12.1. The following practices (or any of them) in relation to the Services:
abuse of bonuses or other promotions; and/or
using unfair external factors or influences (commonly known as cheating); and/or
taking unfair advantage (as defined below);
opening any Duplicate Accounts; and/or
undertaking fraudulent practice or criminal activity (as defined below):
constitute “Prohibited Practices” and are not permitted and will constitute a material breach of the Terms of Use. We will take all reasonable steps to prevent and detect such practices and to identify the relevant players concerned if they do occur. Subject to the above, however, we will not be liable for any loss or damage which You may incur as a result of any Prohibited Practices, and any action we take in respect of the same will be at our sole discretion.
12.2. If You suspect a person is engaged in any Prohibited Practice, You shall as soon as reasonably practicable report it to us by e-mailing us or telephoning Customer Services.
12.3. You agree that You shall not participate in or be connected with any form of Prohibited Practice in connection with Your access to or use of the Services.
12.4. If:
12.4.1. We have reasonable grounds to believe that You have participated in or have been connected with any form of Prohibited Practice (and the basis of our belief shall include the use by us (and by our gaming partners and our other suppliers) of any fraud, cheating and collusion detection practices which are used in the gambling and gaming industry at the relevant time); or
12.4.2. You have placed stakes and/or played online games with any other online provider of gambling services and are suspected (as a result of such play) of any Prohibited Practice or otherwise improper activity; or
12.4.3. we become aware that You have “charged back” or denied any of the purchases or deposits that You made to Your Account; or
12.4.4. in our reasonable opinion your continued use of the Services may be detrimental to our regulated status, including our continued ability to be licensed by the Licensing Authority; or
12.4.5. You become bankrupt or suffer analogous proceedings anywhere in the world, then, (including in connection with any suspension and/or termination of Your Account) we shall have the right, in respect of Your Account (and/or any other account held by You with an Operator Group company) to withhold the whole or part of the balance and/or recover from the account the amount of any deposits, pay-outs, bonuses or winnings which have been affected by or are in any way attributable to any of the event(s) contemplated in this paragraph 12.4. The rights set out in this paragraph 12.4 are without prejudice to any other rights (including any common law rights) that we may have against You, whether under the Terms of Use or otherwise.
12.5. For the purposes of this paragraph 12:
12.5.1. “fraudulent practice” means any fraudulent activity engaged in by You or by any person acting on Your behalf or in collusion with You, and shall include, without limitation:
(a) fraudulent charge-backs and rake-back activity;
(b) the use by You or any other person who was participating in the same game as You at any time, of a stolen, cloned or otherwise unauthorised credit or debit card, as a source of funds;
(c) the collusion by You with others in order to gain an unfair advantage (including through bonus schemes or similar incentives offered by us);
(d) any attempt to register false or misleading account information; and
(e) any actual or attempted act by You which is reasonably deemed by us to be illegal in any applicable jurisdiction, made in bad faith, or intended to defraud us and/or circumvent any contractual or legal restrictions, regardless of whether such act or attempted act actually causes us any damage or harm;
12.5.2. “criminal activity” shall include, without limitation, money laundering and any offence under any law or regulation in Your country, where you are playing from or where your IP has been registered; and
12.5.3. “unfair advantage” shall include, without limitation:
12.5.3.1. the exploitation of a fault, loophole or error in our or any third party’s software used by You in connection with the Services (including in respect of any game);
12.5.3.2. the use of third party software or analysis systems; or
12.5.3.3. the exploitation by You, of an Error as defined below, in any case either to Your advantage and/or to the disadvantage of us or others.
12.6. In exercising any of our rights under paragraph 12.4 in relation to a Prohibited Practice, we shall use all reasonable endeavours to ensure that, while complying with our regulatory and other legal obligations, we exercise such rights in a manner which is fair to You and to our other customers.
12.7. We reserve the right to inform relevant authorities, other online gaming or gambling operators, other online service providers and banks, credit card companies, electronic payment providers or other financial institutions of Your identity and of any suspected Prohibited Practice by You, and You shall cooperate fully with us to investigate any such activity.
