Online Poker Cheating Comedy

Lots of people find nothing funny about online poker cheats cheating honest online poker players, but if I didn't post this humorous article by Pokersoftware.com I would be cheating you out of a good laugh. However, before you read this online poker cheat article, I must assure you that is has no validity whatsoever, but if you never thought anything about cheating in poker games online was funny, this might change your mind!

You win; we give up. Online poker is rigged. Online poker is completely and totally unfair and favors the inexperienced, the fish, anyone with big cards, the people who know about “action flops,” and basically everyone but you. You see, we are experts here at PokerSoftware.com and discovered how the game was rigged pretty much right away. We use Holdem Manager, PokerTracker, and a super secret automatic cheating program that we can’t even talk about; they all indicated to us that the games were rigged.

We’re sorry, want to fess up completely, and let our loyal readers know how they too can take advantage of the systems that are in place in online poker rooms to get rich as quickly as possible. We each have a few hundred million dollars in numbered accounts in the Cayman Islands and we’re ready to retire and pass on our knowledge to you.

The first thing you need to understand is why the sites are rigged. Once you understand the why, taking advantage of the system is easy. The online poker sites, just as you probably suspected all along, want to reward bad players. Some people think this is to even out the win rates, so everyone is closer to breaking even and stick around to pay more rake. While that may be part of the reason, it’s certainly not the entire story.

The people who own the large online poker sites are cruel, evil, and hateful. They want to see good players lose and they love to watch bad beats. They set up the software to punish you, the solid player, and reward the donkey that called your all-in with Ace-Five. We got to sit in on one of their little meetings. We’re not allowed to use the real name of the poker room CEO who showed us how all of this works, so we’ll just call him Evil Bob.

Evil Bob – “Welcome to my office. You’re just in time for my turn at the helm of the Rigged Action Kismet Experiment software. We call it R.A.K.E.”

Fox – “Fascinating. How does it work?”

Evil Bob – Well, there are two components: Automatic Card Tools, or ACT, which we just let run on its own. This tool adjusts the randomness of the cards so that there are more action flops and bad players tend to be rewarded. If you get your money in with the best hand five times in a row and don’t win a single pot, ACT has probably determined that you are playing well. It’s a compliment, really.”

Fox – “I’ve certainly been the victim of that.”

At this point, Bob hit a few keys on his keyboard, asked me my screen name, and chuckled to himself.

Evil Bob – “Oh yeah, we’ve cost you 4,218 pots just with ACT. You must play pretty well. And sorry about that straight flush over straight flush last year in $10/$20 No Limit Hold’em, but believe it or not, that was just bad luck and not manipulation.”

Fox – “Really?”

Evil Bob – “Of course not, idiot. Our Vice President in Charge of Making Professional Players Hate Poker did that himself. He laughed about it for two days.”

Fox – “Uh.”

Evil Bob – “Now the second component of our system is the really fun stuff. You’re going to love it. It’s called the Arkon 2000 System in our interoffice memos, but we just refer to it as The Doom Switch.”

Fox – “There’s really a Doom Switch?”

Evil Bob – “Yeah. We’re really not sure how that one got out and onto the forums. We suspected three different employees of leaking it, but couldn’t pin it on any one of them. We had all three killed, but the damage was already done. Now everyone uses the term.”

Fox – “Yeah, but most people don’t think it’s a real thing.”

Now Bob began to cackle in an unpleasant nasal laugh that rattled the fillings in my teeth.

Evil Bob – “Of course it’s real. You’ve been the victim of it yourself almost 300 times. Come over here and I’ll show you.”

As I walked around behind Bob’s huge oak desk, the sight of six tables greeted me on each of his two computer monitors. He wasn’t multi-tabling sit and gos; there was a big red button in the middle of each monitor that said “DOOM” on it in black gothic lettering. All of the hole cards were clearly visible.

Evil Bob – “Watch this. The fish here on table three just called a raise with jack-five suited, while the under the gun raiser has Aces. This is going to be great. I just drop the red button on the table and the Aces have no shot.”

I watched as it unfolded, the Jack-Four-Trey flop, seemingly safe for the Aces. There was a bet and a raise and soon all of the money was in the middle. When the cards were flipped over, the player with the Aces actually said “rofl” to indicate the absurdity of his opponent’s all-in play with top pair and no kicker. Then, an Ace fell on the turn and Bob actually giggled to himself. The river Deuce gave the Jack-Five a five-high straight and the $200 pot. Bob roared with laughter and I thought I detected a faint hint of brimstone in the air. This man was truly evil.

I watched for a few more minutes. As the beats continued, Bob’s mood became darker and darker.

Evil Bob – “You know I can set this on your account permanently? I could just enter in your screen name and you would be forever doomed, the beats never-ending.”

Fox – “Oh my. That sounds like a nightmare.”

Evil Bob – “Except you never wake up.”

So now you know how and why the sites are rigged: Profit and evil. With an understanding of these things, you can defeat the system and make yourself as rich as we are here at PokerSoftware.com. Just follow a few simple guidelines:

1. Don’t win too much at anyone site. They notice this and the doom switch is turned on.

2. When you get all of your money in, do it quickly so that Evil Bob and his cohorts don’t have time to drop the bad beat on you.

3. Think about what would generate the most rake for the site. ACT is designed specifically to maximize rake, so expect split pots and assume the short stack will almost always win when they are all-in.

4. Play in unexpected ways to confuse the system. If you reraise with Ten-Four one time, the system may tag you as a fish for up to an hour. As soon as you see your hands start to hold up, you can start to play lots of big pots and pile on the winnings.

5. Be careful of the Cash Out Curse. If you have to cash out money from an online poker room, don’t play on that room for two weeks afterward. You will just lose money hand over fist as punishment for removing it from the site in the first place. When you come back after two weeks, your curse will have been reset and you will have a nice winning day as a way for the software to get you hooked on playing again.

If you follow our simple guidelines, you should be winning money in no time. Once you make your first $20 million, you can meet us in Aruba for a big party we have every year. We sit around and watch people play online and drink ourselves in to a stupor telling stories about the old days when we thought that playing good poker would help us win money. We’ll see you there next year!

