KGC Releases Final Report On Ultimate Bet

In what was perhaps the most anticipated and drawn out investigation in online poker history, the Khanawake Gaming Commission (KGC) announced Saturday the final results of a year long investigation (full PDF) involving cheating at Ultimate Bet poker.

For those of you unfamiliar with the scandal, a number of employees created a backdoor in the poker room's software that allowed various "superusers" to see their opponents hole cards, which in the end added up to over $22 million in stolen funds.  The scandal which was uncovered by a group of online poker players sent shockwaves through the poker world when it was brought to light last year on industry forums.

Ever since the scandal broke, players have waited eagerly for the results of the KGC investigation into the matter hoping the regulatory body would shed some light on the depth of cheating and the persons involved.  To date, the main culprit has been shown to be a man named Russ Hamilton, a Las Vegas resident who was responsible for the Ultimate Bet affiliate program during his employment at the company.  The report released Saturday by the KGC cites Mr. Hamilton as "the main beneficiary" from the superuser activity which is now reported to have started as early as 2003.

Some of the other main findings in the Khanawake Commission's report concluded:

  1. Between June 2003 and December 2007, cheating occured on the UB (Ultimate Bet) site where players rights to a fair and honest game were violated;
  2. The cheating was initiated by one or more individuals associated with UB prior to Tokwiro having acquired its' ownership interest in UB;
  3. The individuals responsible for the cheating no longer have any association with UB and are not associated with Tokwiro in any manner;
  4. The cheating resulted from certain individuals manipulating the software then being used by UB's prior ownership and said manipulation was possible due to deficiencies in the control systems that were created, implemented and/or used by UB's prior ownership;
  5. UB's present owner, Tokwiro, was not aware of the deficiencies in the control system until after the cheating activity had already been initiated due to not having discovered the cheating during due diligence investigations prior to acquiring ownership of the Ultimate Bet operations; and
  6. Tokwiro and its' management have cooperated with with the commission to identify the individual(s) responsible for the cheating incidences and to ensure that all players victimized by the cheating activity were fully reimbursed.

While the main findings of the report simply re-hashed facts that were already widely known to the poker community that un-covered the scandal, the conclusion that as many as 31 other persons may have been involved is a new development in the case.

The names of the 31 persons, which were not included in the report (supposedly for legal reasons) has incited a ton of speculation with poker players as to who else may have been involved with and/or benefited from the superuser accounts at UB.

What was included in the report that was noteworthy were the usernames of all of the accounts at Ultimate Bet that were used to conduct the cheating.  The list, which can be seen in the full report shows a number of similar and duplicate accounts, most of which can be traced back to Russ Hamilton as well as a few other unnamed UB players.

To date, Tokwiro Enterprises (the current Ultimate Bet owners) have refunded a total of $22,054,351.91 to player accounts who were affected by the incident along with paying a fine of $1.5 Million dollars to the Khanawake Gaming Commission for their complacency during the due diligence stages of acquiring the company.  From here on out no one knows exactly how the rest of this drama will unfold, however many expect the list of the 31 co-conspirators to be leaked or publicized over the coming weeks.

For more information on the Ultimate Bet Scandal, the KGC and the general timeline of events, check out some of the links below for a complete summary of the incident.

Saturday September 12th, 2009
Written By: John Goldie		 Read More Poker News