Online Poker Players should watch 60 min tonight

[RayFinkel]

CBS at 7:00

THE CHEATERS - 60 MINUTES and The Washington Post reveal how online poker players suspecting cheating were forced to successfully ferret out the cheaters themselves. That's because managers of the mostly-unregulated $18 billion Internet gambling industry failed to respond to their complaints. Steve Kroft and The Washington Post's Gilbert Gaul report. Ira Rosen is the producer.

Should be interesting.

 

[Radio_Shack]

Not any online site for any type of gambling can be trusted.. being a programmer I know how easy it is to include code in the games to do what ever I want at any time. Thats why I only play live poker.

 

[Esco!]

Thats why I only play live poker.

Even that can (and often is) easily fixed

 

[Radio_Shack]

Even that can (and often is) easily fixed

Please elaborate. I don't play in casino's and I know who I am playing usually. Also I win often so I am sure there is no hokey pokey. Perhaps where the stakes are high and mob is involved live is not safe.

 

[Esco!]

Please elaborate. I don't play in casino's and I know who I am playing usually. Also I win often so I am sure there is no hokey pokey. Perhaps where the stakes are high and mob is involved live is not safe.

Read a book called "The Fix" by Declan Hill.
Its not about casinos but goes into detail who runs gambling around the world and how much match-fixing goes on in soccer and other sports.

Link: http://www.amazon.ca/Fix-Soccer-Organized-Crime/dp/0771041381

I heard a long time ago that some casinos in Vegas fix their tables and slotmachines.
Maybe not always but they can do it occassionally and get away with it

Do I know this for sure to be true, no I dont.
But I find it hard to accept that gambling industry is krispy clean, and would never do something like that.
Sorry, but I'm not that naive

 

[golfdude]

a link to the story

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/11/25/60minutes/main4633254.shtml?source=mostpop_story

 

[Hurricane Hank]

Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet were named. Had a "we're not Canadian, we're Indians" connection as well.

 

[Ross Eyerie]

Here's the actual 60 Minutes video.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4639069n

 

[Ross Eyerie]

Yeah aaaand after watching that video... I'll stick to brick and mortar texas hold em games...

 

[tboy]

One of the things you have to remember about casinos: they don't have to fix the game, the odds are so much in their favour that it'd be redundant to risk it.

After watching the video (of the tribal cheif/elder) where he said "he wasn't Canadian, he was Mohawk" I started thinking, ok, so where do you get the energy to power your servers? How does the signal get to those servers? I bet it comes from a Canadian source and the lines cross Canadian soil. If that is the case then there IS something to be done about it.

As for online gambling, like drugs, I think it should be legalized. Hell, this is a free country, if someone wants to ruin their lives by partaking, then more power to them! At least if both were legal the money would be kept in the country as opposed to going offshore or in those two sites cases, to some independant nation.

We're not talking peanuts here, they said $20 million US. That's a lot of coin. We've heard of brokers etc who have gone to jail for taking a heck of a lot less than that.

I think it's time the authorities stepped in, not to stop it, but to force them (the operators) to take action against those that did hack into the system.

BTW Ray: your little bug gif got me good. I said wtf is that and tried to squish it against my monitor lol.....

 

[gar]

It makes no difference whether live or online. Cheaters won't change. Russ Hamilton the World Series Champion who had the superuser account on UltimateBet was caught cheating in live tournments. He is banned from some casinos.

One area where online poker is better than live poker is detecting collusion between players. Hand histories can be examined and holes cards can be seen so if 2 people are working together, it's easy to catch. But in live poker, it's hard to catch collusion because you aren't allowed to see a player's cards unless they call the final bet. You may suspect collusion but there is no hard evidence.

 

[tboy]

lol while they may be able to detect, according to the 60 minutes expose they a) don't bother following it up b) look for it and c) once discovered, don't really do anything about it.

So, sure, it is remotely possible to catch them but BFD......

 

[gar]

Absolute and Utlimate bet are fringe players in the online poker world. The bigger sites Pokers Stars and Full Tilt have higher standards. It's too lucrative for them to have a hint of scandal.
Anybody who has followed any of the major poker discussion boards (pocket5s, or 2 plus 2) will know about players who cheated.

For example, you are allowed to have only one account.
Zee Justin lost all his money over 100K for having multiple accounts.
Neverwin played on friends accounts to shield his identity, had his account frozen. Anybody who let Neverwin use their account or transferred any money to him, either had their funds seized or frozen.

The big poker sites have people monitoring the discussion boards. If there is a complaint of collusion or chip dumping. It's investigated. You'll see threads about members receiving credits to their accounts because they were victims of collusion.

Collusion happens in live games, it's harder to catch. Men the Master Ngyen and his gang have been colluding for years on the tournment circuit. He has his croonies dump their chips to him. Everybody knows whats happening but you can't prove it.