The online poker site Ultimate Bet has been rocked with allegations of cheating on a scale never before seen in online poker.
The top ten poker site allegedly bought tainted software from Excapsa Software Inc that included back doors that enabled cheaters to see other players hole cards.
They are now facing a $75m lawsuit, and the wrath of thousands of disgruntled customers. Their sister site Absolute Poker was caught in a similar cheating scandal last year.
The sites are not illegal. But the law that Bill Frist shoved into the Port Security act of 2006, without any democratic process, makes it hard to use American financial institutions to deposit or withdraw money from these sites.
But you are quite right. President Obama should seriously consider regulating and taxing online gambling to help pay for the massive financial hole he will inherit from Bush.
In a free society people should be allowed to gamble online if they wish to, and the government should be able to collect taxes from that, and ensure that the games are fair.
Though I enjoy placing the odd bet on sports with online bookies/exchanges I’ve never trusted their casinos. For much the same reasons I’m suspicious of electronic voting. Frankly I’m amazed this sort of thing isn’t happening more often.
Regarding the law. I assumed it was illegal for US citizens to use these sites as any one I’ve signed up to won’t allow you to join if you have an American address. But given how often I’ve tried to buy things online only to be told “Sorry we don’t deliver outside the US”, I feel quite smug about it.
A site should display the information as to where it is regulated; usually at the bottom of the homepage or in the "About us" section.
ultimatebet for example is regulated by the Kahnawake Gaming Comission.
The fastest growing jurisdictions is Malta. Probably due to being located in the Med, English being a second language and having the Euro as currency.
The question I ask myself is if the gaming commission is to be partially blamed as they are supposed to be regulating the site or does this kind of software manipulation go beyond their scope of responsibility?
In any case, before setting up an account it's always good to read up on the site and check out what is said about them in forums. Then of course check what sign up bonus they offer and read the requirements for the bonus ;)
Sure, there is regulation. But this scandal, like the one at Absolute Poker, was uncovered by players, not a regulatory body.
I just think that the average American would feel safer if a company they have heard of like Harrahs, or MGM were operating a site out of say Nevada, with an American regulatory body monitoring them.
Having to finagle money in and out of the country, and the legal gray area of online gaming, does little to help consumer confidence.
Old man McCain has already made it clear he would not choose legalization and regulation. But why would he? He's just an older version of George Bush, with slightly more intelligence.
So the only chance the industry has of being treated sensibly is if Obama becomes President Obama. Otherwise it's four more years of repressive backwards thinking, and watching as more rights are taken away from us.
The people involved in the Ultimate Bet cheat were former high ups in the company but no longer worked with the company when the cheating was occurring. They used their intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the program to exploit the software and its users out of money.
The new owners of Ultimate Bet caught onto this and helped bring it public before anyone could put a bunch of crazy twists on it.
I think the current owners have acted appropriately with the situation. The hole has been closed, and entirely new software for the merged company is coming up soon. I believe Absolute and Ultimate will remain separate entities, but be part of the same poker "network".
So simple, you'd be amazed. Actually, so simple, you wouldn't believe it, and that was the thing. The winning hand was usually predetermined (assuming that hand is played through), and everybody gets their turn.
Too bad we Americans can't play on that network anymore.
Sorry but I don't buy that for a second. Party Poker is one of the largest and most respected poker sites out there (that doesn't accept US players). They are floated on the stock exchange in London.
To imply that one could just observe a few hands and then suddenly unlock the way that that cards come out, is just preposterous and has no basis in reality.
If you really had that cracked, you probably could have made several hundred million dollars before they figured out what you were doing. Why didn't you?
Heck, even if you live in the US, it would be worth it to fly to London for a couple of weeks, and make a killing, before returning home with hundreds of thousands.
Your boastful claims make no sense, and I don't see any reality in them.
Perhaps you'd care to elaborate and show me why I am wrong.
"President Obama should seriously consider regulating and taxing online gambling to help pay for the massive financial hole he will inherit from Bush."
That massive financial hole included the highest stock market ever before control was passed to the Democrats.
So you are suggesting that the problems of the economy are not the result of eight years of Bush politics, but the fact that there are a bunch of Democrats in congress now? Please.
That's exactly what I'm suggesting. It wasn't until the Dems were in control of congress that the markets tanked from a record high. The first six years had great growth.