Annie Duke Speaks Out Again on Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet Cheating Scandals

The cheating scandals surrounding online poker sites UltimateBet.com and its sister Absolute Poker.com continue to make waves in both the mainstream and industry media and in the player community, and the latest element in what seems to be a concerted damage control initiative by the owners is a Poker News video-streamed interview with the much respected poker pro Annie Duke.

This can be accessed at the Poker News Website,

Duke has a long association with UltimateBet and has been involved in both operational and branding endorsement for the website. Apparently last fall she was disenchanted with the way things were going and was thinking about distancing herself from the enterprise. In January this year, the 'hole card' scandal broke and apparently the change of management that occurred convinced Duke to revise her position in a move that was "a big 180 for me."

The cause of this epiphany was apparently the transparency of the new management, headed by CEO Paul Leggett; the way in which it handled the crisis (paying out an unspecified but claimed "seven figures" to affected players); getting rid of the "bad apples" responsible for the scandal and a bigger say for Duke in the conduct of the business.

Judging by her comments in the interview Duke is now firmly on board and confident that the historical problems have been fully addressed, although management is still considering the pursuit of those responsible. This is apparently problematical due to legal considerations around identifying the culprits and under which jurisdiction to pursue them.

Duke follows the company line in claiming that company revenues were not affected by the crisis, which is surprising when one considers the magnitude of the cheating and the editorial coverage it received. The company strategy of recruiting big poker names to endorse the website is also apparent in her comments.

Listening to the interview, there are confusing references to both 'change of management' and 'change of ownership'. This gives little clarity on who owned Absolute/Ultimate Bet prior to its acquisition by Tokwiro Enterprises, a Kahnawake registered company owned by former Mohawk grand chief Joe Norton, or what Tokwiro paid for the companies and when.

The UltimateBet story is not about to fade away. In her interview Duke confirmed information circulating for some months in the industry that the mainstream television investigative program "60 Minutes" is about to air the scandals. Producers for the program contacted Duke whilst she was at the ongoing World Series of Poker, although she does not amplify what was discussed.

Subjectively speaking, we had the impression that this was a continuation of the damage control initiative which the "new management" has been so vigorously pursuing, suggesting that the impact of the cheating scandal may have been bigger than UB would like to acknowledge. The role of the major poker forums in driving the resolution of these scandals also appeared to be underplayed, whilst the proposition that bashing UB was not good for the industry is arguable.

That said, the potential for harm to the industry's credibility that an adverse "60 Minutes" take on the affair is likely to have is a legitimate concern. What a pity that the systems at UB/AP failed in the first place, bringing about this crisis.

Bodog Signs Another Poker Cheat!

Bodog Signs Reformed Justin Bonomo!

It seems to be par for the course: Get caught in an online poker scam, then say you´re sorry, apologize to everyone and his mother reading the poker blogs, then sign a deal for big bucks with a major online poker room. Such is the case again, this time with Justin Bonomo, better known as "ZeeJustin" who was caught cheating by playing on multiple accounts on sites like PartyPoker and PokerStars. (To read more on previous online cheats who signed big poker deals, click here.

Oh how I wish I had been caught cheating at online poker! Then I could have signed a big contract with Bodog too! Only problem, I was never an online poker cheat. In my next life, I will have to consider changing professions!

As reported by Jennifer Newell:

On May 5th, 2008, Bodog Poker announced that it had signed Justin Bonomo to its roster of pros, which already includes David Williams, Jean-Robert Bellande, and Evelyn Ng. Justin will represent Bodog both in live tournaments and online at Bodog, as well as possibly participating in other marketing and branding opportunities.

Poker pros ink deals regularly with online poker sites. Why is this one significant and worthy of a column? Because Justin is the Justin Bonomo, better known as “ZeeJustin” in online poker circles—the player who was caught cheating by playing on multiple accounts on sites like PartyPoker and PokerStars. And though he didn't handle the scandal well when it happened—he was not even 21 years old—he has since matured, taken particular care to address the problem, and changed.

When the scandal first broke in early 2006, Justin was not afraid to post on web forums with his excuses and justifications for using multiple accounts. He claimed that he did so because his style under “ZeeJustin” was too wellknown, and he needed to be anonymous in order to win more money. Granted, that is a simplification of his reasons for the sake of space in this column.

Eventually, the wrath he felt from the poker community caused Justin to realize the impact of what he had done, and his justifications turned to apologies. In his immaturity, he even attempted to strike a deal with PokerStars that would allow him to play on the site for several months, with all proceeds going to charity. “For me, the benefits are obvious,” he wrote to PokerStars. “I would get to play on your site again and return some credibility to my name, but more importantly, I see this as a way to become the person I've always told myself I would be. This won't be a one-time thing. This is how I want to live the rest of my life… Basically, I realize that what I've done is terrible, but I

refuse to accept the fact that those actions define me as a person. I see this as a way to overcome what I've done, not as a poker player, or a wanna-be celebrity, but as a human being.”

The site ultimately denied his request. Justin then took his poker skills to the live tables once he became of legal age to play in the United States. He played tournaments humbly and quietly, not drawing any attention to himself. He allowed time to heal wounds, and in the year and a half that he has been on the circuit, he has eventually gained the respect of many poker players who have seen his remorse and witnessed his true love of the game.

What makes Justin different from recent players involved in cheating scandals, like Sorel Mizzi and JJ Prodigy, is that he grew to understand the severity of his previous actions and let some time pass as he carefully repaired his image. Though he's still in his very early twenties, he seems to have matured immensely. Players like Mizzi seem to expect immediate acceptance of whatever apology is issued, and they come to tournaments as cocky and full of themselves as ever. As basic as it may seem, people need time to accept apologies and see another side of those players, and Mizzi is one of several who do not seem to understand this.

Justin Bonomo has become a successful live tournament player, with final tables at EPT and WSOP events to his credit, as well as several near-televised WPT tables. He has made over $1.1 million in his short time on the circuit, and the Bodog sponsorship appears to be a positive step in his journey.

Computerworld Magazine Uses Online Poker To Demonstrate Rampant Insider Cheating In The Business World

Computerworld article:

When determining the risk to a system and the data stored on it, insider threats are generally regarded as lower risk. Despite the complete access (high risk) that insiders generally have, most of the time insiders are trusted agents (very low risk) on the network. When it breaks down, it can break down in a catastrophic manner, especially if there is money at stake.

