Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Rizen Leaving UB
Not that it's really any of my business, but I knew Eric a bit a few years ago and was very surprised/worried, in light of the recent cheating at Ultimate Bet, when I heard that he was joining up with them. So it was with considerable relief that I read on his blog that
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After a lot of reflection and thought, I have decided to separate myself from the Ultimate Bet brand. I hope that everyone will respect my privacy, as I wish to not go into the decision in any great detail at this time. At this point in time I just believe that the things I'm trying to accomplish in my career are not in sync with the Ultimate Bet brand.
Labels: cheating, poker, Ultimate Bet
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Friday, June 6, 2008
Ultimate Bet COO on 2+2 Pokercast
Mike and Adam managed to get a 35-minute interview with Chief Operating Officer of the heretofore tight-lipped Tokwiro Enterprises, Paul Leggett, on this week's 2+2 Pokercast. The subject, of course, was the recent cheating scandal at Ultimate Bet. I imagine these kinds of interviews, where the interviewer needs to press the subject hard for information without alienating him, can be tricky, but I thought the 2+2 hosts did a great job. In fact this was probably the most interesting of their shows I've heard. Here are a few things in particular I found interesting:
1. Cheating at Ultimate Bet- Ultimate Bet's press release carefully avoided the word "cheating", instead using the phrase "unfair play". Mike and Adam resolved to press Leggett to use the word cheating, but surprisingly he employed it readily and without prompting.
2. Refunds- Leggett also referred many times to "refunding" money that was stolen from players. I'm really surprised by this choice of words, because it seems to imply that Tokwiro is returning money they have rather than compensating affected players out of their own pockets, which is what they claim is happening. I find it very strange that they don't make a bigger deal out of the fact that they are doing this. I mean, if they were actually taking millions of dollars from their own coffers to replace money that they didn't steal, you'd think they'd jump up and down about what an amazing thing it is they are doing for their players. But Leggett constantly refers to it as a "refund" and could not sound more dispassionate when he insists, "We're very upset that someone was able to do this on our site, to our players."
3. Stolen From UB?- Leggett repeatedly refers to money stolen "from our players, from our site" as though money were taken from them as well. I'm pretty sure he actually means that it was stolen through or using UB rather than from UB. It's like he's trying to portray his company as a victim in all of this as well. I guess if their story is true, then UB is a victim, because their reputation is shot to hell and they are on the hook for all the money.
4. Coughing- Leggett clears his throat constantly, pretty much any time he's asked a tough question. It's hard to say, though, whether he's nervous because he's lying or nervous because he's getting grilled.
5. Absolute Poker Cheating Deal- Apparently, Tokwiro, which also owns AP, struck a deal with the perpetrators of the cheating on that site. In exchange for a detailed explanation of how the cheating was carried out, they agreed not to release the names of the individuals or attempt to prosecute the crime. This is new information and certainly inconsistent with the allegation that that cheating was carried out by owners of the site.
6. Kahnawake Gaming Commission Fine- Leggett confirms that the KGC fined Tokwiro $500,000 for the AP incident in addition to the cost of the audit that was performed. I really wish Mike and Adam had asked what the KGC was doing with this money. Since when does the regulator get to issue arbitrary fines and then keep the money for themselves? Yet as far as I know the KGC hasn't said or done anything publicly with that money for the affected players.
7. Joe Norton Not So Corrupt- This made me laugh out loud. After Leggett cites the KGC fine, Mike and Adam ask if the KGC is really so independent, given that former Kahnawake Grand Chief Joe Norton is the sole owner of Tokwiro Enterprises. Leggett, who not surprisingly seems to have a close working relationship with Norton, says that Joe didn't found Tokwiro until he was out of public office. He then adds that this is no more corrupt than a US Senator going to work for a lobbyist after he leaves office. That's a real high moral standard they're holding themselves to....
8. Return Visit? After the interview, Mike and Adam decide to keep inviting Leggett back every few months in an attempt to hold him to his timeline and insure that his promsies are kept. This is a great idea, and I hope they'll stick with it.
