Open Records and Transparency are Integral to The Integrity of Gaming

Open records, including transparency over who is winning money in casino gaming, is integral to ensuring the integrity of gaming and public trust and confidence in gaming operations. Without the public being able to clearly know who won something and is receiving money, the public cannot have confidence that the results of a contest, sweepstakes, etc. are legitimate. In California, State Law mandates that the “your full name, the name and location of the retailer who sold you the winning ticket, the date you won and the amount of your winnings, including your gross and net installment payments, are matters of public record and are subject to disclosure.” In New Hampshire, the State Lottery Commission argued in Court that it is necessary to publicly disclose winners, so the public knows that “they are bona fide lottery participants” and that there are “real winners.”

By failing to disclose the results of a poker tournament, the public cannot be assured that there are truly legitimate winners being paid out money. When rooms publish their tournament results on their website or social media, or by filing them with organizations such as Global Poker Index, they allow the public to review the results and the public can identify if there might be any odd patterns of payouts that should be investigated.

While everyone likes to hope that there would never be any corruption or dishonestly in the sport they love, the reality is that when money gets involved, especially thousands or millions of dollars, bad actors will see an opportunity to engage in behavior that is detrimental to the public interest.

A dishonest poker operator or employee of a poker room, if there is no transparency, could make illegitimate arrangements with certain players to get a kickback of a percentage of their winnings in return for engaging in dishonest actions such as rigging decks or making floor rulings in favor of a player to help advance them to deeper stages of a tournament and larger payouts. If results were publicly disclosed, the likelihood of getting caught would increase as the public and gaming regulators might notice odd patterns in the results. Without the results being disclosed, covering up any dishonest behavior becomes easier.

The poker community, in the interest of ensuring fair games, should demand that all rooms publicly post or file their tournament results and if poker rooms are non-compliant, should push for such disclosure to be mandated by regulation.

-Matt Soleyn, Chief Player Advocate, Poker Uncensored