60 Minutes Story on Absolute Poker and UltimateBet Airs Sunday 30th Nov

[Mika Ollila]

60 Minutes/Washington Post Joint Investigation Questions Honesty, Security Of Gambling Sites

The popular CBS News television program 60 minutes will air their investigation of the Absolute Poker and UltimateBet cheating scandal this Sunday November 30th.

THE CHEATERS - 60 MINUTES and The Washington Post reveal how online poker players suspecting cheating were forced to successfully ferret out the cheaters themselves. That's because managers of the mostly-unregulated $18 billion Internet gambling industry failed to respond to their complaints. Steve Kroft and The Washington Post's Gilbert Gaul report. Ira Rosen is the producer.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJaSXBDRMqg"]YouTube - Poker Face[/ame]

(CBS) 26 November 2008 --- A collaboration by two of the world's most respected news organizations reveals how online poker players suspecting cheating were forced to successfully ferret out the cheaters themselves. That's because managers of the mostly-unregulated $18 billion Internet gambling industry failed to respond to their complaints.

The results of the four-month investigation by 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft, producer Ira Rosen and The Washington Post’s two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Gilbert Gaul will appear this Sunday, Nov. 30, at 7 p.m. ET/PT on 60 Minutes.

"He was raising, just really, really bad hands against very good hands. He seemed to play crazy," says Todd Witteles, a computer scientist turned poker player who believed he was losing too much to the same person. "It seemed like he was giving his money away. Except the only thing was, he wasn't losing. He was playing in a style that was sure to lose, but he was killing the game day after day," Witteles, who played a key detective role, remembers.

Michael Josem, a player and a computer security expert, plotted the odds of such consistent success. "We did the mathematical analysis to find that they were winning at about 15 standard deviations above the mean…approximately equivalent to winning a one-in-a-million jackpot six consecutive times."

The cheating, which netted the cheaters more than $20 million, occurred on two of the Internet's most popular sites, Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. The two sites operate out of a shopping mall in Costa Rica and run their games on computer servers housed on an Indian reservation outside of Montreal. They are licensed by a Mohawk tribe that has no background in casino gambling, a tribe that previously made the majority of its money selling tax-free tobacco. Though such gambling is illegal in both Canada and the U.S., the betting laws in those countries have no jurisdiction on the sovereign reservation.

[liladypokerpro]

Hmm...well perhaps then I should get my mother to proceed with getting our tribal affiliation completed. That way I can move to a reservation and start my own poker site LOL

[crazee55]

I 'll be sure to watch that, will be interesting to hear about it on national TV and what they have to say about online poker..

[dejrfan57]

Thank you very much for this post. I've been very interested in getting as much of the truth about this issue as possible. I can't believe I might of missed it had I not logged in today. Thank you rakeback!!

[123bird]

I'd like to watch it but don't live in USA ,

does anyone know how/where i can watch it online ?

they should have investigated party poker,foool tilt & especially Jokerstars as well

[19RK64]

I'd like to watch it but don't live in USA ,

does anyone know how/where i can watch it online ?

they should have investigated party poker,foool tilt & especially Jokerstars as well

Im sure if you get to goggleing you can find it.

Well I fell out second hour at PlayersOnly, 250K guarenteed one of these days, so I thought I'd post one to cool down lol..

I know and feel what you are saying, but at the same time we need to understand when things of this nature happins, like this report on 60 min. it's going to be focused on (against OnlinePoker),
..OK A/P and U/B got caught dirty, well Stars had theirs a few years back and FullTilt caught a couple of players useing BOTS that had a little over 50K in their accounts,this year, and took accounts away, these site don't want this to be happining it bad for overall bussiness, but when this happins it only gives, anti gambler's more gas to the fire for making it harder for us to play, and believe me their goal is to STOP ALL ONLINE GAMBLEING FOR USA PLAYER
I just wish the US Gov. would step in and maby produce a site of their own for us to play at and reap the rewards. as in taxs&profit, maby set firm laws on these site as to holding all online player fund, as it is at a land casino..

[19RK64]

I'd like to watch it but don't live in USA ,

does anyone know how/where i can watch it online ?

they should have investigated party poker,foool tilt & especially Jokerstars as well

heres the link to view some of it! seeing how the one at top of the page aint working

Cheating Gamblers On The Web Video - CBSNews.com