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1. Cheating at Ultimate Bet- Ultimate Bet's press release carefully avoided the word "cheating", instead using the phrase "unfair play". Mike and Adam resolved to press Leggett to use the word cheating, but surprisingly he employed it readily and without prompting.
2. Refunds- Leggett also referred many times to "refunding" money that was stolen from players. I'm really surprised by this choice of words, because it seems to imply that Tokwiro is returning money they have rather than compensating affected players out of their own pockets, which is what they claim is happening. I find it very strange that they don't make a bigger deal out of the fact that they are doing this. I mean, if they were actually taking millions of dollars from their own coffers to replace money that they didn't steal, you'd think they'd jump up and down about what an amazing thing it is they are doing for their players. But Leggett constantly refers to it as a "refund" and could not sound more dispassionate when he insists, "We're very upset that someone was able to do this on our site, to our players."
3. Stolen From UB?- Leggett repeatedly refers to money stolen "from our players, from our site" as though money were taken from them as well. I'm pretty sure he actually means that it was stolen through or using UB rather than from UB. It's like he's trying to portray his company as a victim in all of this as well. I guess if their story is true, then UB is a victim, because their reputation is shot to hell and they are on the hook for all the money.
4. Coughing- Leggett clears his throat constantly, pretty much any time he's asked a tough question. It's hard to say, though, whether he's nervous because he's lying or nervous because he's getting grilled.
5. Absolute Poker Cheating Deal- Apparently, Tokwiro, which also owns AP, struck a deal with the perpetrators of the cheating on that site. In exchange for a detailed explanation of how the cheating was carried out, they agreed not to release the names of the individuals or attempt to prosecute the crime. This is new information and certainly inconsistent with the allegation that that cheating was carried out by owners of the site.
6. Kahnawake Gaming Commission Fine- Leggett confirms that the KGC fined Tokwiro $500,000 for the AP incident in addition to the cost of the audit that was performed. I really wish Mike and Adam had asked what the KGC was doing with this money. Since when does the regulator get to issue arbitrary fines and then keep the money for themselves? Yet as far as I know the KGC hasn't said or done anything publicly with that money for the affected players.
7. Joe Norton Not So Corrupt- This made me laugh out loud. After Leggett cites the KGC fine, Mike and Adam ask if the KGC is really so independent, given that former Kahnawake Grand Chief Joe Norton is the sole owner of Tokwiro Enterprises. Leggett, who not surprisingly seems to have a close working relationship with Norton, says that Joe didn't found Tokwiro until he was out of public office. He then adds that this is no more corrupt than a US Senator going to work for a lobbyist after he leaves office. That's a real high moral standard they're holding themselves to....
8. Return Visit? After the interview, Mike and Adam decide to keep inviting Leggett back every few months in an attempt to hold him to his timeline and insure that his promsies are kept. This is a great idea, and I hope they'll stick with it.
Labels: Absolute Poker, cheating, news, poker, Ultimate Bet
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Saturday, May 31, 2008
UB Scandal is Front Page News in Canada
The Ultimate Bet cheating scandal made the front page of Canada's National Press today. Citing the investigative work of 2+2'ers such as Cornell Fiji (Steven Ware), the article does a very nice job of explaining simply and concisely what happened and how without blowing the issue out of proportion or making unwarranted claims about online poker in general. Specifically, the article expresses concern for the credibility of the Kahnawake Gaming Commission:Bobby Mamudi, an industry analyst and managing editor of the London-based Gaming Intelligence Group, said the new cheating incident is another blow to the reputation of Kahnawake's gambling industry. "They definitely do seem to be losing credibility and not doing too much about it," he said.The article also includes more empty promises from the KGC:
Murray Marshall, legal counsel to the gaming commission, said that Kahnawake's regulation is among "the tightest in the world" and said similar frauds have occurred in casino gambling and banking. "We would obviously prefer to prevent all possibilities of this kind of thing happening, but no system is infallible," he said.Tightest in the world? What does that even mean? How did the same shit get past them twice? Not only did they fail to identify cheating that amateur internet sleuths could and did identify, but to my knowledge there are no documented incidents of the KGC actually doing anything except for fining Absolute Poker after the fact. Their tight regulation hasn't managed to catch or prevent any malfeasance.
