The Washington Post ran a long story on Sunday about several instances of the cheating that apparently is going on in Internet poker community. In one case, the Internet poker site AbsolutePoker had to refund $1.6 million to cheated players, while in another case, AbsolutePoker's sister site, UltimateBet.com, had to refund more than $20 million because of cheating that went on for more than four years. In both cases, cheaters had found a way to see their opponents cards.

I found the story intriguing from several perspectives, but especially in how people place so much trust in gambling sites that are virtually unregulated. The industry, the Post story says, generated some $18.4 billion in revenue last year. Even though Internet gambling and on-line poker sites are banned in the US (the Post has another story on this today here), millions of bets are stilled placed from the US at overseas sites.

No one knows how much cheating is going on because no one who runs the sites - nor the governments where the sites are located - are much interested in finding out, the Post says. In fact, if wide spread cheating were found, that could quickly end the golden goose. The Post story related that the cheating abuse was uncovered by those who got cheated because the on-line sites were giving them the round around.

While I did find the story interesting, I must also admit I have a hard time getting too worked up over someone who gets cheated in on-line gambling or cards. Seems to me that if you play with something as risky as online gambling is known to be, any expectations of honesty or trust are pretty much forfeited. Player beware!