For all of its potential pitfalls, gambling has always provided one comfort to its many participants: If you win, the glory is yours to crow about. If you lose, nobody has to know about it except for you, your accountant, and in some cases, your wife.

Simply put, you are left in peace to lick your wounds after a loss, with no further public shame or embarrassment.

Casinos have a great financial incentive to keep individual player losses private. If a gambler had to suffer public scorn or ridicule for his excesses, he would be unlikely to return. It has been a longstanding practice for casinos to protect the players' right to privacy regarding their results.

For this reason, I was shocked to find that sharkscope.com is now providing full and accurate reports on WSOP wins and losses. Type in my name, for example, and you get presented with the fact that I have lost $13,120 at this year's World Series. In addition, I am given the "Super Tilt" designation, meaning that I have bricked at least 8 events in a row.

Fortunately, with well over $500,000 in lifetime cashes at the World Series, I can still hold my head up high. However, that's far from the case for most casual players, who make up the most important segment of World Series participants.

Now anyone who wants to know exactly how much you're winning or losing at the World Series can find out. Your co-workers, friends, peers, relatives, and ex-classmates can find out whether or not you're really the poker shark you claim to be. When you bust from an event -- especially a high-buyin one -- you not only have to endure the frustration of losing, but also the knowledge that literally anyone in the world can easily find out about it.

For online players, results tracking is nothing new. Sharkscope and Pokertableratings have been around for awhile, so much to the point to where people have gotten used to the fact that tracking will usually occur. However, these tracking systems are not run by the online poker sites themselves. In fact, most online poker rooms have specific rules against their use. Unfortunately, in a digital world, it is hard to police the spread of information.

However, this situation is very different. First off, there has to be direct cooperation by Harrah's. There is absolutely no other way for sharkscope to obtain a list of participants. I would be shocked if Harrah's was giving this away for free. It looks like they probably sold this information, which is especially insulting because whatever it sold for is a piddling sum compared to what they're already making from players at the WSOP. This is unprecedented. No casino or poker room -- online or live -- voluntarily gives away win/loss information of its players.

Furthermore, there is a big difference between being tracked by your online screen name and your real, legal name. If your neighbor or boss knows you play poker, he can't look up your results unless he also knows that you play on Full Tilt under "BluffMaster4321", which is unlikely. However, he can easily find out your WSOP results by simply entering your name. It's none of anyone's business, and this will only discourage casual players from entering.

Harrah's already makes a fortune from the WSOP. In addition to their increasingly high tournament rake, they also make a killing on cash game rake, food, hotel rooms, WSOP-themed shops, television contracts, product sponsorships, and increased traffic in their regular casino. Heck, they even pocket $3.6 million in rake alone for the Main Event, assuming 6000 players. How much could they have possibly made by selling our information to sharkscope? Likely peanuts, but they seem to want to squeeze every dollar out of the WSOP, no matter how disrespectful to the players.

Shame on them yet again.


AFTER-THE-FACT EDIT: A user has brought it to my attention that Harrah's is not selling the information, but rather giving it away on the WSOP.com website. This is still quite offensive, as such information should not be made available. However, sharkscope does not have anything to do with this matter, other than collecting it from the public site and organizing it.

This is amazing. I bet this decision was made at a low level. Send an email to the CEO and tell them to stop tapping the tank.

Wow, so you can get to your table and scope the players live stats while you are playing them on your cell.

Provided you know their name, or can see their names on their tournament tickets (which are sometimes left out in view), then yes.

You can definitely do it when you get table redraws on Day 2 and beyond.

Do you have proof SS gets it from Harrahs directly? Can't they just accumulate the print outs of each event?

Yeah, im wondering if its just the "names" they scrape from pokernews and other sources publishing peoples names. Find out if there are random people.. In fact, I know a few "no-names" that were never published on pokernews. I'll see if they are listed..

EDIT: WOW!!! They are listed.. This is some fucked up shit..

I don't know where they would get these printouts.

I've never seen them available before. The only publicly accessible information prior to this year was the list of cashes. If someone entered every WSOP event and never cashed, it would never be known, unless Pokernews reported the person's presence (which wouldn't happen in most cases for casual players).

If they are publishing a full list of players, that's still wrong. Whether or not they are profiting from it, they are definitely violating players' rights to privacy.

When I say "rights", I am not referring to legal rights, but rather the industry standard of keeping gamblers' individual losses a secret.

Printing a list of cashes is different, as all of those players won something.

Well isn't this pretty much public information after you sign the waiver?

Doesn't pokernews list all of the cashes and have the names for the events after bustouts?

WSOP.com has registration lists published for every event. Check it.

Are you sure its not in their TOS that this information is public? It may very well be there...

Definitely not from Pokernews.

Pokernews only has a list of participants from Day 2 and beyond. The players listed on Day 1 (the day where the vast majority of bustouts happen) are only the notable ones.

There is also an argument not to publish all Day 2 names, as many don't end up cashing, especially in events like the Main, where only about 17% of Day 2 players cash. Still, at least there is some legitimate reason for doing so, as they can claim to want this list for "deep-in-tournament news reporting" reasons. There is no reason to provide a comprehensive list of all players in all events.

Wow, didn't know this.

It must be new.

So they're not profiting from it. They're just giving it away and violating player privacy.

Awful.

Yep.. Freely available in PDF form.. Which is not the easiest to parse, but it can be done.. This is definitely how they are getting the info.. No way sharkscope has enough scratch to pay for a feed from Harrahs..

so whats the difference? I am sure there are people who don't want people to know how much they have won either

Much different.

It is realistic for Harrah's to publish a list of winners for each tournament. It would be foolish for them to say, "We had a tournament, but we're not telling you who won or cashed."

However, there is no reason to list every entry, as there is really nothing to be gained from doing so other than to humiliate the losers.

Well with all of the staking that goes on having entry lists isnt a terrible thing

Well, theres more than that, Druff. They are a public company and trying to make the game seem larger and larger. Claiming 6000 entries and listing 6000 entries are really two different things to someone looking closely to invest.. Having proof of where the players are from rather than just believing Seth's recent newswire is also useful to them. These are probably the reasons they are releasing this info. As proof to the world how successful it is rather than making everyone just have blind faith on what they say.

I don't recall any doubt being cast upon the number of entries they have claimed. Furthermore, there are ways to make this information verifiable without plopping everything out there for the public to see.

Harrah's needs to understand that poker tournaments are still a form of gambling, and that not everyone wants their losses so easily searchable.

They CAN do it, but they shouldn't.

I honestly think you are making a mountain out of a molehill here Druff. For the longest time information about the WSOP has been public through many of the popular internet mediums that cover poker (Cardplayer, Bluff...and heaven forbid pokernews). Sure sharkscope is streamlining it but if your peers want to gaze at your WSOP performance I am sure they will search through the other common mediums. Only real people "in the know" know about sharkscope anyways...so it would mostly be your cardplaying peers which would have known anyways through other media outlets.

You could possibly make a better case for why this isn't good (if Harrahs is indeed selling this off) but most people aren't sweating the bad exposure from bricking events.

Not only can co-workers, friends etc. see this, but what about the IRS?!

I know W2-G forms are issued for poker cashes, but only if the winnings (reduced by the wager or buy-in) are more than $5,000 from a poker tournament.

So, alot of players who might just play a couple of the small ones, and have lets say a $3500 cash, dont forget about Uncle Sam, because now tournament poker results are more accessbile than ever.