Annie Duke Testifies on Online Poker Cheating at House Internet Gambling Hearing

And she got into it with one of the nation's biggest anti-online-gaming regulation reps, Spencer Bachus of Alabama. Bachus does not want online gaming legalized or regulated in the US, not even online poker. He doesn't want to hear any of that rap that poker is a game of skill and therefore not a gambling game.

When it came to online poker cheating, Bachus immediately brought up Duke’s affiliation with Ultimate Bet in an almost accusatory way, using the soiled site’s cheating scandal as a reason why online gambling, including online poker, is bad for the public in every way and must never be permitted in the United States. Duke, however, stood up to Bachus's challenge and even reversed the tables by saying that since there was no regulation of online poker to oversee UltimateBet and every other online gambling site, the huge poker cheating scam was able to proliferate to the degree that it did. Had there been regulation, Duke pointed out, the cheat scam would have been harder to pull off...and its aftermath could have been managed and controlled much better.

Hooray for Annie Duke!