The article also raises the troubling specter of legal action against the online gaming industry by the Canadian government:
The federal government considers the 400 or so poker and sports-betting sites operating from Kahnawake to be illegal, but, fearing a confrontation, both the federal and provincial governments have been reluctant to intervene. Last March, however, an aide to Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said the government was studying ways of shutting down the gambling, possibly by targeting financial transactions with illegal Internet operators.Let's hope that doesn't come to pass, and that future news outlets that cover this and other internet poker stories handle them with the same thoroughness and even-handedness that the National Press does here.
Labels: Absolute Poker, cheating, legislation, poker, Ultimate Bet
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Friday, May 30, 2008
The Ultimate Bet Superuser Scandal
Ultimate Bet released a press release today admitting that employees of "the previous ownership of UltimateBet" were responsible for cheating high limit players out of an unspecified amount of money, largely believed to run into the millions, thanks to "unauthorized software code that allowed the perpetrators to obtain hole card information during live play". In other words, UB employees could see players' hole cards and exploited this to steal quite a lot of money from high stakes players over the course of about two years.
The theft was uncovered through the collective effort of several 2+2'ers who were high stakes regulars at UB affected by the theft, most prominently trambopoline, dlpnyc21, josem, and also Nat Arem. 2+2 Moderator Cornell Fiji composed a thorough summary of what is believed to have happened along with the damning evidence that goes well beyond what UB admits in its press release.
In this new thread, Cornell is once again doing an admirable job exposing all of the deception in the press release. I'm not going to try to summarize it all, but basically it is at the very least a shameful lapse, and more probably deliberate negligence, that UB's security didn't notice any of this until 2+2's amateur investigators compiled undeniable evidence. If security isn't tracking win rates and investigating the play of the biggest winners in the biggest games on the site, what exactly are they doing? How is it that amateurs with nothing more than Poker Tracker databases can unravel this stuff, but a supposedly professional security team cannot?
Moreover, UB claims that it knew nothing about the potential for its software to be exploited in this way. But UB is owned by Tokwiro Enterprises, which also owns Absolute Poker, which was the subject of another scandal where a similar vulnerability was exploited from the inside. It's absurd for them to claim that they couldn't have anticipated this, and it's disgraceful that they either didn't anticipate it or actively facilitated the theft.
Nat Arem had a chance to question one of their representatives, but don't expect too much new info from that Q&A session.
Like Absolute Poker, UB tries to reassure its customers by pointing to its "regulatory agency", the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. Aside from the gross incompetence (or worse) demonstrated above, there's another big problem with the KGC: Joe Norton, the owner of Tokwiro Enterprises, is also the former Grand Chief of the Kahnawake Mohawk tribe of Montreal! In other words, there is nothing independent about the KGC.
During his time as Grand Chief, Norton was accused of more than his share of shady dealings and corrupt bargains. Though members of his tribe accused him of being a puppet of the Quebec government, he also had a well-publicized (in Canada) clash with Canadian police and soldiers.
In a lot of ways, this latest scandal is very discouraging and disheartening. However, both UB and AP were eventually forced to admit that something had gone wrong and to return player funds that were stolen. This demonstrates the power of the online poker community to exercise some level of independent oversight over the sites where we play. Ideally, this will discourage other sites from trying anything shady in the future. However, if the only ramification for UB, after all this time and effort, is that they have to return the funds that weren't theirs to begin with, then this will not be much of a deterrent.
So what can we do? I've got some ideas, and I hope you'll offer others.
1. Boycott AP and UB. I never played on AP, and I've pulled all of my money off of UB. If a scandal like this doesn't bankrupt UB or at least crush their market share, then it will not be a deterrent to any future malfeasance by them or anyone else. I was probably one of maybe twenty people regularly playing 25/50 NL on their site, so hopefully my action will be missed, as will that of other high limit players who refuse to play there.
