In a report by Poker Industry Pro (PIP) last week, the France-based poker portal Winamax is facing a lawsuit initiated by six players. The players argue that the company “failed to protect the integrity of its gaming operations,” allegedly not doing enough to prevent poker bots from being run on the site.

PIP explains that a recent investigation revealed that two players had been employing bots on the site. The cheating mechanisms were found active in Sit-N-Go games on the portal. Bots can serve a lot of useful purposes – such as eCommerce website chat tools – but cheating isn’t one of them.

The players are suing Winamax for between €10,000 (US$11,525) to €50,000 (US$17,287) each. The class-action lawsuit received support from 16 players before the lawsuit registration period ended. If all players receive the max payout, Winamax could be on the hook for $276,592.

One of the initial players to launch the suit is Maxime Lemaitre. On June 9, posting under the name “batmax” on the France-centered Club Poker community board, published the results of his investigation, identifying the two culprits. Winamax immediately suspended both accounts.