Wow is right, hang in there

you havent really thought that through have you ... ship the screen to three fifty Chinese players and route the money through whatver you want .. this looks like a pro gang, they knwo what they were doing and surely knew how theyd use the info and get the cash later .. even if only for a short time... a few session of hi stakes (blamed on variance) and they get the first 350K out .. the second and third, granted are harder.

People out there have the names of those involved, it's not for me to start the ball rolling, I don't know enough.

It's kind of crazy to me that not more people are talking about a possible team including well know winning HS players. Makes sense as one of the easiest way to drain accounts the of other HS players without them realising.

This HAS happened before, and it's possible it's being going on since and before the first reported cases. Absolute pokers 'potripper' showed anyone interested what not to do to get caught, simple really, until someone got sloppy and Jeans was awake enough to realise something wasn't right.

I just wonder how deep this could go.

How much would it cost to develop a trojan capable of allowing you to view hole cards?

How easy is it to infect a laptop/pc with this type of trojan?

If the answer is cheap and quick, then I doubt it's only high stakes players that should be concerned!!

When's PS gonna b done with their investigation or did I miss that somewhere in here?

I think Spain is just too hurt economically to host people with money, even Barcelona.

I suggest that everyone who got an e-mail from PS requesting participation in the EPT Barcelona survey to point this story out to them as very worrisome.

I would also like everyone to point out that 4 EUROS FOR TWO BANANAS is a ****ing joke.

I have not read the whole thread, so the point I am going to make might be mentioned already (if it's a point at all

I came to Barcelona this month during the EPT to play the Estrellas main event. I didn't stay at the Arts Hotel, but chose another smaller hotel close to Barceloneta beach, which is nearby. When I came to the Casino Barcelona to register for the event, the girl at the casino front desk took my details because this was my first time in this casino. She then asked me where I was staying at Barcelona. I told her the name of my hotel and she seemed to write it down somewhere. Now, I am not a hugely experienced live player who travels the world playing poker, but in my short experience this is the only instance where the casino personnel asked me in which hotel I was staying. Does this sound strange to anyone, and do you think this might be a way of someone gathering information for this whole laptop scheme?

it's no point, casinos do that sometimes.. + the casino is unaffiliated w/ the hotel afaik

What makes you say this?

This

Completely OT, but what's your avatar from? I've been laughing at it for the last 5 minutes.

Sounds more like a medieval way of gathering data about your competition...

could we get cliffs of the development of the story on the OP?

hard to keep track

was it ever asked by the hotel if those keys are linked to the visitor? an another interesting thing would be to see all history of the key name (3EDC24), and see if the key has been in use by staff personel

Given that the hotel passes out keys without IDs it is doubtful that there is a record kept of who gets them. If there is, it probably just shows the registered occupant.

Sorry, but I does not understand(include) why Spain cannot receive customers with some money(silver), it is stupid, millions of tourists it produce in this country without making it assault nor steal computers.

Really bad/scary situation hope it gets resolved. Only read about half and I find it odd no one really mentions that a criminal was breaking and entering the hotel room and could have easily been there when the person was there and a physical confrontation could have ensued. The criminal probably also knew if he returns the laptop the situation would not seem as serious. As a long time live player I have had some shady situations but nothing as scary as this.

Some constructive suggestions for Stars:

Investigation
(1) Pay for a decent IT security company to inspect the laptop of any player who stayed at Arts for the EPT and wants it checked.
(2) Send a proper warning/explanation to all the EPT players (some don't read 2+2)
(3) Press hotel for further info, notably for any player who reports anything funny on their laptop:
(a) telephone logs for their entire stay
(b) room access logs for their entire stay
(c) camera footage for any significant periods of time that those may point to
(4) If hotel doesn't agree to (3) then finance a local lawyer to act on behalf of affected players to pressure hotel/pursue with law enforcement/advise on rights etc
(5) If legally doable, post a picture of the individual that has already been recorded on the hotel camera in one case

Future EPTs
(1) Instruct hotel not to give out replacement keys without ID (or, if not available, a hotel employee must accompany to the room)
(2) Circulate warnings/security suggestions in to all registering players

General
(1) Post more updates, people want to know
(2) Add some laptop security devices/software (to extent not already there) to the VIP store

I would suggest do not host any more EPT tournaments in Barcelona. There is alot another places for it. Without all this stuff

Barcelona is really nice. Casino is ok. One of my favorite locations for poker on the world. Just Hotel Arts Barcelona is a piece of ****.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c14c2gCI96U

I stayed at the arts for 7 days and every time I got a new key I had to provide my id.

Although even if they did check ids. It would be extremely easy to use a fake ID to get a new key. These high stakes players all have their real names out there. The receptionists see tons of people every day / don't remember most faces etc

+1

My cliffs would be way too biased since my working theory is different from other theories posted ITT. But I think reading Jeans' posts gives you a good overview of what happened and shouldn't take too long.

Here's a link