Great work yet again Josem.

How long do do you think it will be until the Associated Press picks up the story and goes with it?

The KGC put the press release on its homepage too
http://www.kahnawake.com/gamingcommission/kgc092908.pdf

Pretty sure Excapsa Software Inc. and ieLogic were both trading on the London Stock Exchange when they were sold.

Just sayin'.

From that other site...provides a bit more details.

The Kahnawake Gaming Commission, or KGC, released a report today outlining its sanctions levied against UltimateBet regarding the cheating scandal that was revealed earlier this year. In addition to imposing hard dates for its customers to be reimbursed for their losses, the report also names Russ Hamilton (pictured at right) as the main perpetrator. The site, which has paid out $6.1 million to its members so far, is subject to a $1.5 million fine. In addition to Hamilton, it’s expected that other names will become public as being behind the dubious activity. The report is published on the KGC’s website, Kahnawake.com. Let’s review the information revealed by the KGC today.

On July 25th, Tokwiro, which is the parent company of Ultimate Bet, turned the findings of its investigation over to the KGC, which is the organization that licenses and regulates UB and other online poker sites. On Tuesday, preliminary findings were revealed and sanctions were imposed. Among them is the confirmation that Russ Hamilton was the man behind the cheating scandal. The report states, “The Commission found clear and convincing evidence to support the conclusion that between the approximate dates of May 2004 to January 2008, Russell Hamilton, an individual associated with Ultimate Bet’s affiliate program, was the main person responsible for and benefiting from the multiple cheating incidents.”

The KGC states that it has been in contact with law enforcement agencies “and intends to fully cooperate in the prosecution of all individuals involved in the UB cheating incidents.” Frank Catania, who is a former gaming regulator in New Jersey and helped draft the initial regulations of the KGC, commented, “My intention is to provide further information as it is uncovered, although the information already submitted to the KGC relating to Ultimate Bet warrants the KGC taking the actions it has today.”

Whether Hamilton was actually involved in the scandal was not publicly confirmed until today. As posted on PocketFives.com back in July, a home at 1725 Glenview Drive in Las Vegas was linked to the Sleeplesss account, which was one of the screen names involved in the scandal. The name on the account belonged to “Lauren B. Makar,” but the home at that address was owned by Hamilton. Barry Greenstein and Joe Sebok spoke with Hamilton as part of a PokerRoad Radio segment. However, Greenstein was not convinced that Hamilton had been the man responsible.

In addition a variety of sanctions against Ultimate Bet were handed down. First, by November 3rd, Ultimate Bet must, “under the close supervision of the KGC, its employees, and agents, commence refunding all players’ accounts found to have been adversely affected by the cheating of individuals under the control and supervision of the licensee.” The report reveals that Ultimate Bet has refunded about $6.1 million so far.

Also by November 3rd, the online poker site “is to remove any and all persons deemed as ‘unsuitable’ by the KGC from all involvement with the company, which shall include all levels of ownership, management, and operation.” In the meantime, it is required to provide “day to day” operational details to ensure that “the public is being offered fair and honest games.”

Ultimate Bet was assessed a $1.5 million fine, which is due immediately. Moreover, “Ultimate Bet’s failure to comply with these measures will result in the immediate revocation of its KGC gaming permit.” The July report by UB stated that 19 accounts and 88 screen names were associated with the cheating. Hamilton and others involved were able to see the cards that each player at the table held, giving them an unfair advantage.

Tokwiro CEO Paul Leggett commented on that date, “We cannot over-emphasize the fact that Tokwiro and its entire management team had no knowledge of the illicit software until it was revealed by our investigation and no one associated with Tokwiro was involved in the cheating scheme at any point.”

The KGC’s investigation has been led by Catania, a former Assistant Attorney General, Director New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement. In addition, Gaming Associates, an Australian “game testing company,” has been involved. We’ll have more information for you as it unfolds.

Nah, once pure greed takes hold, the majority of cheaters dont even think about being 60/40 and calling down with T9, they just cheat cheat cheat like its their last day on earth - after all, they might log in the next day and the software might not work anymore.

I didn't know Russ knew how to write computer software to read hole cards or how to design and install this un-authorized software on UB servers.

Annie Duke said

Or some quotes from Paul Leggett

Paul also is certain that Joe Norton owns 100% of a dummy, face-corporation for Blast Off.

What's interesting about Blast Off's $75 Million claim against Excapsa is that Blast Off has only named Excapsa in their suit. They haven't gone after ieLogic (who wrote the software) or iovation (which provided the security software). Funny how Blast Off could forget about them...

http://www.iovation.com/

Seems like useful software to have in place during a cheating scandal. Wonder why it didn't work this time?


Of course I'm sure it's also just a coincidence that the $75 Million Blast Off has filed against Excapsa is probably about what Blast Off still owes Excapsa on the initial sale of the business.

Just like I'm sure it's a total coincidence that the only two online poker sites to have superuser scandals have both wound up being owned by Blast Off/Tokwiro and merged into a single network.

It hasn't, Barry. Don't worry about it. Only idiots who can't read would think you have anything to do with Russ Hamilton.

I'm wondering about thise points from the Commission Findings:

5. Ultimate Bet shall immediately pay a fine of $1.5 Million USD to the KGC for its failure to implement and enforce measures to prohibit and detect fraudulent activities.

6. Ultimate Bet's failure to comply fully with these measures will result in the immediate revocation of its KGC gaming permit.

Exactly why would UB comply with this? It's not like they can be shut down if they don't. And 1.5 mil going to KGC?? How does that help the online poker community?

Sure, they may decide to comply for PR purposes, but if they don't, I can't see them losing much more business than they already have.

Why would they not comply?

