Canadian Provinces Treadding Tricky Online Poker Cheat-Waters by Regulating Online Poker!

Canada online poker cheating is a real risk!

source: CBS News Canada

Online gambling experts are warning provinces to brace themselves for hackers, cheats and criminal gangs that target gaming sites. The warning comes after British Columbia launched its online gambling site, a venture that was marred by a series of glitches. The province, the first to launch an internet casino operation, abruptly shut down operations mid-July, just hours after the launch, due to "load issues."

BC Lottery Corporation had more unanticipated technical glitches Thursday, but after hours of delays, they were up and running again early Friday morning. The site offers players blackjack, video poker and slots among other games.

B.C.'s website offers blackjack, video poker and slots, among other games.
As a result, BCLC continues to investigate the cause of what it calls "data crossover" that allowed users unauthorized access to 134 player accounts.

"BCLC's investigative report will hopefully be made public as to what went wrong," said criminologist John McMullan of St. Mary's University in Halifax. "I'd like to know what were the performance issues that were related to the vulnerabilities surrounding the software related to this launch."

BCLC spokesperson Seamus Gordon insisted that currently in B.C. officials have "no evidence that there was technical sabotage or hacking" aimed at the provincial site. "This was a server defect," Gordon said of the lottery's recent problems.

New to online gambling

McMullan and other gambling watchdogs fear governments new to the online gambling business stand to be ripped off by criminal gangs that are far more technologically savvy and advanced.

While B.C. is currently the only province with an online casino site, Quebec and Ontario have plans for online gambling, and Nova Scotia has expressed interest in the possibility. "I think it's a risk," McMullan said. "Provincial government should not think they are going to some way or the other create a crime-free site. To be honest, they're going to have the same kinds of issues (as existing private sites). "They are going to have to protect their players, they are going to have good technologies and good skilled security people who are able to detect these sorts of problems and filter them out before they happen," he added.

"It is a gamble ... It is a gamble in many ways, I think."

McMullan and Aunshul Rege, of the school of criminal justice at Rutgers University in New Jersey, have published a study in the Journal of Gambling Issues detailing how criminals collude, cheat and use sophisticated computer plots to shut down gaming sites altogether.

"Attacks have occurred quite frequently in all kinds of jurisdictions," McMullan said, citing several cases where cyber criminals have commandeered hundreds of computers to launch "D-DOS attacks" (Distributed Denial of Service) against gambling sites. The attack basically herds all of these computers and directs a whole bunch of requests at the site, so the site actually crawls to a stop or is taken down because it can't manage all of the requests that are coming at it. It's to show a great deal of awe to the gambling provider and then to extort ransom monies from them. Or, D-DOS attacks can be much more subtle, used as it were to sabotage or to slow down sites to gradually make that site uncompetitive."

Cheaters are well-versed

McMullan has also documented scores of cases where cheaters have used special software, readily available online, to help them play, and calculate odds against unsuspecting competitors at online gambling sites.

"They use the technology usually on autopilot to play as a stand-in for them," said McMullan, explaining there's millions to be made with the computer-assisted programs. There are all kinds of packages out there that claim to be able to allow you to play against other players, to read and understand and compete against all kinds of hands and plays that might appear at a poker table, and it gives them an advantage because they have factored all that information into an artificial intelligence program."

BCLC notes that its website PlayNow.com does not include any games where players play directly against other players, which eliminates the risk of collaboration. Cheats and online criminals are the heart of a recent scandal at one of the world's biggest online gambling sites, PokerStars.com. The company recently paid players close to $2 million US after finding a band of players from China were going online and colluding to fix games of Texas hold 'em poker.

"The allegation is that several players were playing together kind of as a team, which is against the rules," said Aaron Todd, a reporter with the online industry publication Casino City News. "Obviously, if you know what other players in the game are holding, or if you're able to manipulate who's got chip stacks, you have a tremendous advantage in these tournaments," he added. "We simply know they were in China, but we don't really know [more], outside of what their usernames were."

Todd praised PokerStars for reviewing its player data, tracing the problem and refunding the millions to players. He said there's a lesson in these kinds of cheating cases for jurisdictions looking to launch government-run online sites.

"I think that government regulation on the whole would be good because you'd then be able to go after people taking these actions," said Todd, noting that private sites are powerless to prosecute cheaters who are often anonymous and untouchable given they are offshore.

In order to play on the B.C. casino site, a person must be 19 or older and a resident of the province. Todd, like others, still fear governments, who are in the business of running traditional casinos and conventional card games, don't have the technical expertise and savvy to keep ahead of sophisticated rings of international cyber criminals.