2. Stop endorsing them. High-profile players like Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth need to end their affiliation with UB. It is downright unethical for them to be encouraging people to play on this site. Similarly, Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy should be ashamed of himself for signing with them this week. He claims he was convinced of their desire to change, but based on what he's said publicly about this, it doesn't seem like he was especially well-informed about the allegations nor that he went to great lengths to question whomever he spoke with from UB's management. Then again, he is supposedly a pretty shrewd businessman, so perhaps he knows something I don't. But I think he ought to either say a lot more about why he has confidence in UB or stop encouraging others to play there.
3. Ask tough questions of other sites. I'm no expert on this, but personally, Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker are the only sites I'm comfortable playing on right now. Still, I think it would be best to get specific, public statements from them about the nature of their security, why their software is not vulnerable to the exploits that led to the theft on UB and AP, who regulates them and how, etc. UB and AP have been able to hedge, make misleading statements, and deny responsibility because in many cases they had not made explicit statements before these scandals about the nature of their security. As players, we should have a more explicit understanding of the level of security the sites will provide. There should be measurable benchmarks and pre-agreed ramifications for them if something illicit happens on their site. If 2+2 could create a Players' Bill of Rights or something, thousands of us could ask sites like Poker Stars, FTP, and especially UB to agree to it as a condition for our business.
4. Create a genuinely independent regulatory authority with teeth. Similar to (3), there should at least be an independent regulator whom sites could voluntarily hire to certify the security of their software. Then we as players could refuse our business to anyone who didn't pay for that certification. There's probably money to be made here if it's done right, and it would be a huge boon for online poker generally.
5. Legalize and regulate online poker in the US. Obviously I think this would be a good thing anyway, but as much as opponents of poker may try to use scandals such as this as arguments against legalization, I believe they are actually arguments in favor. Not that government involvement is a guarantor of legitimacy, but it's got to be better than the legal netherworld in which internet poker currently exists. Once again, there's money to be made here.
6. Spread a genuine understanding of the issue. Casual players have a right to know about the security issues at AP and UB, and its in our interest to have them playing on the more reputable sites where we are taking our business. At the same time, we don't want to be fearmongers turning the poker world off to internet poker in general. We need simultaneously to inform people that UB and AP are unsafe but that there have not even been any plausible suspicions raised about extensive cheating at sites like FTP and Poker Stars. I honestly feel that the risk of cheating on those sites is barely higher than it is in brick and mortar casinos and much lower than at underground poker clubs. However, I'll feel a lot more comfortable vouching for the credibility of those sites if and when some of my above suggestions are implemented.
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The theft was uncovered through the collective effort of several 2+2'ers who were high stakes regulars at UB affected by the theft, most prominently trambopoline, dlpnyc21, josem, and also Nat Arem. 2+2 Moderator Cornell Fiji composed a thorough summary of what is believed to have happened along with the damning evidence that goes well beyond what UB admits in its press release.
In this new thread, Cornell is once again doing an admirable job exposing all of the deception in the press release. I'm not going to try to summarize it all, but basically it is at the very least a shameful lapse, and more probably deliberate negligence, that UB's security didn't notice any of this until 2+2's amateur investigators compiled undeniable evidence. If security isn't tracking win rates and investigating the play of the biggest winners in the biggest games on the site, what exactly are they doing? How is it that amateurs with nothing more than Poker Tracker databases can unravel this stuff, but a supposedly professional security team cannot?
Moreover, UB claims that it knew nothing about the potential for its software to be exploited in this way. But UB is owned by Tokwiro Enterprises, which also owns Absolute Poker, which was the subject of another scandal where a similar vulnerability was exploited from the inside. It's absurd for them to claim that they couldn't have anticipated this, and it's disgraceful that they either didn't anticipate it or actively facilitated the theft.
Nat Arem had a chance to question one of their representatives, but don't expect too much new info from that Q&A session.
