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60 Minutes Story on Online Poker to Air Sunday

By Dan | Published Nov 26 2008, 12:01 PM

Rumors have been swirling around the online poker industry as to when a report by CBS News program “60 Minutes” about the recent cheating scandals on Absolute Poker and UltimateBet would air. On Tuesday, we received our answer. The story, which is actually a joint production by 60 Minutes and the Washington Post newspaper, will air this Sunday, November 30th, at 7:00pm ET. The report is dubbed “How Online Gamblers Unmasked Cheaters” and is one of three features that will air on 60 Minutes this weekend. Also scheduled to be a part of the show are news clips about Silver Star winner Monica Brown as well as U.S. Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps.

A video posted on CBS’ website shows Todd “Dan Druff” Witteles commenting on his encounter with GRAYCAT, one of the super user accounts involved in the Absolute Poker scandal. He told 60 Minutes reporter Steve Kroft (pictured above), “He was raising really, really bad hands against very good hands. He seemed to play crazy. It seemed like he was giving his money away, except the only thing was, he wasn’t losing.”

PocketFiver Michael PokerStarsMichaelJ Josem, who identifies himself as a “Game Security Specialist” in his profile on the site, is also featured in the video. He explained to 60 Minutes reporters, “We did the mathematical analysis to find that they were winning at about 15 standard deviations above the mean, which is approximately equivalent to winning a one in a million jackpot six consecutive times.”

In January, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC), which licenses Absolute Poker, its sister site Ultimate Bet, as well as a number of other online poker rooms, issued its final decision regarding Absolute’s cheating scandal. In its report, it stated that for a period of six weeks beginning in Mid-August of 2007, the accounts GRAYCAT, PAYUP, STEAMROLLER, POTRIPPER, XXCASHMONEYXX, SUPERCARDM55, DOUBLEDRAG, RONFALDOXXB, and ROMNALDO played with the ability to see the hole cards of other players at the table.

The KGC added, “There is no evidence to indicate that the impugned activities were initiated or sanctioned by AP as a corporate entity. There is no evidence that the impugned activities benefited, or were intended to benefit, AP as a corporate entity.” Absolute Poker was fined $500,000 by the KGC and also posted a security deposit in the event of a future breach of Commission rules.

UltimateBet’s parent company, Tokwiro, recently received a $15 million settlement from former site owners Excapsa to pay back customers that were wronged by the actions of Russ Hamilton and other accomplices in the scandal on that site. Hamilton and company exploited an auditing tool that exposed the hole cards of all players seated at a table. The cheating on Ultimate Bet occurred between May of 2004 and January of 2008. An Ultimate Bet table is seen in the video posted on 60 Minutes’ website. In addition, an accompanying story mentions the online poker room by name. Tokwiro also owns and operates Absolute Poker as well as the new online poker network CEREUS.

In a statement by the KGC summing up its findings in the UltimateBet investigation, the organization gave the online poker room until November 3rd to “remove any and all persons deemed ‘unsuitable’ by the KGC from all involvement with the company, which shall include all levels of ownership, management, and operation.”

Frank Catania, who has been leading an independent investigation for the KGC, told PocketFives.com what he believes the fallout from the 60 Minutes investigation will be: “I don’t think there will be that much fallout. What's happened is that the KGC has made sure that all of the players have been reimbursed. No one lost any money here.” Catania added that poker players who notice anomalies like what occurred on Absolute Poker and UltimateBet should speak up, as much of the information learned about the two scandals ultimately played out on online poker forums.

The teaser video also shows play from the World Series of Poker. Representatives from the CBS News program traveled to the Rio in Las Vegas and spoke to executives from Harrah’s as well as a number of poker pros. Which interviews made the final cut into Sunday’s segment are unknown.

* Image of Steve Kroft courtesy of 60 Minutes


Comments
mooknam 

mooknam said:

insert UB hate below

November 26, 2008 12:44 PM
DOMINATO 

DOMINATO said:

THIS IS WHY I DON'T TRUST FOREIGN POKER SITES.  ITS ALL A JOKE AND A HOAX.  NOT ONLY IS ONLINE POKER A SUBSTITUTE FOR WARCRAFT, IT DOES NOT COMMIT ANYTHING TO THE UNITED STATES GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT.  WAKE UP PEOPLE, THE ONLINE SCAM ARTISTS INCLUDING FULL TILT, BODOG, AND POKERSTARS, ARE ALL SUCKING THE MONEY OUT OF THE UNITED STATES. ARE THESE CO## S&*KE@Z PAYING TAXES??????  I KNOW I HAVE BEEN CHEATED PLENTY OF TIMES.  HOW DOES A GUY IN A 50, 100 LIMIT CASH GAME KNOW TO CALL ME WITH 66 HI ON A FLOP OF aqk THEN RAISE ME ON THE TURN 9 AND HIT A 6 ON THE RIVER?????  ELABORATE, I WANNA HEAR A NERDY SCOTT MONTGOMERY THEORIZATION OF THAT.  ONCE AGAIN, WAKE UP!!!!!!

