60 Minutes Show on Online Poker Site Scandals to Air Sun. Nov 30

The result of a four month long joint investigation by CBS and the Washington Post, two very respected news organizations, into the cheating scandals at online poker sites Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker is about to be aired this Sunday, November 30th, on the 60 Minutes program at 7pm ET/PT.

Online poker players should worry how the industry is being portrayed, as a preview of the piece posted on the CBS site (click here to view it) begins by saying "We should tell you that this $18 billion industry is illegal in the US, but the ban [UIGEA] is almost impossible to enforce" ...and continues, "and unlike land-based casinos, there is almost no official regulation, enforcement, or supervision."

The report focuses on how online poker players were made to act as amateur sleuths after they suspected that they were being cheated, after the management of the sites in question failed to respond to their complaints.

It includes the following comments made by poker players who helped expose the cheating scandal:

"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 turned detective when he believed he was losing too much to the same new person.

"It seemed like he was giving his money away”recalls Witeles. “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."

Michael Josem, a player and a computer security expert, also contributed heavily to exposing the cheating scandal. He 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."

COMMENTS POSTED ON THE PREVIEW PAGE

Several comments posted on the CBS site in response to the preview were quick to point out that playing poker online is NOT illegal in the USA, and they asked the venerated news organizations to get their facts straight.

An early comment noted that regulation and licensing of the industry could bring much revenue and needed jobs to the USA.

A REMINDER - STILL MUCH TO DO TO LEGALIZE

The show serves as a reminder to all poker supporters that even with a new administration coming January, there is still much work to be done to change the perception of poker to enable regulation of online poker in the USA.

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