As with other forms of online gambling, many critics question whether the operators of such games - especially those located in jurisdictions separate from most of their players - might be engaging in fraud themselves. Internet discussion forums are rife with unproven allegations of non-random card dealing, possibly to favour house-employed players or "bots" (poker playing software disguised as a human opponent), or to give multiple players good hands thus increasing the bets and the rake, or simply to prevent new players from losing so quickly that they become discouraged. However, there is little more than anecdotal evidence to support such claims, and others argue that the rake is sufficiently large that such abuses would be unnecessary and foolish. Many claim to see lots of "bad beats" with large hands pitted against others all too often at a rate that seems to be a lot more common than in live games. But this theory might be refuted by the fact that online cardrooms deal more hands per hour. Because online players get to see more hands, their likelihood of seeing more improbable bad beats or randomly large pots is also increased. However, to date there has been at least one site, ProPoker.com, that has been found to use serverside bots that play with the knowledge of players' cards and the cards yet to be dealt. It has since been shut down, with many players losing the funds they had on the site. Many online poker sites are certified by bodies such as the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, and major auditing firms like PricewaterhouseCoopers review the fairness of the shuffle and payouts for some sites

Yes. I worked for a consulting company which helped build a sophisticated system for doing exactly that. It worked. I refused to work on that system, but I wasn't able to talk them out of taking the project.

Yes and they do. Most of the sites listed on http://www.whats-out-there.info/ have specialist systems to spot this and deal with it though

In short, yes they can, and often do. I have seen 2 or 3 players colluding and working together to get your money. Hell, even Jamie Gold did it on the way to his World Series win. If I were you, I would be more worried about the poker sites. I have personally found one site cheating, and upon reporting to the network they sit with, Neteller and the Kannahawk Gaming Commission, they were banned from operating. Incidentally, the KGC did absolutely nothing - so please don't think they are a capable governing body, they are almost as poor as some of the online poker sites they license. Neteller eventually acted and withdrew their operational license, and Tain removed them from their network so they will not be operating again. Quite what is to stop them starting up again under a different name is beyond me. My only advise with onine poker, is stick to the well known names - and never put in more money than you can afford to lose. Good luck.