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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
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Poker Player Says Site Falsely Accused Her of Using ‘Robots’

LOS ANGELES (CN) - A professional poker player says the Web site Fulltiltpoker.com confiscated more than $80,000 of her winnings after unjustly accusing her of using "robots" to beat other players.

Lary Kennedy sued the site and more than a dozen of its in-house pros and principals in Los Angeles Superior Court, accusing them of racketeering, fraud, libel, slander and other charges.

She claims the site's operators created the "robots"-- computer programs that sit in against human players, ostensibly to fill out slow virtual tables -- to increase house profits, because the programs can easily beat unskilled or moderately skilled players. When the "robots" became unpopular with other players, the site created a phony zero-tolerance policy against them, even encouraging and paying players to expose those who might be using them, according to the lawsuit.

But the site continued to use the robots for its own profit, Kennedy says.

"Of course, most of the robots reported were Full Tilt's own," she claims.

She says that certain players started "online jihads" against skilled players, accusing them of using robots. This gave Full Tilt another revenue stream, she says.

In 2007 a "favored" player accused Kennedy of using robots. Kennedy denied the charges and even broadcast her games live via Web cam to prove it.

Still, Full Tilt confiscated her player account containing more than $80,000, according to the lawsuit.

"Full Tilt discovered over time that cancellation of real player accounts accused of being a robot was another profit center, as the player account of the wrongly accused player was confiscated," the suit states. "From and after that time, Full Tilt and the individual defendants have publicly stated that Kennedy's success as a player was due to her employing or being assisted by a poker robot."

Kennedy wants her money back and an injunction stopping the site from continuing its allegedly fraudulent actions. She is represented by Cyrus Sanai of Beverly Hills.

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