Ultimate Bet Super User Scandal Resurfaces
Troubles never seem to end for beleaguered online
poker site Ultimate Bet, even though the Ultimate Bet
super user scandal was settled by the online poker
room way back in 2008.
This was after its licensor the Kahnawake Gaming Commission
carried out an in depth investigation following complaints by
players. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission, which is located in
southern Ontario and managed by the Kahnawake tribe, is a major
licensing jurisdiction for all online gambling products like
poker, casino and sports betting.
Now, eight high stakes online poker players have challenged this settlement by filing a law suit in the Regulated Industries Complaints Office in the U.S. Central District Court of California. These players have been named as Daniel Ashman, Brad Booth, Thomas Koral, Greg Lavery, Dave Lizmi, Daniel Smith, Joseph Sanders and Dustin Woolf.
The suit was filed against 6355095 Canada Inc., formerly known as Excapsa Software Inc. Excapsa Software was the parent company of the online poker room Ultimate Bet at the time of the super user scandal. The complainants claim they were short-changed in the earlier settlement, because that settlement failed to consider the sums that the players would have won had there not been any cheating.
The suit seeks compensation of at least $1.73 million and an additional sum in punitive damages for these eight players. It claims that the total settlement to all players who suffered should be in excess of $20 million.
Ultimate Bet Super User Scandal
The Ultimate Bet super user scandal was a unique phenomenon in the history of online poker. The creators of the software had inserted a provision wherein using a secret code, a user could view players ' hole cards. Players, who were allegedly had ties to the operators of Ultimate Bet, used this code to unfair advantage from 2003 to 2008.
The present suit explains, “The key to the massive success of
the cheating players is not simply that they were able to profit
by bluffing when their opponent was weak or betting when they had
the best hand, but that they were able to fold and not
play…whenever their hand was strong (but) not the best.”
There was general consensus in the online poker industry that
former World Series of Poker Champion Russ Hamilton was the brains
behind the scandal, but no legal action was taken against him for
lack of proof.
Later the Ultimate Bet online poker room merged with Absolute Poker to form the Cereus Poker network. In April 2011, Absolute Poker was charged with violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act by the U.S. Justice Department and has since closed down.
