Poker News Daily Update on Pitbull Poker Superuser Online Poker Scam

Pokernewsdaily.com has just released this comprehensive article on the Pitbull Poker superuser scam, a smaller version of the giant UltimateBet scam where crooked insiders manipulated the software to see opponents' hole cards.

Article:

Almost nine months have gone by since the Pitbull Poker scandal was blown wide open and to date, justice has yet to be served. The small poker site, formerly part of the Flash Poker Network, was first put under investigation by members of the TwoPlusTwo community. Many of these members suspected the site had players that had access to see hole cards at a table, also known as superusers. During the scandal, the two owners of the site closed up shop in the middle of the night, sticking players with bankrolls at Pitbull Poker.

Poker News Daily caught up with former room manager Dave Brenes, who stated that he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time and has not heard from either of the owners. As of now, there have been no updates and no resolutions in the matter, leading many to believe that nothing will ever be resolved in the case.

Representatives for Poker News Daily were able to reach the embattled former poker room manager for Pitbull Poker on Thursday. Brenes told PND that he has moved on from Pitbull Poker and is holding down a temporary job while looking for something long-term. To his knowledge, no employees or customers have recovered any funds since the owners closed the company doors and disappeared. Message boards for casino and poker site affiliates confirm that players owed funds through business dealings with the company have yet to be compensated.

Brenes concluded the conversation by stating that he has not heard anything from either of the owners, Kevin Baronowski and another identified in an earlier article as “Justin.” He claims that he is just as much of a victim as anyone else and was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. His tone was much more upbeat and hopeful now that, in his mind, the controversy is behind him.

The controversy first started back in July 2009, when “chesterboy” from the TwoPlusTwo forums posted that he suspected that there were superusers on Pitbull Poker. Most posts like these are ignored for the most part by the community, but this player was actually a prop player and a respected longtime member of the community. Others stepped forward once he broke his silence and the site was suddenly placed under the microscope of intense scrutiny. While representatives for Pitbull Poker said there were no shady dealings at the site and that they were working to produce hand history files to back up their claims, players demanded their funds en masse.

Pitbull Poker closed its doors in the middle of the night without informing the company's employees. On-site staff called police, who did not stop owners from disconnecting and removing computer equipment. The next day, the poker room was down and all players with account balances were suddenly left in the dark. Scores of players called for justice, with some losing hundreds and others losing tens of thousands of dollars.

Players on the site weren’t the only big losers thanks to the shocking actions of the site's owners. Affiliates stepped up to say that they hadn’t been paid either, with one, “JC Hawk," leading the charge, claiming he was owed well over $100,000 from his poker site NLPT.tv on top of cash investments he made into the site directly. Hawk gathered as many individuals as he could to join his cause and worked with the Costa Rican government to help bring the owners of Pitbull Poker to justice.

Some players, including “chesterboy”, decided that they could no longer be part of the world of online poker. In an announcement on the forums, he stated that he would be leaving poker for good and joining the United States Army. In December, JC Hawk continued to state that he was pursuing legal matters against Baronowski. It was Hawk’s guess that Baronowski had fled Costa Rica and was in hiding in his native homeland of Canada.

Since the turn of the new year, there have been few new developments in the case and at this point, the prospects of affiliates and players recouping any owed funds seems to be low. Many in the industry have claimed that this story is a perfect example of why regulation and legalization of online poker is vital to protect consumers from this type of apparent fraud.

Singapore Resorts World Casino Cheating Becoming More Brash!

One form of casino cheating probably thought of by every single person who has ever entered a casino, both legit gamblers and cheats alike, is simply grabbing up a handful of big denomination casino chips right off a blackjack or craps table and stuffing them in your pocket, and then bolting for the door if someone happens to see you in the act!

Well, Singapore's new Resorts World Sentosa Casino has gotten its first taste of this. Not nearly as professional as my Harley-Davidson grab-the-chips-and-run exploits of 1980s, this 56-year-old fledgling casino cheat in Singapore, Ooi Boon Huat, allegedly pocketed ten $500 chips from a mini-baccarat table belonging to another player.

Ooi told the judge that he wasn't guilty because the player would have lost the chips to the casino anyway! Well, I imagine the judge cracked up upon hearing that, and unless the judge really hates casinos, I don't think he's gonna buy Ooi's excuse. He did tell the casino chip thief, "I know you like to go to the casino but please keep away." That was worth a laugh from me!

In addition to that advice, Ooi faces up to three years in prison.

Any Truth to News of First RFID-Aided Casino Cheat Bust?

Supposedly, and I mean supposedly, a professional roulette pastposting team suffered a cheating bust at the Wynn Casino in Las Vegas when a $1,000 chip tagged with an inner RFID chip alerted the dealer to their pastpost move. The way it was to have gone down was that one member of the team, after number 32 came out, slipped the $1,000 chip underneath a $100 on the 3rd-Dozen bet at the bottom of the layout that pays 2 to 1. The cheat team was looking to get paid $2,200 instead of the $200 the original legitimate $100 bet was owed. The dealer was instantly notified of the pastpost when his screen beeped at the sudden late presence of the $1,000 chip, and the roulette team ignorant of RFID technology was caught and its claimer (the person who claims the pastposted bet) arrested.

This was reported to me by three different e-mails from people who are not my sources. The fact that there has been no official documentation or news articles about this "major" incident makes me think it is untrue. I mean, after all, had there been a professional casino cheat team busted because of RFID technologoy, you would think the casino related newswires on the Internet would be buzzing with this, pushed heavily by those in the business of marketing RFID technology to casinos.

In fact, I have not even heard of a roulette team or any of its members being busted at the Wynn in recent times. So, again, I don't believe it happened.

My advice to all you casino cheats out there concerning RFID chips is still the same: Don't worry about them. RFID remains a non-entity as far as casino cheating goes.

Which Online Casino and Poker Portals Can You Trust?

More and more online poker and casino information sites are popping up every day. Among the promises they all make are their effectiveness in steering online poker and casino players to safe online gambling sites where they won't get cheated and where their account information and credit cards and personal information are protected. Of course you expect them all to make these guarantees. But which ones can you trust? How do you pick an online gaming informational portal to give you sound advice as far as poker cheating and casino cheating go, as well as the protection of your personal and credit histories?

Not an easy question to answer. First of all, we don't know the motives of the people operating these portal sites nor do we always know a 100% of their affiliations. If they are affiliated with certain sites, quite naturally they are going to promote those sites as the best online and the safest against cheating and information stealing. I guess the only way to minimize the possibility of taking advice from dishonest poker and casino portals is to stick with the ones that have been online the longest. So before you decide to click onto an online poker room or casino from the pages of informational portals, do a checkup on the portal itself. You can do this simply by searching these sites on any of the "Whois" web pages. You will get all the domain information, physical location, etc. Also check and read through the poker forums on this subject. Then, of course, there are the poker and casino anti-cheat safety ratings on this website.

Does this mean the biggest and oldest the better? Yes, it does, but it does not mean that you are 100% safe taking their advice. It only means that you are most probably receiving the best advice out there as far as honesty is concerned.