MSNBC published a lengthy article on Thursday outlining the history of the cheating scandal that erupted on Ultimate Bet this year. The highlight was word of an $85 million claim filed by Blast-Off Ltd, which MSNBC claims is a private company that has an ownership interest in the online poker room. Publicly, Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker are both owned by Tokwiro Enterprises.
It was filed in Malta and is one of the first known claims to be filed in the matter. Sheldon Krakower is in charge of liquidating Excapsa Software, which “formerly owned and licensed the poker software to Ultimate Bet,” according to the article. He told MSNBC that the $85 million figure “did not directly correlate with the amount believed to have been stolen from Ultimate Bet players.”
Warning signs on Ultimate Bet crept up in January, when members of online poker forums like TwoPlusTwo and PocketFives noticed astronomical returns by certain players on the site, including NioNio. That account, as stated by MSNBC and others who examined the data, experienced a win rate that was 10 standard deviations above the norm. In fact, the article states that NioNio won $300,000 in just 3,000 hands, a rate of $100 per hand. Mathematician Michael Josem said the odds of this happening were less than the chances of winning a one in a million lottery for four consecutive days.
The article then dove into the history of the cheating scandal. Most notably, a company called Excapsa originally developed the software for Ultimate Bet, the same program that was allegedly exploited by former UB owners to be able to see the hole cards of other players. In 2006, UB’s current ownership group, Tokwiro, purchased the site. In 2008, Tokwiro announced the formation of CEREUS, which would merge the player bases of UB and Absolute Poker. That announcement came on July 24th, although the network has not yet officially launched. Absolute Poker experienced a scandal of its own involving a super user account last year.
At the same time that Tokwiro purchased the online poker site, Excapsa sold its gaming software to Blast Off. However, according to MSNBC, “It has never explained how or under what terms it had acquired the site.” Nat Arem, helped unravel the Ultimate Bet mystery by linking the “sleepless” account (which was involved in the scandal) to a home in Las Vegas owned by former UB owner Russ Hamilton. Arem told MSNBC that players may have no recourse if they are not paid: “Who’s going to make them pay? What court is this going to end up in?” Hamilton has not publicly confirmed nor denied his involvement on the advice of his lawyers and canceled a radio appearance on Poker Road.
On July 27th, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, or KGC, appointed former New Jersey gaming regulator Frank Catania to oversee the investigation into the Ultimate Bet scandal. Catania told Poker News Daily in July that he is familiar with the KGC: “I assisted them in writing their online gaming regulations and consulted with the KGC since then.” Catania’s team must verify “that all those involved in the fraudulent activities in any manner, no matter how slight, have been or are removed from the licensee company,” according to a July KGC news release.
A report by CBS news magazine “60 Minutes” concerning the cheating scandals at Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker may air this year, although no date has been announced.