The Kahnawake Gaming Commission has released the findings of its UltimateBet super-user investigation, unequivocally naming part-owner and 1994 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Russ Hamilton as the chief culprit and beneficiary in the so-called NIONIO scandal.
The following excerpts from the statement released by the KGC outline the timeframe of the cheating as well as the sanctions imposed against the sister site of the beleaguered Absolute Poker:
The Commission found clear and convincing evidence to support the conclusion that between the approximate dates of May 2004 to January 2008, Russell Hamilton… was the main person responsible for and benefiting from the multiple cheating incidents.
1. Ultimate Bet is directed that by November 3 … commence refunding all players accounts found to have been adversely affected by the cheating of individuals under the control and supervision of the licensee. It is estimated that Ultimate Bet has to date reimbursed $6.1 million USD to players' accounts found to have been adversely impacted by the cheating activity.
2. Ultimate Bet is directed that by November 3, 2008 it is to remove any and all persons deemed as "unsuitable" by the KGC from all involvement with the company, which shall include all levels of ownership, management and operation. Ultimate Bet during that time period until November 3, 2008 is required to continue to provide complete details of all day-to-day operations of the company…
3. Ultimate Bet's control system… has been modified to prevent any further incidents of cheating or related improprieties.
4. Ultimate Bet will not delete or modify any logs including but not limited to web logs and game logs as required by the Kahnawa:ke Interactive Gaming Regulations and will continue to have those logs immediately available for inspection by the KGC or its agents.
5. Ultimate Bet shall immediately pay a fine of $1.5 Million USD to the KGC for its failure to implement and enforce measures to prohibit and detect fraudulent activities.
6. Ultimate Bet's failure to comply fully with these measures will result in the immediate revocation of its KGC gaming permit.
While the statement also suggests legal proceedings have been initiated against Mr. Hamilton, the glaring question in this and all other disputes concerning online gaming remains: under what jurisdiction are the wrongdoers pursued and to what extent are they liable for civil damages?
Certain skeptic members of the online gaming community also point to the owner of Tokwiro Enterprises (the parent company of both Absolute Poker and UltimateBet) as yet another major hurdle in the pursuit of legal ramifications. After all, the man who owns Tokwiro is himself a former Grand Chief of the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (Joe Norton.)
Meanwhile, the extremely popular news program, 60 Minutes is preparing to air an investigative special expected to address both the UltimateBet and Absolute Poker scandals on October 26, 2008.
This potentially damaging news comes in addition to a major stalling in the US House of Representatives voting on Rep. Barney Frank’s (D – MA) H.R. 6870 thanks to the precipitous drops in the US Stock Exchanges engaging the Congress in bailout negotiations rather than UIGEA clarifications.
The poker community is eagerly awaiting official statements from several of its highest profile players in response to this latest news: Annie Duke (WSOP bracelet winner and extremely vocal proponent of UltimateBet,) Phil Hellmuth (all-time WSOP leader in victories, childhood friend of Russ Hamilton and longtime endorser of UltimateBet) and the former WSOP Main Event Champion Russ Hamilton have each yet to make any official public statement. Also of note, Barry Greenstein – the only player to have won 3 WPT events and 3 WSOP events – who interviewed Hamilton in connection with the UltimateBet scandals has yet to recant this statement he made on the famed 2+2 forum:
Before I talked to Russ, I thought it was more than 95% likely that he was involved in cheating…Now I think it’s more than 99% that he knows people who cheated well enough to transfer money with them, but I think it’s less than 50% that he actually cheated or knew that the people were cheating at the time.
The raging specter of the NIONIO scandal has interrupted the efforts of Absolute Poker and UltimateBet to merge into the announced CEREUS Network.
We will bring you any and all statements made by any notable party on the explosive KGC findings as soon as they are made public.
