I voted no, and the main reason is this. The poker rooms make no money off what you win or lose. They make all their money off the rake. So why would they ever risk the huge amount of money they make off of that, just to screw some random player who donates money to there cause? I mean to you think when Mattster signed up for Stars they said well "this guy we will make a star, but that PPP guy we will make him a lifetime loser here @ stars. People think they see numerous bad beats, but what they forget to relize is these sites deal probly close if not more then 100 times as many hands as any real B&M Casino.
Firemanx, the following is a quotation from a poker book. I'm taking the time to type it because I couldn't answer your question any better in my own words. I hope this will open some people's eyes:
"Poker businesses are based in foreign countries, which reap a large tax windfall by giving them safe haven. The faceless cyber honchos answer to no one, and their computers totally control the action. So what would keep them from stealing you blind?
All you have to hang your hat on is a single tired argument. "The owners make so much money that they wouldn't risk killing the goose that's laying the golden eggs by cheating customers.They are making more than enough money
without cheating." Does this extremely logical argument sound familiar? It should. It is the exact same argument you always heard back when the Mob owned the Las Vegas casinos. Everyone knew the Underworld ran them, and everyone knew mobsters were the most dishonest, brutal people on the planet. So why did anyone in his or her right mind gamble with them? Because normal, logical people believed it made no sense for them to cheat - not with that huge House edge making them millions. But they did cheat. All the time. In fact, they considered it a point of honor not to let a "sucker" out of the casino with any of "their" money - or any money at all. Were greedy mobsters winning tons and tons of money? Absolutely yes, but
there is never enough.
"Murder, Inc." was just maximizing its profits, like any corporation. Mobsters did what they could get away with, just like Enron, Worldcom, and their other corporate brethren. Even for billion-dollar corporations there's never enough capital, the edge is never big enough, and you're only as good as your last quarterly report, which had better top the previous one. The Mob controlled Vegas under the noses of regulators, and Enron execs (and others) robbed people blind despite federal oversight. Thus, it is naive to believe that gambling websites - which for practical purposes are unregulated - are all fair and honest, especially in view of the seedy characters attracted by gambling and easy money. If you were in their shoes, wouldn't you want to make as much as you possibly could before it all came crashing down?
You will meet some of the most honorable people in the world playing poker, but you will also encounter types who would steal their grandma's Social Security check if they could get away with it. Now we're talking millions of dollars here...and someone's going to tell you what your cards are...from
Central America...and you'll just have to take his word for it. Anyone who can devise worldwide poker software can easily create a way for that computer to take a little extra for the House and eventually break you.
Corporations exist to make profits and they want every last nickel they can get their hands on, so don't think that just because organized crime sold its Vegas casinos, that todays owners are on your side. They want your money just as badly as the Mob did, and they have tricks of their own."