POKER ROOM REVIEW NEWSWIRE

Ugly Unanswered Questions Prompt a Serious Downgrade of UB

The biggest online poker cheating scandal ever exploded this week when evidence was leaked regarding even more “super accounts” at UB and implicating the former owner of Ultimate Bet, Russ Hamilton, as one of the individuals profiting from big money funneled out of these bogus accounts. The entire sad saga is outlined in this 2+2 thread entitled, “The UB Scandal Continues.” The online poker community is to be applauded for the tenacious detective work displayed throughout this episode, especially those who continue deeper into the mystery despite threats to their personal safety.

The depth and breadth of this scandal as well as the earlier one involving Absolute Poker tarnishes the image of legitimate poker sites and plays into the hands of powerful critics who characterize web poker as a festering online pit of internet vipers. As organizations, UB and AP violated the sacred trust players placed in them not just once, but multiple times over several years. It strains credibility to suggest that no one in management knew this was going on; quite simply, they had to.

Even now it is impossible to know just who exactly owns AP/UB, who profited from the scam and continues to profit from legitimate rake generated at both sites, the number of games that were played involving users who could see hole cards that went undetected, and whether or not they have other means at their disposal that they can employ to affect the outcome of games for their singular benefit.

No one can be certain after what has come out already and so, due to this lack of trust, PokerRoomReview cannot recommend either of these sites to potential players.