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Absolute poker was one tip of ice berg, but largest scam revealed may be the Ultimate Bet scam.
Online gamblers recorded very unusuall winning against odds at Ultimate bet and managed getting investigation by Kahnawake commission, which revealed 20 million USD fraud which was going on for 4 years and was indicated to have been managed by Russ Hamilton a former 1994 champion at the World Series of Poker. There appear to be no legal consequences and the poker site is running.
Apparently the mohawk reservation is running really untouchtable business beyond Canadian law
This was reveiwed by major TV channel and news paper, here is the link and
some quotes
Read all posts by CBS Interactive staff in Digital Media
November 30, 2008 11:05 PM PST
'60 Minutes' report: How online gamblers unmasked cheaters
news.cnet com/60-minutes-report-how-online-gamblers-unmasked-cheaters/
Posted by CBS Interactive staff
other high stakes players began to notice improbable and endless winning streaks on Absolute Poker's sister site, "Ultimate Bet."
David Paredes, a Harvard grad who has made enough money playing poker to pay off his law school loan and live in an expensive New York apartment, got fleeced by a player called "Nio Nio."
Asked how much he lost, Paredes tells Kroft, "I'm probably down somewhere in the range of $70,000 to that particular player."
Paredes says there were other players who lost higher sums. "In the range of $250,000, $90,000, $70,000, $210,000."
Tracking old hands via software Serge Ravitch, another lawyer-turned-poker pro, began using a software program called "Poker Tracker" to review thousands of old hands.
"What I saw did not make any sense," he remembers. "This account was simply winning too much money for the type of game that he was playing. And he was doing it by never having the worst hand. When the other person was bluffing, he would always go all in. When the other person had some kind of made hand, he would always fold."
Ravitch says it was like he knew what everybody's cards were.
"If you can see everybody's cards in poker, you could be the worst poker player in the world, up against the best poker player in the world, and you're gonna beat him just about every time," Witteles says
Catania found that the scam at Ultimate Bet went on for four years, and says the mastermind appears to have been a former giant in the world of poker.
No charges filed
Asked if he knows who did the cheating, Catania says, "Well, the one name has already been released by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. That's a fellow by the name of Russ Hamilton."
Hamilton is a former champion at the World Series of Poker.
In 1994, Russ Hamilton won $1 million and his weight in silver for winning the main event at the World Series of Poker.
According to the gaming commission, Hamilton and five unnamed conspirators used multiple screen names and accounts to cheat online players out of more than $20 million. And so far they seem to be getting away with it. Because of jurisdictional issues, no criminal charges have been filed, and no one even seems to be conducting a criminal investigation.
"We're willing to work in collaboration with anyone who wants to bring these people to justice," Delisle says.
"In this case, you have somebody who you know was cheating. It's like the person's gotten away with it," Kroft says.
"I believe that anyone else, named or not, will be brought to justice," Delisle says. "If they can be found. That's really the defining factor."
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