One such incident took place in the middle of last year when one or more individuals with trusted access to the systems of UltimateBet and Absolute Poker used that access to create several fake usernames and used them to make an undisclosed amount of money off online poker players. While creating the fake player accounts may not necessarily be cheating, it was the use of software that allowed the insiders to view the competing players' hole cards which was.

Absolute Poker was fined $500,000 in January for four breaches of the gaming commission's rules, three of which were for inaction or attempt to cover up the incident by the site. In addition to the fine, Absolute Poker will be subject to random auditing over the next 24 months, at their expense.

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Online poker playing has always been surrounded by the whispers of cheating when it comes to the actions of other players at the table and ongoing investigations with Absolute Poker turned up a more serious cheating scheme that had been operational for 21 months, completely encompassing the above incident, but unrelated.

When big money is on the virtual table for playing a card game across the Internet, people are going to be motivated to do what they can to weight the odds in their favor. At the $1.2 million 2007 World Championship of Online Poker, managed by PokerStars, the first place finisher was disqualified for cheating (believed to have been multiple accounts active at the same time to improve chances of winning, though at $2,500 per buy-in the cheating is believed to be somewhat more substantial).
Questions should now be asked about the sale of UltimateBet and Absolute Poker, given that the cheating was shown to have been ongoing from before the sale (October 2006) and that the individuals involved were shown to be linked to the company prior to the sale. With potentially multi-million dollar losses, fines, and refunds liable to be paid out there may be a case to be made against the previous owners.

What Is The Real Future Of Online Poker?

Back in April, 2006, in the final chapter of my book “Dirty Poker,” What does the future hold for online poker?, I made the bold prediction that unless some drastic security measures were taken, online poker would within a decade “go the way of dinosaurs.” Well, only two years and a few months have passed since then, and my prediction, in spite of the fact that many people thought I was crazy for making it, is right on course to become reality.

In the past year we have seen one major online poker cheating scam after another. They have come from the inside, from the outside, from the deeper inside, from the farther outside, and from the middle of all of that. We have seen multi-accounting, botting, collusion, hole-card-peeking, funds-stealing and even sophisticated money laundering schemes through online poker accounts. We’ve seen heralded players exposed as super frauds. We’ve seen respected poker magazine editors and writers fired from their jobs because of their implication in cheating rings. We’ve seen online gambling sites’ owners and employees, and thousands more ambitious cheats attacking the integrity of online poker—and succeeding in raking in tremendously large pots.

But does all this mean that online poker is doomed the way I said it was? Does it mean that in another five years 95% of players playing online (or should I say people occupying online poker tables with whatever means including human beings?) will be doing everything but playing legitimate poker hands? Well, if I had to answer this question right now, I would say that online poker will not be extinct in eight more years, but I would also say that unless some serious measures are taken (and I do not know if those measures are even possible to offset much of the cheating), we will have very little honest online poker games going on. But the irony of that dire outlook is that it might not even matter. People playing online poker might come to think of cheating as the norm and accept it, which means that it might just become incorporated as part of the strategy of the game. For instance, the competition of thinking simple and complex poker strategies we see now might give way to a competition of writing simple and complex poker bot programs. The use of sophisticated bots equipped with artificial intelligence might become so ordinary that hooking them up will be nothing more out of the ordinary than keying in your credit card numbers or whatever the source of your account funding might be.

Another way to look at the “online poker cheating revolution” is to see it the way we have seen the very game of poker change over the past few decades. Before we even had online poker we had five- and seven-card stud in brick and mortar poker rooms. The word “Texas” being bandied about around poker tables only had significance as to where a great percentage of the table’s occupants may have come from. But now “Texas” is the holy grail of poker. And just the same, cheating may become just that of online poker.

The point is that the cheating might only serve to increase the competition, as we have seen in several mock or serious bot tournaments, depending how you look at them. The old adage “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” might be the defining moment for the future of online poker. Whatever the case, I now hardly believe that online poker will ever disappear from the cyberworld, and inasmuch I doubt that online sites will ever be able to stop all the cheating…from either the inside, outside, middle, top or bottom. What I do think is that online poker will go on regardless of its degree of corruption.

Why? Because the competitive element in all of us will make us strive to be the best we can be—no matter how we may “be” that way. And the writing of this article has nothing to do with baseball and steroids…or at least I thought it didn’t.

Are Online Poker Sites Purposely Cheating Their Players?

According to a MajorWager interview with Jay Lakin of Pokersourceonline.com, the answer is no, but you can´t be surprised that lots of people in and around the online poker world are questioning whether or not the poker sites are cheats themselves.

Here is Hartley Henderson´s account of his interview with Jay Lakin.

"The other day I received an invitation to conduct an interview with Jay Lakin from Pokersourceonline.com, a very large poker affiliate site. My first inclination was to decline the invitation since my articles generally don't focus on poker. But as a result of many incidents occurring with online poker of late (including the scandals at Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet), I decided to take Mr. Lakin up on his offer. After all, Jay is very close with all the poker sites and knows the ins and outs of the industry as well as anyone online. There were no restrictions on my line of questioning.

My first question to Jay concerned the Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet scandals. For anyone who isn't familiar with the incidents, both sites were found to have "super users" that were able to see the hole cards of other players. The case was brought to light last year when a player in one of Absolute Poker's large buy-in tournaments suspected that another player at the table was playing unusually and he believed he was somehow cheating. Absolute Poker sent the player a list with every hand that was played at the table along with information on the observers. After examining each hand it was clear that the winner was indeed cheating. The cheater was a former manager at the site who had the ability to see the hole cards of other players and played accordingly, easily winning the tournament. For their part Absolute Poker did a full investigation and subsequently refunded the entry fee for all the players in the tournament. Recently the same thing happened at Ultimate Bet, which like Absolute Poker operates from Kahnawake.

The obvious question regarding the scandal was, why it was allowed to occur in the first place? Why do these super users exist? I asked Jay. What possible reason is there for a site to have the ability to see hole cards?

