Mobile gambling specialist Probability Plc recently commissioned a study on people's opinions on online poker sites and the results were surprising.

Entitled "The Great British Poker Survey," it saw 50 percent of poker players say they mistrusted online poker websites—2,500 respondents took part in the survey.

"The survey posed the question: 'How much do you trust online poker sites?'" Probability said in a release.

"Just 12.55 percent of respondents were prepared to respond with 'I trust them, they provide a good service.' That compared with 36.95 percent who said they 'mostly trusted them' with one or two doubts. However 19.45 percent said they mistrusted poker sites, having 'a lot of doubts' while 31.05 percent said they did not trust them 'at all.'"

When queried about why they didn't trust online poker sites, 33.24 percent said it was because they didn't think cards were random; 32.38 percent said they worried about personal information and account safety; 21.3 percent said they had regulation concerns and 13 percent cited "software bots."

Furthermore, 51.8 percent said customer services offered was no better than average and that 75 percent of online poker websites used "house players" despite reports to the contrary.

Nevertheless, 36.7 percent of respondents still chose the internet as the playing destination of choice; a 57.75 percent majority chose house games and a minority 5.55 percent selected poker clubs and casinos.

"We don’t have any axe to grind on this issue," said Probability CEO Charles Cohen.

"In fact, the reverse is true—a healthy poker industry is good for us because the more people who are comfortable with playing remote poker the more business there is for us to shoot for."

"Some 50 percent of players surveyed by the Great British Poker Survey said they did not trust the online poker sites. A third said they did not trust them at all. Those figures are striking and came as a surprise even to us. There is clearly an issue here that the industry needs to address."