CasinoGaming.com


	Sundays: Inside Gaming Tuesdays: Video Poker Wednesdays: Off the Shelf Fridays: Richard Eng, Player's Edge Saturdays: Pocket Aces

POCKET ACES

Columns

• Back to Maryann's index

• Back to columnists' index

Maryann Guberman has been a writer and editor with many gaming publications, including Sports Form, Card Player, Poker World, Player's Panorama and Systems and Methods. She also has written and edited numerous books on gambling.

Dec 13, 2008

Look for More Names in the Online Cheating Scandal

Now the world knows what I've been writing about for the last three or four years. Poker players cheat online.

The recent televised expose on 60 Minutes a few weeks ago opened a lot of eyes (certainly more than this column can reach), and in the process churned up some details about online cheating that were almost old news to the subculture we know as the poker community.

Let's go back in history for some repetition of some items I wrote about one or twice or maybe in the past. This will set the stage for what I believe will be even more devastating news about the Absolute and Ultimate Bet cheating scams.

My first comments about online poker concerned the use of multiple accounts, instant messaging and cell phone calls between individuals that could be employed easily to scam some innocents out of cash. Shortly after, I learned from a young man that he and his friend, neither of whom had ever played a hand of poker, signed up with an online casino (this back in the day when Neteller still did business) and jumped into the same sit-n-go tournament. They used their cell phones to partner up and cheat. They finished first and second and split the prize money.

My next commentsÑand fodder for another column--were a discussion with someone for whom I have much respect. He told me to Òget over it.Ó Poker players, he said, were going to cheat so we'd just have to live with it.

More recently I discussed the Richard Marcus book, Dirty Poker with another player, an expert I regard as a good friend. His just said the book didn't tell him anything all of us didn't already know.

Okay but let's agree on one thing: I didn't write about cheating for the pleasure of my friends and fan(s) and Marcus didn't write his book for our poker in-crowd; we both wrote for the neophytes who think this game is on the square. It's not. It never has been. But at least when we're playing a live opponent who is sitting on a real chair at a real table in a real cardroom setting, those of us who don't cheat have a better chance of spotting a cheater and shooting him down (not like they did in the old west) or just moving on to another game.

Okay that kind of brings us up to the 60 minutes story revealing to the tenderfoot in this chancy business. What we know is now universally revealed, along with a name, a big name, a championship name. Now remember, everyone in the U.S. is innocent until proven otherwise, so by revealing the given name of the cheater, we're using the word alleged to identify him here. (In case you missed the brouhaha, the name is Russ Hamilton.)

But beware. If we think it's all said and done, over and settled, think again.

I predict that before the talk dies down and folks forget about this great $20 million heist (and we will let it die, the way we let a politician's corrupt moves die), more names will be included in the rundown of associates in the cheating scam. I think we will discover that Hamilton, if he did the dirty deed, did not act alone but let some of his close subculture friends in or the action. (And why not?)

I think a few more prominent names will soon fall from grace and their fan clubs will cease.

And then, because there doesn't seem to be any real law against what they did (in the U.S., that is) I predict the cheaters will just enjoy the fruits of their nefarious labor É except É and watch out for this one because when this shoe falls it will really make a colossal noise É except for when the IRS decides to step in.

Do we really think the gang of online poker cheaters claimed their millions as earned income?