"It had to do with the early testing stages of the site," Jay answered. "Supervisor accounts existed in the early days so that owners could see the hole cards to test the software. Seeing the hole cards would tell if the software was operating correctly." According to Jay, the idea was that the supervisor accounts were to be deleted once the site went live, but two of the supervisor accounts were kept by mistake. Unfortunately a couple of seedy managers who still had access to the supervisor accounts after leaving the company decided to use it to cheat others. "What they did is no different than someone going to a bank and sticking a gun in a teller's face" Jay said. Lakin says he knows the owners of both sites well, however, and is certain that the supervisor accounts were not left open on purpose. Lakin also noted that Absolute Poker made full restitution to players, and then added some security features to their software to try and stop any similar recurrence. One such feature was a block on any account from changing a screen name. Apparently this was a common technique to try and block one's identity from others. "Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet are probably the safest sites to play at right now," Lakin commented.

Asked what could be done to ensure incidents like that never occur again or that collusion doesn't occur in Poker, Lakin said it was impossible. "If people are determined to cheat they will find a way. People can create virtual accounts, they can make up IP addresses, use Proxy servers, etc. The companies try to stop the cheating, but if someone is savvy enough they can get around it," Lakin stated. Jay suggested that sites are always looking to catch suspicious play and have people watching 24/7 for tell-tale signs. The poker operators also have very sophisticated technology running algorithms, tracking IP addresses, looking for transfers between players, etc. But Lakin suggested the only real way to catch cheaters is for the players to step up to the plate when they see something fishy going on, as happened with the Absolute Poker incident. "If someone raises a concern, the sites take it seriously," Jay commented. "Otherwise, people will spread the word and players will go to other sites." Jay's biggest disappointment with the whole incident is the fact that the cheaters are still walking free in the streets of Costa Rica.

My next question to Jay concerned the sites themselves and whether he thought that they tampered with the software to ensure bad beats in the lower dollar games as many have contended. The belief here is that while software is run by a random number generator, the RNG can be set in such a way that it only gives random numbers within a range on the turn and river for certain games in an attempt to affect the outcome. The reasoning behind this is that it would provide incentive for the fish to keep playing believing they are good players. Note, while I never believed personally in the theory, the question has been raised on various poker forums. In Jay's opinion, the whole notion that poker sites are purposely cheating players is ludicrous. "As long as poker rooms are making money on the rake there is no need to cheat," Jay commented. While he has a bit more hesitation about online casinos where the house makes money on players losing, Jay thinks it would be insane for a poker site to cut its own throat by cheating players when the site has no vested interest in which players win. Jay believes the bad beats that occur frequently in low dollar games and tournaments are a result of players playing too many hands and poor play in general. Whenever someone loses with pocket aces to 3-5 suited in a real game it's the luck of the draw. When someone loses with the same hand online it's because the fix is in. According to one poker site, it has a staff member whose main job is to respond to complaints that the site is rigged. The staff member has to explain that more hands are played online than in real games, as well as other facts that explain bad beats. Jay also believes that these lower staked hands feature people who graduate from the free games and the .net sites. "I tell people all the time," Jay said, "playing at .net sites will only worsen your game. If you want to improve you have to play for real money."

For my next line of questioning I turned to the issue of the Poker Player's Alliance and the Frank and Wexler bills. My two main questions were: 1) how pokersourceonline.com is affiliated with the PPA and 2) what he feels about PPA's seeming desire to sell sports betting down the river to achieve the legalization of poker. Jay said that he is not affiliated with PPA and personally believes that all online gambling should be legal, but he fully understands PPA's desire to want to disassociate itself from other forms of gambling. "Wexler's bill couldn't be clearer," Jay said. "It wants to legalize skill games online and the differentiation is whether one is playing against another player or against the house." Jay doesn't buy the argument that sports betting is still player vs. player (even though, in theory, the sportsbooks balance their action based on how players bet either side.) He also isn't convinced that sites like Betfair or Matchbook is skill simply because one player sets the line and another takes it. Jay's feeling is that as long as they stick to their guns of trying to legalize the skill game of poker, PPA has a shot. If PPA were to venture off track they could lose the battle. In Jay's mind the UIGEA carved out exemptions for horse racing and lotteries which are clearly based only on luck. Therefore the belief is that if a law can make exemptions for games of luck it must provide exemptions for games of skill. "The fact that the same faces are at the final tables of every poker event negates the propensity of luck like that you would find in picking a lottery ticket," Jay commented. Nevertheless, Jay also feels that if poker is legalized eventually courts will rule that all gambling must be legalized. "If someone goes to a liquor store they aren't told that vodka is legal but you can't buy the gin. It makes no sense." In the meantime, PPA has over a million members and is right now looking out solely for the interests of poker, and if that means that it has the appearance of selling out sports betting, so be it. For his part, Jay makes it clear that his site is just an affiliate site and not associated with PPA. Pokersourceonline does post news articles on all gambling and often features ones from MajorWager. Their forum, devoted to poker, has over 130,000 members.

