The Ultimate Poker Scam

Busted
Rigged games and cheating players have landed the former operator of online poker site - Ultimate Bet - in deep trouble. That's trouble with a capital T - to the tune of $75 million. With odds heavily stacked against them, cheaters were using illegal software code to gain advantage at poker games on this top 10 betting site. The software allowed them to see their opponents' hole cards (the cards dealt to each player face-down at the beginning of each hand). Blast-Off Ltd of Malta filed the $75-m claim. But they have an interest in acquiring Ultimate Bet.

The report was published recently and the con was exposed by a handful of players who got scammed. It was a painstaking process that led to the conman being captured. Two players using the names dlpnyc21 and trambopoline exposed NioNio - the cheater. It wasn't difficult to detect the gambler who scored $300,000 in only 3000 hands of poker. Luckily their detective work was ably assisted by another website actively tracking high-stakes online tournaments MyPokerIntel.com.

Laying blame
Tokwiro Enterprises, the owners of Ultimate Bet, believe that the previous owners' employees are to blame. That puts a two-year timeframe on the fraudulent activities, before the viral code was removed in January 2008 after a programming overhaul.

The tell
When NioNio won 93% of the sessions recorded on the website, alarm bells sounded. Results were compared to other players having played a similar number of hands. The outcome was less than flattering for NioNio - it was an impossibility.
It has since become abundantly clear that poker players are an online gambling website's best defense against fraud. Only they are in the unenviable position of possibly being cheated out of cash by fellow players - as such their vigilance remains at the forefront of internet security concerns.