GGPoker has announced what it describes as an 'Olive Branch Application' window allowing players previously banned players an opportunity to rejoin the site. Posting on its dedicated Reddit support page, GGPoker offered, but did not guarantee, banned players the chance to be considered for reinstatement.
The move is part of the launch of GGPoker's Poker Integrity Council (PIC), which was unfurled with great fanfare in early July at the World Series of Poker. The WSOP is one of more than a dozen live-poker tours, series and venues that have agreed to ally with GGPoker and PIC in taking the first steps toward an industry-wide ban for players who have been determined to cheat chronically and in significant ways.
Though the concept of beginning a campaign to stomp out more cheating by allowing some known prior cheaters a chance to return to GGPoker is itself controversial, it was already started as part of the conditions attached to PIC's launch, which takes effect today. At the July 5 WSOP presser, PIC's lead player-member, Jason Koon, explained that certain types of violations for which players had previously received lifetime bans were not necessarily as severe as other forms of cheating.
Koon reiterated that point on Twitter in response to GGPoker's announcement of the olive-branch application, which will be available only for a brief three-week window until August 22:
