In case you are not familiar with the UltimateBet online poker cheating scandal, before I get into the actions that have been taken against UltimateBet, I will give you a brief overview of the ordeal up until this point. Back in July of this year, suspicion surrounding the possibility of cheating on the UltimateBet poker website began to grow. In order to respond to the growing amount of accusations, UltimateBet agreed to complete its own internal investigation. Upon completing this investigation, UltimateBet discovered that there were large player accounts with the UltimateBet website that had an increased advantage over the rest of the website's players. According to UltimateBet, these accounts were linked to individuals who were associated with the previous management, and UltimateBet began the process of giving refunds to players who had been cheated by these accounts.
Once their internal investigation was complete, an investigation of UltimateBet by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission began. Last week, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission announced the findings of their investigation. According to their press release, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission found compelling evidence of insider cheating at UltimateBet. In their release, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission specifically stated that an individual named Russ Hamilton played the primary role in these incidents of cheating. While the release did not say that Russ Hamilton was an employee of UltimateBet, it did state that he was a member of the UltimateBet online affiliate program (if you aren't familiar with the term affiliate program, it is a online marketing tool used by companies where individuals can get paid a commission for every sign-up or sale they generate for a company).
The information provided by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission goes on to state that this cheating took place over the course of nearly four years (May 2004 to the beginning of 2008), and involved dozens of different screen names within the UltimateBet website. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission will now begin working with law enforcement to bring legal action against Hamilton and anyone else directly involved in the cheating that took place at UltimateBet.
In addition to the over six million dollars that UltimateBet has paid back to members who were cheated, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission has also handed out a $1.5 million fine to UltimateBet. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission also indicated that UltimateBet has less than a month (November 3rd) to begin paying out the rest of its refunds to members who were impacted by the cheating.
