60 Minutes To Report On Absolute Poker / UltimateBet Cheating Scandal

CBS News headliner “60 Minutes” is covering the Absolute Poker and UltimateBet cheating scandal that has been ongoing for months now. The report is scheduled to air on the evening of November 30th at 7pm ET titled, “How Online Gamblers Unmasked Cheaters”.

According to information reportedly confirmed by Poker News Daily, 60 Minutes has undertaken a 4-month investigation into the online poker story with the assistance of Gilbert Gaul, newspaper correspondent for The Washington Post.

A sneak preview for the report was posted by 60 Minutes, offering a glimpse into the interview between correspondent Steve Kroft and online poker player Steve Witteles, better know online as ‘Dan Druff’.

“This ‘Graycat’ person was new and at first he seemed like a live one,” Witteles stated in the video clip. “He seemed terrible. He was raising just really, really bad hands against very good hands. He seemed to play crazy. He seemed like he was giving his money away, except the only thing was, he wasn’t losing.”

Witteles went on to further explain why his encounter with ‘Graycat’ was so remarkably unusual. “He was playing in a style that was sure to lose, but he was killing the game day after day.”

The preview told of ‘Graycat’ winning consistently at 15 standard deviations above average, “which was approximately equivalent to winning a one in a million jackpot six consecutive times.”

The username ‘POTRIPPER’ blew the story wide open in September of 2007 when the player called Marco ‘CrazyMarco’ Johnson in a $1,000 tourney holding only 10-high. It was discovered that user number 363, linked back to Absolute Poker’s headquarters in Costa Rica, was observing ‘POTRIPPER’ at the tables.

Since then, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission began an investigation into the matter as multiple players began pointing the preverbal finger and slinging accusations of cheating throughout the online poker room. The investigation revealed that there was in fact cheating going on, and that it went all the way up to the head levels of both Absolute Poker and UltimateBet management.

The cheating first began around the time that Excapsa, formerowner of both Absolute Poker and UltimateBet, sold its business to Tokwiro Enterprises. Apparaently it was ex-managers of the online poker rooms that maintained access to the site, even after the transition to new ownership. Tokwiro was left to take the fall and subsequently pick up the pieces.

The new owner immediately responded and, upon the results of Kahnawake’s investigation, promptly filed a suit against Excapsa; the result of which lead to a $15 million ruling in favor of Tokwiro, who vowed to use those funds to repay players who had suffered losses from the escapade.

If you haven’t been keeping up with the details of this story thus far and would like to learn more, tune in to 60 Minutes on CBS, November 30th at 7pm ET and watch the segment, “How Online Gamblers Unmasked Cheaters”.

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