One point of interest that I did not post in my blog is that the producer is a poker player. I don't get the feeling that he's super-active online or anything, but he knows the game and has played before.

My statement from my blog:

^^^^^
Glad to see both of u guys posting back to back since u guys are in the know.

On of the things that 60 Minutes does is chase down the key player, put a microphone and camera in his face, and ask direct questions.

It might be worth it to have Alan J. Grimard (AJ Green) and Scott Tom finally answer some questions. Did the Kahnawake Gaming Commission ever ask them anything?

If they do go after A.J. Green and others at Absolute/ UB and then have uncut interviews with Nat, Andanthar, Crazy Marco and maybe some top people from Stars and FT then it might be a good thing. 60 minutes is not as tabloid as most of the other news shows that are out there so it might be a fair story.

I like the comparison of Absolute to Enron.

I imagine they will play it more as a true crime story, i.e. "After the break, meet the company insider who made a fortune cheating unsuspecting online gambling customers!" (Footage of an interviewee saying "The total amount stolen from players exceeded $1 million).

Also, I'd like to say that I'm enjoying this thread b/c I'm imagining AP execs who thought they'd managed to bury this story suddenly ****ting themselves again. I'm not worried about the impact on poker because I play vs Europeans.

Most fishies think that online poker is rigged, so this kinda of publicity will make them believe that maybe sites do get caught if they cheat. Hence, they might think it is actully safer than they orignally thought since AP got caught.

Good post, you make some good points. Maybe I'm not fimiliar enough with the potripper scandal, but how exactly did AP not get away with cheating? They got caught, yes. But what were the consequences? What happened to the cheaters using the account to steal? Nothing, I thought.

Okay- by using that language i guess I meant a generic "were caught".
I would never suggest they necessarily paid a heavy enough price.
When I say "didn't get away with it" what i mean is that people were repaid- and arguably it would have continued had players not taken notice and pursued it relentlessly.

I'm not letting AP the company off the hook at all by saying this- but I think if you go reread parts of Nat's Costa Rica trip report about this we have some reason to believe there were elements within the company taking the cleaning up of it seriously.
That is too little too late in my eyes- but apparently is enough for the people who continue to play there.
I would never promote them as "clean", and simply meant players were largely made whole- even if it was forced and took much effort.

What I find interesting at this point is the timing on the cheating UB accounts, the timing on the merger with AP, and how much of that story we will ever uncover to see how it does or doesn't tie together.

One of the ways to think about the AP story is that the company/investors probably had personal reasons to try to keep the person/people at the core of the cheating from talking.
Add in the questions of just how to go about trying to track down and punish those involved and yes the final result is it maybe didn't cost the company or those who were doing it enough in the long run.

That is probably unfortunate.

It could cause an online poker ban and a drop in WPTE stock price.

Uh, well, yes. You are correct.

Yes, they do.

I seriously doubt it. It hasn't even caused an Absolute Poker ban. The report should make sure to mention that AP is alive and kicking. I don't know of too many online poker players who would hear about the scandal for the first time on 60 minutes. They're not exactly the target audience for the show.

60 MINS UP IN THAT ASS1

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I am very hopeful that the story will be presented in a manner that balances the stars (no pun intended) of online poker with the villians. But I am suprised that no one has mentioned the greatest example of how much power 60 Minutes can have: the Audi "unintended acceleration" case.

In 1985, Audi sold 74,000 cars. After the 60 Minutes report, in the course of which they purposefully rigged an Audi to have the accelerator move of its own accord, Audi sales plummetted to a low of 14,000 for the early 90's. Even though every case against Audi was thrown out of court, and the NHTSA proved that the drivers of the vehicles were at fault, not the cars, 60 Minutes never admitted they were wrong, nor did they apologize.

So if you ever wonder what sort of power 60 Minutes holds, go try and hold down both the gas and brake at the same time on any recent VW, Audi, or Porsche. The gas will cut automatically after 3 seconds, to try to ensure that no 350 lb woman's diabetes-swollen feet manage to drive her through the 7-11 front door accidentally.........

60 minutes is one of the 10 best shows on TV imho. People not into it probably don't care too much about current events. Which is fine, nobody is forced to care.

Imho the US market is already so weak now for online poker, I doubt the effects of 60 minutes episode will be that bad. Your average kid isn't going to see it. In the end expanding into Asia and Europe is where all the serious potential for online poker is. I think it'll stay healthy.

I don't see this making the poker economy any worse. Lets not forget how the UIEGA came to being in the first place. It was Frist and a few others who had a personal vendetta out to put an end to online poker. They were unable to pass a bill on its own "merit", but he was the senate majority leader with alot of power in the backrooms. So he tried to attach the bill to some appropriations bill coming out of the Senate Armed Services committee, but that was blocked. But he was able to slip it into the Port Security Act using some backroom deal making with that senate committee. And so we all suffered a huge bad beat and there was alot of backlash over it. My point is there isn't the political climate to pass UIEGA type bills to a full vote, its too unpopular, same as 18 months ago.

And a negative 60 minutes piece isn't going to increase the odds of a First style coup against poker. As for this piece dissuading a fish who was going to play but now changes his mind, this is minimal.

I am upbeat about the future profit potential from online poker. If someone wants to play, they can play. And people will always wanna play cause the game rocks. I talked to a local "pro" at Greektown casino in Detroit (while waiting over an hour to be seated, this game is not dying people) who has played live 1/2NL fulltime for 6 months making ends meet and he told me he never raises AK preflop cause "its my unlucky hand". Oh and he said he was gonna go "make money online pretty soon too". Tough times indeed....

This is the equivilant of putting your opponent on a hand you beat, then calling.

Right-o. I think Russ claimed a producer talked to him. Russ being Russ, he immediately started blowing every horn in sight about it. Of course, it never went anywhere. Here, though, the Absolute story seems to me to be much more sensational and verifiable, which suggests to me it's more likely to happen. How much, of course, I have no idea.

this sounds like really dumb bad news for poker

That's because Russ is a drug-****ed nutcase.

That's why they're fishies. No one ever said the average player's thought processes were sound.