During the discussion of the the UIGEA and the PPA an interesting side discussion took place regarding the law about promotion of gambling. The Feds seem to want to outlaw promotion of gambling, as can be seen by the cases launched by the DOJ against Google, Yahoo, Esquire and The Sporting News, yet every televised poker event features all the stars in Poker Stars or Full Tilt Poker gear. "Why do you think that is?" Jay Lakin asked me. For my part I assumed it had to do with the fact the players wore shirts that had .net on it, but anyone with half a brain can see through that. After all the .net site is just window dressing for the real .com site where anyone can play for real money. Full Tilt and Poker Stars aren't paying these celebrities hundreds of thousands of dollars and paying tournament fees to promote an "information site." But Jay also wanted to point out that all the poker magazines feature ads for online gambling and are never approached by the DOJ for compensation or told to cease advertising poker immediately. All the magazines operate in the U.S. "Bluff magazine has a big building in Atlanta," Jay said "And Card Player has a huge office in Las Vegas. They all run poker ads, but the difference between them and The Sporting News is that poker ads represented a tiny percentage of the advertising for The Sporting News. For Bluff and Card Player it's everything." Consequently Jay is certain that when managers for The Sporting News met they decided it wasn't worth their while to try and fight the DOJ on this. $7.2 million was a small price to pay to get the Department of Justice off their backs and the loss of revenue from online gambling ads was negligable. Bluff and Card Player magazine, on the other hand, are able to operate strictly due to poker ads. Consequently if they were to agree to drop poker advertising for their magazines they may as well fold (pardon the pun). Similarly, with players like Phil Ivey, Allan Cunningham and Chris Ferguson, the advertising gear they wear gives them a reason to play in all these tournaments. They are American citizens and have the right to wear what they want. Jay is convinced that the reason the magazines and players were not approached by the DOJ and told to cease advertising gambling ads as The Sporting News was told to do is that the players, realizing their future earnings could be at stake, and the magazines, realizing their existence is on the line, would take the Department of Justice to court. And the last thing the DOJ wants is to test the law in the courts. Until now the law has never really been tested and the government is fearful that perhaps if the case does go to the courts, the judges will rule that the law is a violation of free speech. If that happens it would open up the floodgates to advertising in the U.S. for online gambling along with other vices the government really would rather not see advertised stateside. So the easiest way for the DOJ to accomplish their goal is to go only after companies it knows won't challenge them in the court of law. It is noteworthy that poker is often testing the reach of the law and thus far has not been touched. The World Poker Tour has a site called clubwpt.com where people can subscribe to the site for a $20 a month fee, and in turn they can play poker tournaments against each other for prizes like free entry fees to real WPT tournaments and every night they have $1,000 tournaments for members. The site makes it clear that "it's not gambling" because people don't actually have money in their account, but really there is no difference in paying a fee to play in a tournament at Full Tilt Poker or paying a fee to play in a tournament at clubwpt. The World Poker Tour also has a site that offers gambling but not to American players. It should be noted that Mega$ports was forced to declare bankruptcy for hosting an online gambling site that only catered to customers in Australia.

Lastly, I questioned Jay Lakin about the Party Poker billion dollar offer to settle with the Department of Justice. I couldn't fathom why a company would pay a billion dollars for such a minor thing as the option of stepping foot again in the United States. "When you're rich it's not a minor thing," Jay replied. "The ability to go to the United States without fear of prosecution probably isn't worth a billion dollars to you or me, but to someone worth at least $7 billion it very well may be." As well, Jay is certain that the Party Poker owners are still concerned about the long reach of the Department of Justice; after all, Gary Kaplan and Stephen Lawrence were extradited from foreign countries to face prosecution in the United States. Lakin agreed there could be other extenuating circumstances, such as a sweet deal for Party Gaming if and when online gambling becomes legal in the United States, but he's not sure that's the main impetus. Asked why Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker seem to be getting off unscathed by the DOJ, Lakin points out that both places are located offshore. Poker Stars is in the Isle of Man, and unlike the owners of Party Poker, the owners of Poker Stars likely couldn't care less if they step foot in the U.S. again. Moreover, only Party Poker was incorporated and needs to answer to shareholders and the regulatory body where they are incorporated. The owners and management of Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker only have to answer to themselves.

Asked it he had a preference in the upcoming U.S. election, Lakin (like everyone in the gaming industry I have put the question to) stated he wants to see a Democrat win. "When you look at the UIGEA and similar bills it's always the Republicans behind [them]. And all bills that counter the UIGEA are being put forth by Democrats." When I mentioned that Barak Obama is a well known poker player, Lakin responded, "I don't know if that matters. I'm sure George Bush and John McCain play poker as well. But it's not about playing poker, it's about the superiority of telling you that they believe what's better for you than you do."

UltimateBet Online Poker Cheat Scam Comes Clean With Tokwiro Enterprises Admission!

Here we go again! I said it two and half years ago, that hole cards were being exposed in online poker games, and nearly everyone in the poker community called me crazy. But now Tokwiro Enterprises, owner of both Absolute Poker and UltimateBet, has had to come out of the closet and admit that its second prized online poker site
was devastatingly compromised, after its first, Absolute Poker, suffered the same blow from the same peeking-at-hole-cards scam.

The headlines blared: Close Former Employees Had Access to Opponents' Holecards for 21 Months

Tokwiro Enterprises, the company that owns both Absolute Poker and UltimateBet, today released a statement confirming that cheating had gone on at UltimateBet by people who, according to the release, “worked for the previous ownership of UltimateBet prior to the sale of the business to Tokwiro in October 2006.”

The player or players behind the 18 screen names that were identified as being corrupted have not been named. Tokwiro will refund players their losses once the investigation is complete. The usernames that were used to cheat are: NioNio, Sleepless, NoPaddles, nvtease, flatbroke33, ilike2win, UtakeIt2, FlipFlop2, erick456, WhackMe44, RockStarLA, stoned2nite, monizzle, FireNTexas, HeadKase01, LetsPatttty, NYMobser, and WhoWhereWhen.

The cheating was able to take place because the perpetrators had access to what Tokwiro is calling an “unauthorized software code” that allowed the cheaters to see their opponents’ holecards. The cheating took place from March 7, 2006 to Dec. 3, 2007, and it’s not known how much money the cheater(s) illicitly won.

As soon as the cheating was suspected, Tokwiro said it contacted the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC), the most used online poker regulatory commission, to start the investigation. Tokwiro is mandated to contact KGC if any suspicious activety might be taking place.

This is the second cheating incident to hit the company since it purchased Absolute
Poker and UltimateBet. The first occurred when it was discovered that several players at Absolute Poker also had access to software that allowed them to see opponents’ hole cards.

The entire press release, which provided a timeline of the incident, follows:

MONTREAL, CANADA (MAY 29, 2008) --- Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG ("Tokwiro"), proprietors of UltimateBet.com ("UltimateBet"), one of the world's largest online card rooms, today announced the results of its lengthy investigation into allegations of unfair play, which was triggered by concerns about an account named 'NioNio'. Tokwiro has worked diligently in cooperation with its regulatory body, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission ("KGC"), and with independent third-party experts to conduct a thorough investigation that included a comprehensive review of hand histories and game data, thorough analyses of software and network security, and audits of its security practices and procedures.

The investigation has concluded that certain player accounts did in fact have an unfair advantage, and that these accounts targeted the highest limit games on the site. The individuals responsible were found to have worked for the previous ownership of UltimateBet prior to the sale of the business to Tokwiro in October 2006. Tokwiro is taking full responsibility for this situation and will immediately begin refunding UltimateBet customers for any losses that were incurred as a result of unfair play.