Like Absolute Poker, UB tries to reassure its customers by pointing to its "regulatory agency", the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. Aside from the gross incompetence (or worse) demonstrated above, there's another big problem with the KGC: Joe Norton, the owner of Tokwiro Enterprises, is also the former Grand Chief of the Kahnawake Mohawk tribe of Montreal! In other words, there is nothing independent about the KGC.During his time as Grand Chief, Norton was accused of more than his share of shady dealings and corrupt bargains. Though members of his tribe accused him of being a puppet of the Quebec government, he also had a well-publicized (in Canada) clash with Canadian police and soldiers.
In a lot of ways, this latest scandal is very discouraging and disheartening. However, both UB and AP were eventually forced to admit that something had gone wrong and to return player funds that were stolen. This demonstrates the power of the online poker community to exercise some level of independent oversight over the sites where we play. Ideally, this will discourage other sites from trying anything shady in the future. However, if the only ramification for UB, after all this time and effort, is that they have to return the funds that weren't theirs to begin with, then this will not be much of a deterrent.
So what can we do? I've got some ideas, and I hope you'll offer others.
1. Boycott AP and UB. I never played on AP, and I've pulled all of my money off of UB. If a scandal like this doesn't bankrupt UB or at least crush their market share, then it will not be a deterrent to any future malfeasance by them or anyone else. I was probably one of maybe twenty people regularly playing 25/50 NL on their site, so hopefully my action will be missed, as will that of other high limit players who refuse to play there.
2. Stop endorsing them. High-profile players like Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth need to end their affiliation with UB. It is downright unethical for them to be encouraging people to play on this site. Similarly, Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy should be ashamed of himself for signing with them this week. He claims he was convinced of their desire to change, but based on what he's said publicly about this, it doesn't seem like he was especially well-informed about the allegations nor that he went to great lengths to question whomever he spoke with from UB's management. Then again, he is supposedly a pretty shrewd businessman, so perhaps he knows something I don't. But I think he ought to either say a lot more about why he has confidence in UB or stop encouraging others to play there.
3. Ask tough questions of other sites. I'm no expert on this, but personally, Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker are the only sites I'm comfortable playing on right now. Still, I think it would be best to get specific, public statements from them about the nature of their security, why their software is not vulnerable to the exploits that led to the theft on UB and AP, who regulates them and how, etc. UB and AP have been able to hedge, make misleading statements, and deny responsibility because in many cases they had not made explicit statements before these scandals about the nature of their security. As players, we should have a more explicit understanding of the level of security the sites will provide. There should be measurable benchmarks and pre-agreed ramifications for them if something illicit happens on their site. If 2+2 could create a Players' Bill of Rights or something, thousands of us could ask sites like Poker Stars, FTP, and especially UB to agree to it as a condition for our business.
4. Create a genuinely independent regulatory authority with teeth. Similar to (3), there should at least be an independent regulator whom sites could voluntarily hire to certify the security of their software. Then we as players could refuse our business to anyone who didn't pay for that certification. There's probably money to be made here if it's done right, and it would be a huge boon for online poker generally.
5. Legalize and regulate online poker in the US. Obviously I think this would be a good thing anyway, but as much as opponents of poker may try to use scandals such as this as arguments against legalization, I believe they are actually arguments in favor. Not that government involvement is a guarantor of legitimacy, but it's got to be better than the legal netherworld in which internet poker currently exists. Once again, there's money to be made here.
6. Spread a genuine understanding of the issue. Casual players have a right to know about the security issues at AP and UB, and its in our interest to have them playing on the more reputable sites where we are taking our business. At the same time, we don't want to be fearmongers turning the poker world off to internet poker in general. We need simultaneously to inform people that UB and AP are unsafe but that there have not even been any plausible suspicions raised about extensive cheating at sites like FTP and Poker Stars. I honestly feel that the risk of cheating on those sites is barely higher than it is in brick and mortar casinos and much lower than at underground poker clubs. However, I'll feel a lot more comfortable vouching for the credibility of those sites if and when some of my above suggestions are implemented.
Labels: Absolute Poker, Annie Duke, cheating, Full Tilt Poker, legislation, news, Phil Hellmuth, poker, Poker Stars, Two Plus Two, Ultimate Bet
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