November 26, 2008 12:55 PM
just-jOHnny 

just-jOHnny said:

Holy lurker batman!

November 26, 2008 1:42 PM
kice32 

kice32 said:

you forgot to put your tin foil hat on dominato

November 26, 2008 2:07 PM
bwill419 

bwill419 said:

bad play happens, its poker...dominato you my friend are just ranting about something you are uneducated on.

And if you think poker is a scam and are playing 50/100 limit holdem then you my friend are the "CO## S&*KE@Z" as your so eloquently put it

November 26, 2008 2:11 PM
MeJahAndOmaha 

MeJahAndOmaha said:

lolz, cereally, first time ever facing a bluff gone right?  happened to me once or twice

November 26, 2008 2:12 PM
The_Enigma 

The_Enigma said:

DOM has been savin that one up for awhile...says the guy who played a tourny on the 23rd. I bet he has that bumper sticker "Out of a job yet? Keep buying foreign!" and drives a Toyota. BTW they call you down to the river because they know you are a snapcase and just want to see a response like the one we just witnessed.

November 26, 2008 2:16 PM
fish 

fish said:

DONKINATO

November 26, 2008 2:25 PM
scf187 

scf187 said:

Andy Rooney is kewl

November 26, 2008 3:36 PM
sirswish6 

sirswish6 said:

makes me sick that someone who won the pstasr 70k thinks like that

November 26, 2008 4:50 PM
downbylaw11 

downbylaw11 said:

on the bright side, the title of the story is sort of flattering to the people who did the investigative work, as opposed to a title that hates on online poker

November 26, 2008 4:56 PM
dgillis 

dgillis said:

ok two things. first, if your convinced that online poker is not legit STOP PLAYING otherwise keep your comments to yourself. second, if it is true that the poker sites are "sucking money" out of the United States its because our government is letting them.  Refocus some of your ranting  toward its regulation in the US. Maybe you should try fixing the problem instead of just complaining about it. And a third thing, your reference towards warcraft? seriously? this means a lot to some of us and if the best you argument you can come up with is its effect on your warcraft game... wow just stop. I just cant believe your a p5'er and would say that...

November 26, 2008 5:29 PM
wonglondo 

wonglondo said:

I wonder if this was delayed because Tokwire wanted to make sure CEREUS is out before it airs. I'll be pissed if someone from the company actually get a spot to promote how safe the new site is and yada yada

November 26, 2008 5:37 PM
dgillis 

dgillis said:

^^ that actually crossed my mind as well wong, but I think its more likely that cereus found out when this was coming out and rushed the launch date, this might be why the launch seemed to have so many bugs...

November 26, 2008 6:21 PM
BLR23 

BLR23 said:

I wonder if something like the cheating of multiple accounts, or the win of th Sunday Major Tournaments happen again, what's the excuse gonna be???

November 26, 2008 9:19 PM
Stupor_Mundi 

Stupor_Mundi said:

F UB, F AP and F the KGC.  What a bunch of self-covering ass clowns.  Anyone who plays on CEREUS is going to get exactly what they ask for.

November 27, 2008 1:20 PM
xX22Xx 

xX22Xx said:

Anyone else already having huge problems with the new UB? I was in a $30 rebuy 15k guarantee Wednesday night, had $123 dollars invested in it, then got disconnected after the first hour. So, I reconnect, log in, and it never would take me back to my seat, even though I can see the thing running and watch it in the tournament lobby. I even spoke online to the UB tech support team while all this was going on, so nothing was wrong with my internet connection. Now UB doesn't want to give me a refund, suddenly after 4 years of playing on the site, both my laptop and PC are no longer good enough to play there. WTF UB, areyou guys cereous??? Sounds like a joke to me...

November 29, 2008 5:48 PM
thehairlip 

thehairlip said:

just watched the show and I thincan see the whoe cards buncha cheats. I knew it wsnt my fault!

November 30, 2008 5:04 PM
thehairlip 

thehairlip said:

I QUIT!!

November 30, 2008 5:07 PM

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