The fraudulent activity was enabled by unauthorized software code that allowed the
perpetrators to obtain hole card information during live play. The existence of this
vulnerability was unknown to Tokwiro until February 2008 and existed prior to
UltimateBet's acquisition by Tokwiro in October 2006. Our investigation has confirmed that the code was part of a legacy auditing system that was manipulated by the perpetrators. Gaming Associates, independent auditors hired by the KGC, have confirmed that the software code that provided the unfair advantage has been permanently removed.

Throughout the investigation of this incident, Tokwiro's consistent priorities have been:

To permanently remove the ability to engage in unfair play.
To complete its investigation and come to a full understanding of what occurred.
To refund the affected customers.
To implement measures that prevents future incidents.

The Company said, "We would like to thank our customers for their patience, loyalty and support, as well as for their understanding that we are doing everything we can to correct this situation. The staff and management of UltimateBet are fully committed to providing a safe and secure environment for our players, and we want to assure customers of our unwavering resolve to monitor site security with every resource at our disposal."

Investigation Timeline

These are the key events in the course of the incident.

January 2008: UltimateBet is alerted to suspicions of unfair play on the part of the
account "NioNio". Within 24 hours, UltimateBet contacts the KGC to provide formal notice that UltimateBet has initiated an investigation of the incident.

UltimateBet subsequently forwarded a copy of all related data to the KGC.
January 2008: The "NioNio" account and related accounts are suspended pending further investigation.

February 2008: Preliminary findings indicate abnormally high winning statistics for the suspect accounts. After discussions with the KGC, UltimateBet engages third-party gaming experts to assist with the analysis.

February 2008: Investigators confirm that the suspect accounts are associated with
individuals who had worked for UltimateBet under the previous ownership.
February 2008: UltimateBet discovers the unauthorized code that allowed the perpetrators to obtain hole card information during live play. The code was part of a legacy auditing system that was manipulated by the perpetrators of the fraud.

February 2008: UltimateBet immediately removes the unauthorized code and works with the KGC and with third-party auditors to verify that the security hole has been eliminated.

March 2008: Six player accounts are confirmed to have participated in this scheme. No accounts were deleted at any point, although some account names were changed multiple times. The following account names are known to have been used in the fraudulent activity: NioNio, Sleepless, NoPaddles, nvtease, flatbroke33, ilike2win, UtakeIt2, FlipFlop2, erick456, WhackMe44, RockStarLA, stoned2nite, monizzle, FireNTexas, HeadKase01, LetsPatttty, NYMobser, and WhoWhereWhen.

May 2008: The investigation confirms that the fraudulent activity took place from March 7, 2006 to December 3, 2007.

May 2008: Gaming Associates certifies that the software code that enabled unfair play was removed from UltimateBet servers in February of 2008.

May 2008: Customers affected by this incident are identified, and plans for corrective action are reviewed with the KGC.

Corrective Actions Taken:

The following actions have been taken or are currently underway as a direct result of this investigation:

The security hole identified in UltimateBet's investigation has been permanently
eliminated.

UltimateBet is establishing a state-of-the-art software Security Center that
consolidates and greatly enhances existing security capabilities. The first release of the new Security Center focuses solely on the immediate detection of abnormal winnings. Gaming mathematicians, poker professionals, and security software developers have all contributed to the specifications for the new Security Center.

UltimateBet customers are no longer permitted to change account names unless they have suffered abuse in chat rooms. Requests for changes must be supported by proof of abuse and must be approved by the Chief Compliance Officer. In addition to its existing security department, UltimateBet has established a new specialized Poker Security team of professionals dedicated to fraud prevention.

The refund process will begin immediately. The accounts associated with fraudulent
activity did not use an unfair advantage in all play sessions. Regardless, UltimateBet is refunding all losses to these accounts.

Accounts related to the fraudulent activity have been disabled, and the individuals
associated with those accounts permanently banned from the site. UltimateBet has worked closely and transparently with its governing body, the KGC and its designated expert auditors, to determine exactly what happened, how it happened, and who was involved, and has taken action to prevent any possibility of this situation
recurring.

Tokwiro is pursuing its legal options in regard to this incident.

WHEN WILL IT END???

Ultimate Bet "NioNio" Online Poker Scam Widens!

ULTIMATE BET ONLINE POKER SCANDAL WON´T GO AWAY!

Worrying echoes of the Absolute Poker affair as cheating crisis remains unresolved.

Almost halfway through the year, the cheating accusations involving online poker site UltimateBet.com (see previous Online-Casinos.com/InfoPowa reports) have still to be brought to a satisfactory conclusion, and this week simmering player anger was again evident on leading Internet message boards such as 2+2 and Casinomeister.

The incident has worrying similarities with a major cheating scandal at sister online poker room Absolute Poker last year, which culminated in the venue receiving a half million dollar fine from the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, but little public indication that the perpetrators of the scam had been criminally pursued.

Absolute, which had initially shrugged off allegations of cheating by an insider, eventually paid players disadvantaged by the scandal, which was uncovered largely by astute detective work by the poker playing community.

UltimateBet and Absolute Poker are both fully owned by Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG, a privately owned company run by Joe Norton, the former Grand Chief of the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake. Both sites are licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission in a First Nation enclave near Montreal in Canada.

Disclosures over the past few months indicate that the players at 2+2 have again been instrumental in uncovering the alleged UltimateBet cheating involving a player using the handle "NioNio". In a summary posted this week at: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=208114 the thorough steps leading to the expose are detailed by Steven Ware and Cornell Fiji, but briefly the history is as follows:

Some 5 months ago allegations concerning suspicious activity in the high stakes no limit games on UltimateBet were first made public at 2+2 in a thread on the High Stakes No Limit forum. UltimateBet and the KGC were informed of the suspected cheating amid allegations that millions of dollars had been obtained through questionable high stakes play, and that it was likely that:

UltimateBet had known about the cheating for at least nine months.

UltimateBet knew about but did not make any attempt to acknowledge the cheating before it was exposed by the 2+2 poker portal.

Insiders working for UltimateBet had facilitated the cheating.

UltimateBet actively took steps to cover up these crimes and thwart any investigation.