PokerStars Responds To Chinese Collusion Ring Scandal

Source: Poker News Daily

Earlier this week, Poker News Daily reported on the allegations of a cheating scandal on the site regarding its “Double or Nothing” (DoN) sit and gos. At the time, the world’s largest site had not responded to Poker News Daily’s requests to answer some questions on the issue. After the story was posted, however, PokerStars quickly answered our questions via
e-mail.

In the original story, we mentioned a thread on the popular poker forum Two Plus Two that addressed the issue in excellent depth. A player using the name “Jane0123” stated that their account had been closed due to alleged collusion (through the use of the “whipsaw” technique) with a ring of players from China in the month of January. The thread went on to detail how, over a tw0-month span earlier this summer, PokerStars handled the case and how some players were upset over the situation.

Late Wednesday evening, a member of the Game Security team by the name of “Jackson” answered six questions posed by Poker News Daily regarding the ongoing issue. While the spokesperson did not answer how long the ring had been in operation, Jackson reported that PokerStars first discovered the activity of the ring soon after the reports in the original January Two Plus Two thread (a supplemental condensed version of the case was started in July) began. “PokerStars discovered the illicit activity in early February 2010,” Jackson stated in the e-mail. “Whilst conducting our review during this period, accounts associated with this situation were closed.”

The Two Plus Two thread stated that the ring colluded on the higher level DoN sit and gos, but PokerStars says they found evidence that the cheating went on over a much larger scale. “The cheaters were active across many stakes, some as low as our $10 and $20 DoNs,” the PokerStars spokesman reported. “However, the vast majority of the collusion occurred at both the $50 and $100 levels” (Writer’s note: These are the largest DoNs offered by PokerStars).

What was important to many involved in the situation – how many players were involved with the ring, how much money was taken, and what restitution has been made to affected players – was reported in detail by the PokerStars spokesman as possible. When it came to the issue of the number of players involved in the collusion ring, PokerStars says, “Overall, PokerStars closed 38 accounts in this case.” This is a lower number than the Two Plus Two thread states (46). Additionally, PokerStars did not provide any information as to the player identities.

The compensation issue for players affected does line up with the 2+2 report. PokerStars spokesman Jackson states, “The colluders net profit was $494,000, and despite this, PokerStars has paid a total of $2,100,000 in compensation.” Although not exact, these numbers are close to those stated by posters on the forum; however, no actual numbers of players who earned compensation – or how much – was discussed by PokerStars.

The most critical issue of game security is something that PokerStars feels they have now adequately addressed. “We agree that we have room for improvement in relation to collusion detection, and alongside our internal discussions about this particular individual case, we are also very actively discussing various techniques to improve our performance here,” Jackson stated in the e-mail. “We have various ideas about how we can improve our prevention and detection methods, but we’re always open to listening to feedback from players on the site.”

To combat the possibilities of further problems with the games, “PokerStars has introduced a new security function to prevent players from certain countries from playing in the same Double or Nothing events together,” Jackson reported. “This restriction will ensure that only one player from each of several countries (those countries involved in this restriction were not given) will be able to play in these events.” The PokerStars spokesman goes on to say, “We continue to monitor the games for collusion and we do feel that they are now adequately secure, otherwise we wouldn’t offer them. The investigation of the accounts involved, as well compensation to players, have since been finalized.”

Singapore Casino Roulette Cheat Gets Two Years in the Brig!

The so-called Tanzanian tourist who cheated the Marina Bay Sands roulette tables for more than a hundred grand has (up to now) also won first-prize at a Singapore prison: two years free room and board there.

It is still not clear if the roulette pastposter, named Kipuyo Lemburis Israel, is a professional casino cheat or simply a tourist who noticed how bad the Singaporean casino staff was and just took a couple of HUGE shots at them.

The thirty-five-year-old had been arrested with $125,000 in cash, most of it taken off the Marina Bay's roulette tables. His two-year sentence is the harshest yet handed out to casino cheats in Singapore...and there have been lots of them!

Senior District Judge See Kee Oon said as he passed sentence on the Tanzanian casino cheat, "I was of the view that substantial imprisonment terms were warranted in view of the gravity and scale of the cheating involved." He was irked by the premeditation and repetitveness of Israel's cheat moves.

All the casino's losses except for $4 have apparently been recovered.

My take: Was the $4 cab-fare to get out of town...or off the peninsula?

