UltimateBet Attempts to Resolve Cheating Scandal

After months of uncertainty and lack of communication, UltimateBet finally attempted to resolve the recent heating scandal just before the start of the 2008 World Series of Poker. Allegations were brought to the attention of the online poker site in January of 2008; UltimateBet publicly acknowledged them in March, and the official statement about the scandal's resolution was released on May 29-likely in response to an outcry from players and forum posters regarding UB's seeming lack of concern about this issue.

The long-awaited statement let it be known that the investigation, which was initiated by reports of unfair play by "NioNio," a suspicious account tied to others that had "superuser" tendencies, was complete. Tokwiro Enterprises, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, and Gaming Associates completed a review and the findings were as follows:

A number of player accounts did have an unfair advantage at the high-stakes online poker tables, and those players worked for the previous owners of UltimateBet prior to the purchase of the site by Tokwiro in October of 2006. They used an unauthorized software code to gain access to other players' hole cards during live play between March 7, 2006 and December 3, 2007, and said code had been removed upon its identification in February of 2008.

Six player accounts were manipulated to use multiple names, including NioNio, Sleepless, NoPaddles, nvtease, flatbroke33, ilike2win, UtakeIt2, FlipFlop2, erick456, WhackMe44, RockStarLA, stones2nite, monizzle, FireNTexas, HeadKase01, Lets Patttty, NYMobser, and WhoWhereWhen. Those accounts were removed, as was the security defect in UltimateBet's software, and Tokwiro claimed to be pursuing its legal options with regards to the incident and its perpetrators.

To keep the situation from recurring in the future, UltimateBet stated that it was establishing a state-of-the-art software security center that consolidates and greatly enhances existing security capabilities. Gaming mathematicians, poker professionals, and ecurity software developers have all contributed to the specifications
of the new security center. In addition, players will no longer be allowed to change account names unless receiving special permission from the Chief Compliance Officer, and then, only in cases of chat room abuse. A new specialized poker security team will also be on board to focus on fraud prevention.

The UB statement noted that affected players would be contacted and a refunding process would begin immediately to reimburse anyone who had been cheated as a result of unfair play. UB added, "We would like to thank our customers for their patience, loyalty and support, as well as for their understanding that we are doing everything we can to correct this situation. The staff and management of UltimateBet are fully committed to providing a safe and secure environment for our players, and we want to assure customers of our unwavering resolve to monitor site security with every resource at our disposal."

Although this would seem to be the end of it, at least in the eyes of UltimateBet, many players have been hesitant to return to the site. While the investigation did seem comprehensive, the entirety of the process made many uneasy. And it may have been wise to keep a distance from UB. It turned out that the auditors and security personnel were not as thorough as touted, because UB released a mini-statement on the "news" section of its site on June 5, noting that additional accounts may have been involved in the unfair play.

"We are confident that we have uncovered the majority of the usernames involved in the fraud and processed the corresponding refunds," the statement noted. The new investigation was said to be concluded by June 30, and at press time for this article on the 30th, no statement was forthcoming. Stay tuned....

Jennifer Newell is a compulsive writer. In addition to Poker Player Newspaper, she writes for numerous publications and blogs at Pokerati.com as California Jen. In her little bit of spare time, she plays poker, too. Contact her at jen3351@msn.com.