UltimateBet did not make any public statements or acknowledge that cheating had occurred until March 6th, 2008, three full months after the allegations became public knowledge. Then, a release advised that after "extensive inquiry involving an independent third-party expert, NioNio account's winning statistics were indeed abnormal" but did not reveal whether an unfair advantage existed or what it may have been. It is claimed that this press release is the only occasion on which UltimateBet has publicly addressed the issue.

UltimateBet has not reached out to any of the players who were cheated, many of whom still don't know that they were cheated.

Communications with players involved in the dispute have been slow and uninformative, assuring only that an investigation is in progress.

UltimateBet has yet to offer to reimburse any of the victims of the theft.

The investigators at 2+2 are at some pains to note that the Absolute and UltimateBet scandals are not typical of online poker operators.

The authors of the report comment that it is important for online poker players to know about the unethical business practices of UltimateBet and Absolute Poker....but that it is also imperative to understand that these 'unscrupulous activities' are not an indictment of the entire online poker industry.

"As you read this thread please keep in mind that UltimateBet and Absolute Poker are owned by the same company. They are also regulated by the same puppet regulatory commission. Most poker sites are run with the utmost integrity and security. UltimateBet and Absolute Poker are the exception and not the rule," they stress.

In the apparent absence of action by Tokwiro or the KGC the authors are concerned that the wider poker playing community should be informed of the allegations for their own protection.

The investigative work of 2+2 posters such as 'trambopoline,' 'dlpnyc21,' Nat Arem, and 'Josem' is acknowledged and praised.

Concluding a highly detailed and itemised report on the 2+2 investigation and the information uncovered, the authors comment:

"Out of the hundreds of online poker sites, the only two sites to ever be caught exploiting a 'superuser' account to steal from customers are both owned by Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG and licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission.

"The players on UltimateBet were victims of a serious crime: grand larceny facilitated by a company that operates virtually outside the law. I hope that the efforts spent investigating and publicizing this story will help the victims of these crimes find restitution. I hope that this story will also highlight the need for independent regulation in the online poker industry."

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthread.php?t=208114

Requests for comment sent to UltimateBet.com and the KGC remained unanswered as Online-Casinos.com/InfoPowa went to press.

Is Bodog Safe From Online Poker Cheats?

According to Online Gaming Paper, which reviewed online poker-cheating risks for all the major online poker rooms, Bodog Poker is the safest site to play on. Although I agree that Bodog is certainly one of the safest poker sites and has occupied the top spot on my poker safety rankings list, consistently battling cheats, I would not call it the safest, as the statistics compiled by my web people do not rank Bodog the Number 1 anti-cheating online poker room. However, I feel that the Online Gaming review of Bodog merits consideration as it presents solid information. Read it below:

"We do rarely write an online poker site review, but with the decreasing options of honest poker rooms we have to. There are quite a few online poker rooms these days and contrary to the popular belief, a lot of them still allow US poker players to join their tables. But what has become a trend in the past few months is the worst part - people are getting stung constantly by those poker sites, scandals and accusations of cheating players out of their money are an everyday occurrence when playing online poker. And the U.S. government´s desire to push the online poker sites towards the shady side of the Internet, instead of regulating and overseeing their activities, hasn't helped much either (I certainly agree with that!).

But in our opinion, there is one player on the scene which has remained a very secure and trusted online poker site - the Bodog Poker Room (official website). While other poker sites battle cheaters, bots and payment processors, Bodog Poker Room is standing strong, without any complaints from players being cheated or money disappearing. Although the casino and sportsbook section of the Bodog's array of gambling services are well known, for some reason the poker room has been in a way overlooked in the past by the people enjoying this centuries-old card game. But now, with all the bad news surrounding almost every other online poker site, Bodog Poker is becoming the natural choice for poker players throughout the world.

So what makes this online poker site the best in the industry? First and foremost - the security. In the past security was hardly a factor when evaluating an online poker site - the online poker rooms have just popped up and people were "greenhorns". Everyone wanted to play poker online and almost no one knew much about bots and fake accounts, they just assumed they were playing a though opponent. But with time passing by, people smartened up and pretty much every cheating scandal involving an online poker room has been discovered by the players at that particular poker site, rather than the management coming out on the open and admitting wrongdoings. But Bodog Poker not only guarantees security, they deliver as well. You won't find any cheating scandals with their name in it, and nowadays this means a lot. Security at a poker site should be one of your major concerns, but with Bodog this is unnecessary - focus on your game and don't worry about cheaters."

There is more to this article promoting other points about Bodog, such as sign-up bonuses, etc. Whether or not there is some motive for the touting of Bodog´s security and record against poker cheats, I can´t say, but I decided the facts back up the their statement that Bodog is a very good site against online poker cheating.

PokerStars Responds to Jennifer Newell's Security Cheat Inquiry

Well-known poker writer Jennifer Newell, who has covered the subject of cheating in online poker quite thoroughly these days, claims that she sent questionnaires to the security staffs of all the major online poker sites that accept US players. According to Newell, only PokerStars responded, which doesn't at all surprise me as they have been at the forefront of the fight against online poker cheats. Here are the questions and answers between Newell and PokerStars:

Q: What company or individual(s) own your site?

A: PokerStars is owned by Rational Entertainment Enterprises Limited, a privately held Isle of Man company.

Q: What company or organization holds your gaming license?

A: There is a misconception about offshore companies being unlicensed and unregulated. PokerStars holds its license with the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission. More information can be found at www.PokerStars. com/IOM.

Q: What is your site's stance on multi-accounting and seat-selling practices?

A: With trivial exceptions, a player may play on only one (his) account during a tournament and may not "hand off" his seat mid-event to a different player. Violation of this rule may result in penalties including disqualification from the tournament, with full forfeiture of winnings (which will be distributed to other players) and barring from PokerStars. Further clarification, including examples of what is acceptable and unacceptable activity can be found under Rule 21 at www.PokerStars.com/Poker/Tournaments/Rules.

Q: What security measures does your site employ to prevent cheating?

A: PokerStars employs a large number of experienced poker players who review any suspicious activity at the tables. These reviews are initiated from three main sources: 1) player complaints, 2) automated alerts of unusual activity, and 3) standard scheduled reviews of accounts. These reviews involve examining both account activity and the hands played by the player in question for any suspicious activity. In addition, we have a Games Security department whose only goal is to protect players from inappropriate activity by other players.