I fined myself 1.5 million today and paid myself and it was super easy.

I loaned the govt 700 billion today and they paid me back within seconds! They have excellent credit with me!

Barry, you have to at least admit that if Russ didn't do it, he almost certainly knows who did. And very possibly the only way to find out the real culprit is to lean on Russ as hard as possible. If you let someone use your house to commit a crime, but you won't give them up when the cops come around, aren't you just as guilty?

As long as online gaming is unregulated players are a risk.

1. You have no idea where your money is being sent or who is controlling it.

2. If you do have a problem which laws or jurisdictions come into play?

3. Who is auditing or overseeing these sites to determine legitimacy? Are the wolves guarding the henhouse?


I would like to see online gaming legalized in the USA and regulated and audited much in the same way the gaming institutions are in Las Vegas.

We are still in the Wild West days of online poker where anything goes. The UB scandal may be just the tip of the iceberg. Who really knows?

Perhaps if more states legalized poker rooms than online poker would not even be needed by anyone except for those under 21.

Bots and analysis programs maybe a good way to verify whether games are fair. But they take such large sample sizes that random hits are hard to detect.

See the problem with KGC's PR and actions is that they have never revealed anything that wasn't essentially proven here first. Think about it. They have access to all the data. To think we uncovered everything without being able to open the books is basically ridiculous. At every turn only what has been proven by the community has been returned.

After I met with Russ I said it was at least 99% that he knew who cheated. Did you think I have since revised this downward? I'm not sure how you would get that idea.

Now that I look back at my posts, I guess you incorrectly thought the 99% probability applied to the likelihood that I thought Russ was the one doing the cheating before I met with him. Certainly this number has gone up from the less than 50% after the meeting, because we have this new claim from the investigation. Also, I have more incriminating evidence from people who played with Russ online. But I still don't consider it a lock just because we got a report from this investigation.

Many people aren't comfortable with the ones doing the investigating. (If they wouldn't have named Russ, most people would have called the investigation a sham.) If they end up nailing Russ as the only one behind this, I won't trust the investigation, unless they give us what we need: evidence and insiders talking.

Barry

60 MILLION DOLLARS!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW! I just had to say that. My question is what happens now?? Does anyone go to jail? I didn't see that in any of the prior posts. One thing about this wanting online gaming to be regulated does anyone really think that's going to happen? What I mean by that is they don't tax e-commerce on the net, there are thousands of sex offenders on myspace, terrorists making training videos on youtube and teenage girls kidnapping and beating people up and posting it on youtube aswell. Child porn is on the internet aswell. Not to mention all the other nefarious shiznit that happens on the internet on a minute by minute basis. If that stuff is not regulated how is it that online gambling will be regulated. I'm not comparing that stuff to online poker and online gambling. I'm asking if most of the internet is not regulated and most stuff on the internet is not taxed how is it that online gambling will be?

$6 million. The extra zero was an unfortunate misprint.

6 million and not 60 million oh ok. Still alot of money. anyone going to jail?

There's a massive difference between not trusting the KGC to disclose fully the perpetrators of a scam and believing that the KGC would falsely or wrongly implicate a well-known named individual in a massive crime.

Edit: Additionally, there's a perfectly valid reason at this stage for the KGC to disclose the name of Russ Hamilton but not disclose any others. If in fact they are cooperating with law enforcement, law enforcement wouldn't want to alert other people that they are targets of the investigation, whereas Russ already knows he's a target.

Just made /. front page.

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/30/1932217

Josem gets mention in the quoted bit. 2p2 linkage in the referenced article.

Russ Hamilton has committed the perfect crime and will never be prosecuted.

And why does Barry Greenstein waste his time posting here?

I think my 21st post was the best so far, how 'bout you??

You should talk to some old timers about that. (I fit the age profile); don't know myself, but the stories have been there for some time.

It does sadden me, but it does not surprise me.

+1

I'm curious as to what authorities would be involved? The KGC? That seems like the only governing body that has any jurisdiction here.

Would any lawsuits be valid in the U.S?

very sick

I especially like Rand's characterization of online poker as still in the 'Wild West days'. I can forgive ownership anonymity due to the online gaming industry’s business climate, unless blatant thievery is evident.

Through the Absolute and Ultimate Bet scandals, my biggest questions have been…

A) Is stealing from customers an overall company (or owner) strategy? OR
B) Has a faction or separate factions, within the umbrellas that is Ultimate Bet/Absolute Poker, been stealing under the radar from each other or in competition against each other?

Personally, A or B scenarios make sense, but probably not both scenarios together in unison. I imagine the creation of these two companies was a conglomorate of ‘factions’. As the facts of the case continue to be exposed, I am most interested in answering ‘the who’ or ’which faction’, and not the ‘how the theft was executed'. Tracing the money and looking at associations of those involved leads to more investigation and ultimately, more rouges and a bigger understanding.

I have no reason NOT to believe OPTION A is where we are heading. As the investigation stumbles on, mainly on the information provided exclusively here at 2+2, one must ask self. Are we pawns in some way? Are we to believe AP/UB/the KGC exposed ALL instances of company/individuals theft? Are we to believe the total scope of theft was $6,000,000? Is the KGC truly independent? AP/UB, the KGC, Tokwiro, Blast off, E-World Holdings, Excapsa, ieLogic, Iovation Inc. are one in the same IMO.
I feel that the overall effect on the industry as a whole is constructive in the long range. Absolute Poker CHOSE not to be forthcoming in the original scandal, and then UB had a scandal which also included company insiders. Many online players fear the repercussions of AP/UB scandals or 60 Minutes coverage, but I choose to hope exposure eventually stops further scandals within the industry for the betterment of all.