac Addresses when it comes to detecting trespassers. We will enhance our system so that we can request email addresses and personal information from our Licensee Operators.

We also acknowledge that our P2P transfer was too easy for the players. We have already removed P2P transfer for our UK customers and will be placing a strict KYC verification process and limits for all future P2P transfer.

We have already shown our good will with a gesture to the player by returning the funds he has received from his friends. All of his winnings have been re-distributed to the affected players.

We would like to apologize for the concerns that were brought up by this incident and will make sure that our security measures are more tight.”

GG poker have released this statement on what they constitute as bum hunting: 

“We consider both direct and indirect bumhunting. Direct bumhunting is defined as joining a table once the mark has joined and leaving shortly after the mark has left, even though the table has not broken. Indirect bumhunting is defined as refusing to give action to certain players while giving action to others.”

High Level Pro’s Chiming in to Help

This has been one of the biggest stories recently and since Tobias “dudd1” Duthweiler came forward in a 2+2 Blog post to let the poker community know what has happened to his funds, many players have been chiming in on what they think is fair.

Steffen Sontheimer came forward to back the claims of this German Pro Player. The argument has got a little deeper, with the fact that Tobias lost around $85,000 in previous games when he was not banned for his previous predatory behaviour, so his argument is that it was only once he started winning big in some new higher stakes games that he was investigated.

This is not the first time!

Since this information has come out another Pro ‘VeniVidi1993’ also backed Tobias up with a similar tale of being banned for bumhunting, so too have many others. This is all a little rich when it seems that the biggest game running right now including stakes of $500/$1000/$2000 with a $200 ante are all being played due to an amateur giving action.

The concern for most cash game players is that they could end up having funds seized due to these grey areas and obvious automated systems that capture data on when players leave games and who they decide to give action too. Indirect bum hunting as described by them is almost impossible to avoid, if you have a player that barely enters a pot then you are less inclined to want to gamble with them, whereas if you have a player splashing around all the time, then clearly you will be more likely to want to give them action.

Honestly I think it should be super standard in any gaming business that people can be banned for any reason they see fit as long as money is paid. Guys just bum hunting cash and just waiting for vips are not good for any site for the ecology of games

— Bryn Kenney (@BrynKenney) August 5, 2020

Bryn has taken some heat for this tweet from the poker community, the simple fact is that players that are good are bad for poker sites, the sites want the money to be passed around so they have a chance at raking the pots more and more. If one player just wins all the money in a game in a few hours, that’s a bunch of players that won’t have money on the site for GGPoker to rake.

We are living in some dark times when it comes to the clarity of online poker providers, whilst GGPoker is hosting huge games and the official sponsor of the WSOP it seems that cash game players may need to tread carefully whilst game selecting here.