Two More Blackjack Cheats Nabbed in Pennsylvania Casino

The barely post-virgin Pennsylvania casinos continue their fight against the waves of casino and poker cheats descending on their tables. Thus far I can't say who is winning the casino-cheating war, though the state's casinos are managing to bust some of the low-level blackjack cheats, most of whom are simple bet-cappers, adding onto their original bets when they have a hand standing a very strong chance of winning, such as a hard twenty against a 7 dealer up-card.

The latest cheat incidents happened at the Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs casino near Wilkes-Barre, Pa. The two bet-cappers have been identified as Tjandra M. Wijono, 56, and Le Rain, 32, both of Scranton. Each was adding-on red $5 chips to their bets, not cheating the house out of any significant money. For their efforts they were both charged with fraud and cheating by deception.

My take: I am waiting to hear of the first real professional casino cheat (or cheats) to be caught in Pennsylvania. That may take awhile.

UB COO Paul Leggett Responds...Again...To UltimateBet Online Poker Cheating Scandal

The cheat-stained online poker site uas called UltimateBet.com up until the giant poker scam surfaced and settled. Ever since it has been called simply UB or UB.com. In any case, here is UB COO Leggett's latest on the execution and settlement of the biggest online poker cheat scandal ever, stressing, of course, that the inside cheats are gone forever.

"Our PR team collected some lingering questions regarding the cheating incidents that occurred a few years ago and I am posting today to try and answer them. A lot of people asked questions that were similar and specifically asked if any individuals who were involved in the cheating still have any involvement with our business.

I wanted to start off by confirming that no individual who has been linked to any cheating works for Tokwiro or any of its subsidiaries. None of these individuals have an ownership stake in our company or any company that we have debt obligations with.

I would also like to share some background information in order to provide a complete answer.

Tokwiro acquired the UltimateBet and AbsolutePoker businesses from different owners. Tokwiro is currently still servicing debt from purchasing these two businesses.

Both investigations identified different individuals as the main perpetrators of the cheating. The cheating on Ultimatebet is not linked to that which occurred on Absolutepoker. Tokwiro was audited by the Gaming Commission to ensure these individuals had no forward involvement in the business or beneficial ownership, not just in Tokwiro but also in the two companies Tokwiro has debt obligations with.

When I took the COO position with Tokwiro, the AbsolutePoker investigation had recently finished and the UltimateBet one was just around the corner. Amongst other things, the result of the AbsolutePoker investigation required Tokwiro to demonstrate to the Gaming Commission, and their auditors, that a list of certain individuals were no longer working for the business and that they had no ownership of any kind. The list of individuals included all names that were associated with the cheating in any way or form and also anyone who was identified as hindering the investigation.

The entire AbsolutePoker cheating incident and its aftermath was very offensive to anyone who is aware of it. However, it was my job to pick up the pieces and figure out how to move forward. Some of the questions I received accused me of lying about the investigation and trying to cover it up but I have never done anything of the sort. I openly admit that I have quoted from the investigative reports that were given to me, which included a full confession and demonstration of how the cheating was done. I was not directly involved in the investigation of the AbsolutePoker incident and it’s difficult for me to know or prove what exactly happened, but I thought it was important for us to answer questions at that time, ensuring that the refunds were completed correctly and reassuring the poker community that no offensive individuals had any involvement with our company moving forward.

I was very involved with the UltimateBet investigation as the cheating was discovered about 2 weeks after I became COO. Some people still have questions about who was involved with the cheating and additional questions about our relationship with the Excapsa Group of companies. In 2006, Excapsa sold the UltimateBet brand, software and business to Tokwiro. Tokwiro was not aware of the underlying cheating scandal that was taking place at that time on the UltimateBet platform.

After months of investigations by Gaming Associates and the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC), the KGC named Russ Hamilton as the main perpetrator of the cheating. Some people have a hard time believing that Russ was the only person involved in the cheating. The truth is that all of the data facts pointed to him. The cheating was occurring from places where Russ lived and worked, the money was being moved through accounts he controlled himself or through people who reported directly to him or his close friends. The accounts and usernames were created/adjusted by people who worked directly for him, etc. It is definitely possible that Russ had other accomplices who might have helped him with the actual cheating but we have no physical evidence of it. We have continued to try to find the truth about who built the software and who else from Excapsa might have known about the cheating. We can make educated guesses but without testimony or physical evidence it is impossible for us to prove the involvement of others.

