The Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC) recently confirmed that cheating did in fact occur at online poker room UltimateBet. In their 11-page write up of the events, the KGC further implicated that Russ Hamilton, former WSOP Main Event champ, did not act alone.
The KGC named accounts used at UB players to cheat and claimed that Hamilton was, in fact, “the individual who ultimately bears responsibility;” however, he had 31 accomplices, whose names were not mentioned in the report. There was a list though of 117 usernames that were involved in the reported cheating ring.
The report also stated that the KGC has “provided extensive information to law enforcement authorities, including the names of 31 individuals who were associated, to varying degrees, with Russell Hamilton, the cheating accounts and/or transactions related to the cheating accounts.”
The document also states that Tokwiro, owner of Ultimate Bet, refunded at least $22 million to players who were affected by the scandal and also paid out $1.5 million in fines, most of which was paid via player-to-player transfer from the 23 accounts associated with the 117 usernames that were involved.
Dean Montour, KGC chairman, stated in a press release, “Despite the unfortunate circumstances that resulted in this cheating, we are satisfied that the actions taken by the (KGC) provided an equitable result for affected players – our first priority.” He went on to say, “We remain optimistic that this experience and the lessons learned from it will result in a higher standard of gaming regulation for companies licensed and regulated within the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake and elsewhere.”
It has been almost one year exactly since the KGC initially released their findings that were a result of an audit that addresses concerns about collusive activities that happened between May 2004 and January 2008. Earlier in 2008, another one of Tokwiro’s online poker sites, Absolute Poker, was also investigated for cheating activity after it appeared that players were seeing their opponents’ hole cards via a “superuser” account.
Ultimate Bet has a very bad name online in many of the popular poker forums; however, this hasn’t seem to hurt their reputation so bad as to put them out of business. Time will tell.