While your right to say that dipping into real money online poker, and especially doing so at non major and unregulated off shore sites, is risky, etc, and While I respect what your saying, the fact remains, that if: 1. Your a very good player. 2. A very informed, aware player. 3. Only play at Major Sites like WSOP.com, WPT.com, Poker Stars, Ignition Poker, GGPoker, PokerGo, etc. 4. Have good bankroll management. 5. Dont play Ring, Single table Sit N Go’s online, and only play Multi table tournaments online.
If follow those 5 points above, then a player can, probably will be profitable over the mid term to long term.
Even if a rare, uncommon, single, 1,2 bots, etc slip through, remember that your not only playing against that, as your playing the WHOLE FIELD of many players, and that you may not run into bots, because of random, luck, chance, table draw. And if you do play against a bot, etc, you might get moved away from the table that has the bot.
And while the bots, other methods of cheating IF IF IF IF they rarely happen at a Big, major site, may add to the VARIANCE, and make it semi harder to overcome that variance, the better, best players, will still overcome, beat all that, and the creme will still rise to the top.
That said Recreational players should stick to Pokerstars, WSOP.com, and be very aware, and should maybe even consider not playing real money online poker because of how many sharks there are, and because of the RARE bots, cheaters, etc.