France Online poker: Winamax sued!

Winamax, a reputable online poker entity is facing litigation on grounds that they failed to protect transparency and integrity “of its gaming operations”. According to PokerIndustryPro, Winamax is being sued by 6 poker players.

The lawsuit stems from a recent investigation on “bottling” allegations on two players.

Bottling is an advanced form of cheating whereby a player uses an automated program set up against human players.

The two players allegedly used bots in multiple occasions in Winamax’s Expresso games.

Maxime Lemaitre is among the 6 players who originally initiated legal action against Winamax. And they are suing for damages between €10,000 and €50,000 each. However, other players have since joined the collective action suit to take the tally to 16 players.

How it happened

On June 9, a whistleblower under the name “batmax” posted a detailed report on gaming activity on the two suspected bots. Maxime Lemaitre was the whistleblower and his report triggered a quick action from Winamax, according to pokerpro. The two accounts were suspended shortly after.

In a surprise turn of events, Winamax invited the two players to play live poker in-front of their employees at their Paris office. This was to prove their innocence. However, only one of the players honored the invite.

“Victoria Mo” who honored the invite and had to play 400 sit ‘n’ go’s at €100 and €250 to exonerate himself. As a result, his balance was restored. The account of the other player – “Twopandas” who did not honor the invitation was suspended and consequently, remaining account balance was seized.

Winamax posted the results of their month-long investigation on July 30th on club poker forum. According to the report, as reported by poker industry pro, Victoria Mo was absolved of any wrongdoing but his account was to remain suspended. On the other hand, Winamax confirmed cheating on the part of TwoPandas and hence, his account was deactivated and the account balance seized.

Given the suspicion surrounding [VictoriaMo] and the general climate of mistrust … it was decided as a precaution not to lift the suspension of his account.”

Winamax Repayments

After the fiasco, Winamax decided to repay all the affected players. Players who lost money playing against the two accounts received compensation shortly after the report was posted. They did not, however, disclose how they arrived at the amount of compensation each player was to get. As a result, some of the players felt that the online poker company was not transparent enough and that they were inadequately compensated.

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