The Ultimate Bet cheating scandal - four lies (and then some) don't make a truth

Anyone who follows the news in the online poker world will surely be aware of the ongoing scandal involving Ultimate Bet ("UB") and several alleged (and as of today confirmed) 'superuser' accounts - essentially accounts that can see other users holecards.

Well, today, UB put out an official press release. For anyone who's been following the saga, it's a highly questionable read.

Firstly, the amount of time it has taken for an official release to be made is absurdly long. The scandal originally broke at the turn of the year, and we are now almost six months on. Seeing as PokerStars, Full Tilt and I'm assuming even UB are able to conduct and conclude investigations into credit card fraudsters, chipdumpers and colluders within a few weeks, it seems bizarre that their investigation should have taken so long. Obviously I'm all for a thorough investigation, but does anything in UB's press release indicate that their investigations have been so thorough as to have taken six months? Their press release can essentially be summarised into, "these accounts cheated - it was nothing to do with us - have a nice day". Six months for that?

Secondly, this is not the only 'superuser' scandal to erupt in recent times. Absolute Poker ("AP") has also had a scandal of its own, the exploits of one 'POTRIPPER' and associates. Guess what? The same company and the same man, one Joe Norton of Tokwiro Enterprises owns both sites. But there's nothing suspicious about that because the AP superuser was a disgruntled employee trying to prove a point and the UB superuser was an employee of UB's previous owner. Neither had anything at all to do with Tokwiro, of course!

Thirdly, why have no actual names of the alleged criminals in the UB case been provided in the release? Why is there no mention of any forthcoming legal action? Why was no legal action apparently taken in the AP case? UB is suitably vague in its press release - stating that the culprits were related to UB's 'previous owners' and providing account names but not providing any names of people. Wouldn't be that they're fearful of the inevitable counter-lawsuit, would it?

Fourthly, 'the software code that enabled unfair play was removed from UltimateBet servers in February of 2008'. Right. This is a sign of really wonderful management! In light of the AP scandal, UB still, for months after everything related to AP had come out into the open, had 'software code that enabled unfair play'? Now I'm no businessman, but given the AP situation shouldn't UB's (and indeed every poker site's) prerogative be to remove these backdoors which could be used to facilitate cheating?

Not only that but the press release states that 'The investigation confirms that the fraudulent activity took place from March 7, 2006 to December 3, 2007'. That's twenty-one months! Are we really to believe that UB's management and investigations team didn't once in twenty-one months notice anything suspicious regarding these high-stakes playing accounts with abnormal winrates? At best they are utterly incompetent, at worst they are fraudsters.

The press release is a step forward in one sense - people who were cheated are being refunded. However, the release by no means represents a satisfactory solution to the issue, as it is clear that at best details are being held back, and at worst UB are still lying through their teeth.

I also find it amusing that online pro Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy signed up as a UB pro last weekend, apparently pending a satisfactory resolution the the cheating scandal. Why he didn't wait until a satisfactory resolution had been reached before signing up for anything one doesn't know (although as is inevitable the main motivating factor was most likely money), and I will be somewhat morbidly amused if he becomes UB's puppet in this scenario by trotting out to poker forums and stating how wonderful UB and their press release are and how they're dedicated to "moving forward" ("moving forward" appears to be some kind of catchphrase among the UB pros and representatives at the moment - I think UB have cancelled their usual pro and rep-paying policies and are now paying them per use of the phrase "moving forward"). From what I've heard he is apparently an astute businessman, but his decision to represent UB would suggest otherwise.

In the real world, gross fraudsters don't get the opportunity to move forward until they've served some jail time. It seems in the online world, this doesn't apply. If I mug an old lady in the street, when I get caught by the police I don't expect to be able to hand back her purse and say "No hard feelings dear - I'll be off now"! IF UB's upper management and/or owners did perpetrate this scandal they're essentially freerolling - get caught and they just say "oops we're sorry it wasn't our fault honest guv" and give the money back while suffering no consequences - don't get caught and they're laughing all the way to the bank.

While unlike some on several poker forums I am happy to let you make your own decisions, I would suggest that if you have any sense you avoid AP and UB like the plague.

'Till next time!