Ever since the scandal erupted at Ultimate Bet, the site has been quick to take action. On May 29th, the company issued a statement regarding the findings of its investigation, which had been ongoing since UB was made aware of the abnormalities in January of several of its user accounts. In response, UB issued a statement last week outlining other screen names that were involved in the scandal, which rocked UB and caused many to question its security measures. The list of newly-named user accounts follows: Crackcorn55, WhakMe, GrabBag123, gravitation, Bgroup, H_Curtis, Twenty 1, WacoManiac, Broke_In_L_A, ShaqTack, BlueBerry101, HolyMucker, 55WasHere, Xnomas, dannyboy55, Indy05, and SlimPikins2. It’s the latest news in the scandal, which is currently still being investigated by UB’s parent company, Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG.
UB also just revealed that the cheating scandal began much earlier than was previously reported. The statement claims, “We can now confirm that the cheating began in January 2005, long before Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG acquired Ultimate Bet from the previous ownership.” The online poker site, which accepts U.S. members, has started issuing refunds to customers that were wronged by the fraudulent accounts. Besides the new user names given, other ones that have been released include NioNio, Sleepless, NoPaddles, nvtease, flatbroke33, ilike2win, UtakeIt2, FlipFlop2, erick456, WhackMe44, RockStarLA, stoned2nite, monizzle, FireNTexas, HeadKase01, LetsPatttty, NYMobser, and WhoWhereWhen.
The accusations of cheating originally emerged in January. The account NioNio experienced astronomically high returns while playing, well beyond what any seasoned online poker pro (or even an extremely lucky player) could hope to achieve. In response, Ultimate Bet notified its regulatory agency, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, that it was going to investigate. In February, UB’s findings showed that the accounts in question belonged to the former owners of Ultimate Bet, who were bought out in 2006.
The former owners of UB did not have access to a “super account,” as was the case with the Absolute Poker scandal. Rather, the cheaters used a program that displayed the hole cards of each and every player in the hand. The UB press release states that this “was part of a legacy auditing system that was manipulated by the perpetrators of the fraud.” The original statement in May speculated that the illegal activity occurred between March, 2006 and December, 2007. Five months ago, the auditing program was permanently deleted and several new security measures were put in place.
In response to its investigation, Ultimate Bet no longer allows user accounts to change names unless due to extraordinary circumstances, including verbal abuse in chat. The individuals in question are no longer permitted to play on Ultimate Bet and refunds have been issued. The site may also pursue legal action, according to the latest statement: “We are compiling all of the information we have gathered in regard to the perpetrators and their activities, for possible use in any legal action.”
Eleven-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth and poker pro Annie Duke serve as the public faces of Ultimate Bet. The site has also signed Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy and James “P0KERPR033” Campbell to be members of its Star Players team. UB hosts a weekly $200,000 Guarantee tournament that runs every single Sunday and is quite popular due to its frequent overlays. On July 19th, UB will be hosting a 50-Seat Aruba Poker Classic Guarantee. Formerly a stop on the World Poker Tour, the Aruba Poker Classic is the site’s staple poker tournament. The $530 buy-in tournament kicks off at 5:30pm ET.