12.8. OTHER PROHIBITED USE AND CONDUCT
12.8.1. Bum Hunting: Bum hunting is the act of intentionally targeting one group of players while avoiding giving action to others. Bum hunting includes deliberately targeting a user by intentionally sitting out at cash tables and only joining the game when the preferred user arrives. Bum hunting also involves purposefully targeting a user by following their activity. For example, waiting in the lobby until a desired user enters a game and then joining them in the game and playing only till they leave. It is acceptable under certain circumstances to sit out and deny action, giving action to certain users while denying action to others when you are starting tables, is strictly prohibited.
12.8.2. Buttoning: Is the act of playing heads up with the intention of not playing an equal number of big blinds as their opponent. Withholding action in an attempt to pay less big blinds to obtain a greater edge is also not permitted at Website.
12.8.3. Ratholing: This is a situation when a player joins the table with a short-stack and leaves the table as soon as he hits a certain chips threshold only to immediately join a new table of the same stakes again with a short-stack. Also known as ‘hit and run’. This behavior is not permitted.
12.8.4. Table Blocking / Camping: Joining heads up tables without the intention of playing, denying other players action by sitting out (and not leaving the table) or simply sitting at a table to prevent other players access to the table is prohibited.
12.8.5. Language and Content: You are expressly prohibited from posting inappropriate content and/or language while using Website, including but not limited to any language and/or content that Company’s employees deem to be unlawful, obscene, libelous, defamatory, threatening, or other material that would violate the law. Company is not responsible for verbal remarks and their real or perceived consequences on the chat function. You may not commit slander or libel against the Company. The provisions of this Section apply to Website’s chat function, the player images option (including avatar, graphics and/or text), and player name and username.
12.8.6. Impersonation: You may not engage in any form of impersonation of an entity, official, employee, any person whatsoever, or misrepresent any relationship or affiliation with another person or entity whoever in connection with Your Account and/or Your use of the Website.
12.8.7. Collusion: Collusion between users by sharing hole cards or by any other methods is strictly forbidden. The Company reserves the right, in addition to other measures, to restrict seating and/or to prohibit users from playing at a particular poker table or in a tournament, including restricting two or more users from playing together at the same table or in the same tournament.
12.8.8. EPA Programs and Bots: Company prohibits those External Player Assistance Programs (” EPA Programs”) which are designed to provide an “unfair advantage” to users or to monitor or copy Our website. The Company defines “external” to mean computer software and non-software-based databases or profiles (e.g. web sites and subscription services). The Company defines an “unfair advantage” as any instance in which a user accesses or compiles information on other users beyond that which the user has personally observed through the user’s own game play. The use of artificial intelligence including, without limitation, “robots” (“Bots”) is strictly forbidden in connection with Company Services.
12.8.9. Anonymous Proxy Servers: Anonymous proxy servers help people to avoid content blocks that some websites place on IP addresses from certain jurisdictions. Due to the legal issues that can arise from using Company’s Services, specifically those found in Section 3 of the Agreement, You must not use anonymous proxy servers to hide Your IP address from the Company, whether electronically, physically or otherwise.
12.8.10. Hacking: The Company strictly prohibits users from facilitating any viruses, Trojan horses, malware, worms or other computer programming routines that attempt to or may damage, disrupt, corrupt, misuse, detrimentally interfere with, surreptitiously intercept or expropriate, or gain unauthorized access to any system, data, information or the Company Services
12.8.11. Jailbroken, Rooted or Emulated Devices: The Company Services cannot be used on jailbroken, rooted or emulated devices. Such devices are vulnerable to malware attacks and viruses, thus posing a risk for the device in use and the Services.
12.8.12. Chip-Dumping: Chip-dumping occurs when any user intentionally loses a hand in order to deliberately transfer his/her chips to another user. Any user who participates or attempts to participate in chip-dumping with any other user, including being the recipient of funds, while using the Website may be permanently banned from using the Service and Your Account may be terminated immediately.