I have accepted that "gaming" the system is not going away regardless of penalties imposed. There will always be someone who does not care about the impact of their gaming the system and reserving blocks that they know they will not use.
It helps level the playing field some to know when the reservation window(s) open on the various reservation systems. Recreation.gov system for USFS and National Parks (for the ones locally that I want to reserve), the window opens 180 days prior to the date one wants, at 10am Eastern time/8am in Mountain time. For ReserveAmerica.com, the system for all Colorado State Parks, the window is also 180 days, but the time is at the stroke of midnight on that 180th day for Mountain time. I had to look through all of the fine print at the CPW website to find that information; I had wondered about that, thinking that it was also 8am mountain time for Colorado State Parks. Couldn't figure out why I wasn't able to reserve spots at the stroke of 8am when I should have stayed up and done it at the stroke of midnight.
Not going to solve the core problem of this discussion topic, but does give a bit of advantage in knowing and using the exact times that the scammers are using.