Q: How can you assure players that their money is safe and the games are fair?

A: Regarding money, all PokerStars player balances are held in a segregated account of a major European bank and are never used for any sort of operating expense. PokerStars was the first major site to establish a segregated account of this nature. If every player on the site wished to cash out their full balance tomorrow, there would be absolutely no problem handling all of the requests. No player has ever failed to receive a cash-out on our site in over six years of operation.

Regarding games, as indicated above, we engage in both reactive and proactive reviews of the play between players on our site. In terms of receiving a fair deal, we have undertaken great lengths to develop truly random shuffle, safe from any hacking or manipulation. Our random number generator was submitted and verified by multiple auditing agencies. More details can be found at www.PokerStars.com/Poker/Room/Features/Security.

Finally, we have a standing offer with every real money player on our site to send them every real money hand that they have ever played for review... Many players have taken advantage of this service, and often publish their results, all of which always indicate that our shuffle is completely random.

Q: What separates you from other online poker sites with regard to safety and security?

A: Several of the measures outlined above are unique to PokerStars (segregated account balances, offer to send all hand histories). However, the biggest way that we separate ourselves is by the company culture that has customer focus as the main company value. That focus is what brought us the reputation of having the best support in the industry. PokerStars was founded by businessmen and technology professionals who were also passionate recreational poker players viewing poker as both challenging and entertaining. Much of senior management is still heavily comprised of people who love poker and who are committed to providing a great poker experience for all our players.

Nat Arem Claims "60 Minutes" Wants to "Out" Online Poker Cheats!

ONLINE POKER INDUSTRY SHAKING IN FEAR OF UPCOMING CBS "60 MINUTES" SEGMENT SET TO EXPOSE ONLINE POKER CHEATS! POTRIPPER AND ALAN JOHN GRIMARD, AKA AJ GREEN, WON'T GO AWAY!

The piece slated to air on CBS' "60 Minutes" regarding the online poker industry and a notorious "insider poker cheat" has the entire industry fearing the damage that might occur in its aftermath. In a past "60 Minutes" segment, Chief CBS correspondent Morley Safer revealed how easy it was for minors to access online casinos with their parents' credit cards. That was bad enough for the industry, but it got over it.

Now, Nat Arem, a well known poker insider, claims that "60 Minutes," in conjunction with a reporter from the Washington Post, contacted him regarding a story about the Absolute Poker scandal from last fall. For those of you who don't remember the details of the biggest scandal in the history of online poker, back in September, Absolute Poker began fending off accusations made by members of several Internet forums that the online poker room had a "superuser" account which allowed one player to read the hole cards of others during a game. By October, widespread Internet allegations of cheating led to the Kahnawake Gaming Commission opening an investigation. Both Absolute Poker and Kahnawake later confirmed an "internal breach" in which a crooked insider, Alan John Grimard, did indeed see other players' hole cards during play.

What is really bad about this "60 Minutes" expose is that it butts heads with attempts to get online gambling legalized in the United States. While politicians and the Poker Players Alliance (a million-plus-member organization trying to get it legalized) appeared in Washington this week for a hearing on the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, online poker players expressed deep concern about CBS' intentions for their "60 Minutes" segment, which are clearly to expose vast cheating scandals.

Exposing the Absolute "internal breach" to the masses will hurt not only Absolute Poker but all other online poker rooms, and even more the ones that have had to deal with major scams, such as Full Tilt Poker, Ultimate Bet and PokerStars. And more damaging to the industry as a whole: most viewers will not differentiate one online poker site from another. If it can happen at one Internet poker room, they'll surmise, it can happen at all of them.

Mr. Grimard is still running around free and neither Absolute nor the Kahnawake Gaming Commission have filed a complaint against him. If "60 Minutes" plans to focus its investigation on Grimard, they certainly have the resources to locate him. Another related scandalous incident "60 Minutes" might look into is the rumor that Absolute Poker bigwigs, trying to silence the cheating scandal before it got out, flew two individuals who were especially vocal about the incident to Antigua and supplied them with hookers, booze and other favors that might persuade them not to keep on rambling about the Absolute Poker Scam.

Still another sensitive topic at CBS' disposal is the "bedfellows" relationship between Absolute Poker and the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. Who knows what's going on there? Some industry observers have been vocal in expressing their opinions that it's a "little too cozy" in light of the seemingly small penalty that the Commission imposed on Absolute Poker for its "negligence" in the scandal.

So we will see what effect this has on the US government in terms of legalizing and regulating the online poker industry, now a multi-billion dollar affair.

Neteller Phishing Cheats Online

Online gambling continues to get hit by high-tech cybercrooks as I have been reporting heavily over the past several months. It's been happening in just about every venue connected to online gaming, especially online poker. Sophisticated hackers and run-of-the-mill cheats have been victimizing everything from poker accounts to poker forums. Now the online payment processor Neteller has made an announcement warning its customers about phishing scams, those insidious attacks to hijack your personal info and get your cash. Barry Carter wrote this article in pokernews detailing Neteller's announcement:

Online payment processor Neteller was in the news again last week, this time warning their customers of a 'phishing scam'. Many Neteller customers received an email from 'communications@NETELLER' advising them that the e-processor intended to re-introduce IP tracking from March 31. The email then reads "This is a security measure to ensure the location of your login matches the country of residence registered with your NETELLER account."

It has now transpired that the email was in fact a genuine email, as the security division of Neteller have confirmed to us. Neteller have now assured customers that they will be reviewing their communication policy to ensure all Neteller staff are informed in advance when communications are sent to Neteller members to avoid this confusion in the future.

The email in question that was suggested may be fraudulent requests that customers click on a link to inform them when they are planning an overseas trip, to allow them use of Neteller in that country. If customers do not do this, they will not be able to transfer funds while abroad.

A spokesman from Neteller informed us that:

"NETELLER takes phishing and online fraud very seriously, and employs the latest services and technologies to detect and shut down phishing sites quickly and efficiently. We encourage customers and the general public to continue to submit suspicious emails targeting NETELLER clients to phishing@neteller.com. We investigate all reports of phishing and other criminal activities targeting NETELLER merchant partners and customers and take appropriate action where necessary"