Survey indicates widespread mistrust of online poker sites

Trust is a critical element in online gambling, and therefore poker site operators may be concerned by the results of a new study by a British research company that shows that as many as 50% of respondents mistrust online poker websites.

The Great British Poker Survey was carried out by the independent research company 72Point and commissioned by London-listed mobile technology provider Probability plc as part of its preparations to launch a new head-to-head mobile poker product. 72Point surveyed a wide-ranging sample of over 2500 poker players on the project.

12.5% answered in the affirmative to the statement: “I trust them, they provide a good service” regarding online poker sites. 36.9% gave a qualified answer in agreeing to the statement: “mostly trust them”, with one or two doubts. Disturbingly, 19.4% said they mistrusted poker sites and had “a lot of doubts” about them, and a further 31% of respondents said they did not trust online poker sites “at all”.

Reasons given by those with a negative opinion ranged from not trusting the randomness of the cards dealt online (33%), to 32.3% who said they were worried about the safety of their funds and bank details. A fifth of respondents, 21.3%, said they were concerned about regulation and 13% said they were concerned about the use of “software bots” online.

Customer service ratings for online poker site operators were of average quality, according to 51.8% of respondents, and there was a widespread belief that online poker operators at most sites used "house players" despite denials to the contrary.

But when it came to choosing between online and land poker rooms, a remarkable 36.7% of respondents still rated Internet poker sites as preferred poker venues, lagging behind only the runaway favourite venue of poker in the home environment, which appealed most to 57.7% of the players surveyed. Only 5.5% chose land casinos or poker clubs, with 36% claiming that the intimidating atmosphere at such venues discouraged them.

Probability plc's CEO Charles Cohen, commented: “We don’t have any axe to grind on this issue. In fact, the reverse is true - a healthy poker industry is good for us because the more people who are comfortable with playing remote poker the more business there is for us to shoot for.

“Some 50% of players surveyed by the Great British Poker Survey said they did not trust the online poker sites. A third said they did not trust them at all. Those figures are striking and came as a surprise even to us. There is clearly an issue here that the industry needs to address.”

Source: InfoPowa News