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Absolute Poker Cheating Scam Update - 10-23-07
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Author: Marc Weinberg
October 23 - Let's start by assessing the damage that will be caused by the Absolute Poker cheating scam. It will hurt online poker in the short term but online poker isn't going to disappear in a hurry. It will have a deeper impact on the fortunes of Absolute Poker, which seems fair given the poor way they have handled the situation and the fact that they were breached in the first place, but even this shadowy enterprise will endure.
Absolute Poker is a very big company. It is estimated (by Gambling911, who are hardly infallible when it comes to facts, but this one sounds about right) that Absolute takes in a gross of $1.5 million a day, on the low end. That's around $550 million for those of you phobic of multiplication. There are many investors who stand to lose plenty if AP goes belly-up, and it probably won't happen, although their damage control ability has made matters a lot worse than they needed to be.
At this point it seems clear that one of the co-founders of Absolute Poker, a guy named Scott Tom, originally from Las Vegas, was somehow involved in the scam. Another name has emerged - that of his best friend, A J Green, also known as (a great sign when you have an aka after your "new name") as Allan Grimald, and this guy is looking a lot like the villain of the piece.
Green used to be Grimald, a guy who was accused of an Internet scam or two in the past, before he moved to Costa Rica and became head of operations at Absolute Poker. He then moved on to have the same job at the online sportsbook, Nine.com. Now Nine.com works out of the same building in Costa Rica as Absolute. Between AJ Green and Scott Tom it is hard to think of any other people who had more access to Absolute's software, including that super-user account.
The account, the one that belonged to user #363, could definitely see the hole cards of all the players at any given table. By observing these tables as a silent railbird he was able to pass on info to many dummy accounts, who were all operated by a single guy it would now appear. Both of these accounts could have been manipulated by Green, or perhaps he worked in league with Scott Tom.
The real problem here has been the way Absolute has handled the matter. At first they denied there was a problem, and sent out several official press releases, which now make them look like either liars or fools, and they're certainly not the latter. Then they have continued to stonewall on the issue of going after the people who seem responsible for this internal catastrophe. They have moved very slowly throughout, and their integrity is tarnished, to put it gently.
Now the story has been picked up by the heavy-hitters in the media, with the new york times blogging about it and abcnews.com reporting on it. It isn't going to go away and it will turn a lot of people away from Absolute Poker, assuming that a lot of people read internet news, which isn't exactly a given.
Absolute continues to draw in thousands of players right now who either haven't heard / don't understand / don't care / or don't believe that anywhere from $700,000 to over $1 million was stolen at that poker room by a couple of guys with access to the software on a level that isn't even supposed to exist.
My personal view is that it is wishful thinking if you believe that the same technology does not exist at other online poker rooms. There were test accounts at all of these sites once upon a time, and all it takes is one crook to dredge one of them up and look at your cards. I do, however, also believe that many online poker rooms would take drastic steps to prevent this from ever happening - they simply have better security in place for one thing. Sites like Poker Stars and the Prima Poker network, or any "skin" that is a doorway to a big network should be safe from this kind of cheating.
But what about multi-accounting, collusion at the same table, or simply handing your tournament over to a pro that you happen to know? There are many less sensational forms of online poker cheating that occur every day. At the end of the day you have to accept this as the online poker "vig", the tax you pay in addition to the rake - and the bottom line is this: Do you win at online poker after all the crap is taken into account? If the answer is yes then there is no reason to stop.
One final note: If online poker rooms weren't run out of mickey mouse countries like Costa Rica, but were regulated, taxed, run out of the USA and owned by the general public, instead of expat douche bags then maybe, just maybe, online poker would be a lot safer and less vulnerable to cheating. Just a thought.
Related Poker Articles And News Items:
> Gus Hansen Wins $1.5M In Two Days On Full Tilt - 11-16-07
> Absolute Disaster For Online Poker - 11-09-07
> Pacific Poker Players To Get Sports Betting - 11-06-07
> Barry Greenstein Goes To Bat For Online Poker - 10-31-07
> Absolute Poker Ends Their Denial And Seeks Help - 10-17-07
> Absolute Poker Dealt A Cheating Controversy - 10-15-07
> Party Poker Woos Las Vegas Casinos - 10-10-07
> WCOOP Main Event Scandal Brewing At Poker Stars - 10-06-07
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