I also received several questions about Excapsa and the settlement that happened between them and Tokwiro. The Excapsa Group is the group of companies that operated UltimateBet prior to selling it to Tokwiro. The UltimateBet business and assets were transferred to Tokwiro through a company called “Blast Off”. It seems there is a lot of confusion about this but basically the Excapsa Group transferred all of the assets to Blast Off and then sold Blast Off to Tokwiro. Tokwiro is a Sole Proprietorship of Joseph Norton’s and he is the sole owner of both Tokwiro and Blast Off. When we issued a demand letter to the Excapsa Group relating to this fraud, we ended up negotiating a $15,000,000.00 USD settlement. At the time of the negotiation, we believed this number exceeded the amount of the money that was stolen from players. However, we then learned of more accounts that were involved in the cheating and the number increased significantly to almost $23million. Unfortunately, the complicated settlement (Excapsa is still currently in liquidation which made it very difficult to get approval for a settlement) was so far along and stopping this in its tracks to start all over again would have been too time consuming, so we made the decision to accept the $15million and take the rest on the chin in order to get players their money back in its entirety immediately. As a part of the settlement, Russ Hamilton’s shares had to be cancelled and he could no longer receive benefit from the business. Hamilton’s shares were held in Trusts and all of these shares were cancelled.

Nobody that worked for Tokwiro was involved in the cheating in any way; so nobody from within Tokwiro was fired. We were able to see Hamilton’s shares cancelled and we have also cut all ties from the old UltimateBet software and all relationships with the initial founders of UltimateBet were completely severed.

I hope this helps answer some of the outstanding questions that some people in the community wanted to hear us respond to."

My take: Well, it sounds as good as it reads. What does it mean? Probably that UB.com is now as safe as any other online poker room. What does that mean? I don't know...and I am not LOL!

Swedish Casinos Used Extensively to Launder Money

Source: The Local

The four Swedish state-run casinos in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö and Sundsvall reported a total of 161 cases of suspected money-laundering in the first six months of 2010, new figures from the Gaming Board for Sweden show.

Casino Cosmopol in Malmö reported the highest incidence of suspected money-laundering, relative to visitor numbers, with 45 cases of money laundering during the first half of 2010, according to the figures compiled on request by the Siren news agency.

Casino Cosmopol Sundsvall had the lowest, with eight cases, and according to the casino chain's CEO, Per Jaldung, the difference is due to the make up of a casino's clientèle. "Sundsvall is typically a calmer casino where the middle age is also higher," he said.

Stockholm topped the statistics with 10 suspected cases of money laundering, followed by Gothenburg with 5. According to David Engstrand at the Gaming Board the figures have remained largely unchanged since 2009.
"There were 172 cases reported in the first six months of 2009, so they remain at a roughly consistent level," Engstrand told The Local.

Engstrand explained the figures cover the number of reports from Casino Cosmopol casinos to the Swedish Finance Police (FiPo) and it they who then decide whether to pursue the cases. The statistics also detail incidents of cheating and forgery, public order, and voluntary bans over the period.

While Stockholm and Gothenburg lead the statistics in all categories they are also the busiest casinos with an average of 33,600 and 27,500 guests per month respectively. Malmö averaged around 20,000, while Sundsvall welcomed around 15,000 per month.

Canadian Casino and Poker Cheats...Beware!

If you are planning a casino-cheating or poker-cheating trip in Canada, be careful! That is because the Canadian government has just passed several new laws amending the definition and punishment of gambling and casino crimes. In short, the Canadians want to punish poker and casino cheats with stiffer sentences for cheating their casinos and poker rooms.

This sudden change in legislation obviously is connected to the recent cheating scams that have hit Canadian casinos the past several years, including, of course, the international Tran Organization mini-baccarat scam that victimized Casino Rama among others in Canada. Basically, any gaming conviction could carry a penalty of five years in prison.

What about punishing online casino and poker cheating in Canada? That is still murky, and it seems that the government's attention there is to punish online sites that cheat the players through UltimateBet and Absolute Poker-type cheating scams, in which insiders manipulate software to cheat legitimate players.

Canada's Biggest Casino Hit With Another Mini-Baccarat Scam...This Time By Korean Card-Switchers!

The Casino Rama in Ontario was one of the biggest victims of the Vietnamese Tran Organization's false-shuffle mini-baccarat scam (search blog for details). Now it has been hit again by a Korean casino-cheat team with six members...and for big money! According to Canadian casino-crime investigators, Jae Gook Kim, 30, Tae Sik Kim, 55, Sam Yeung Kim, 45, John Yoon Lee, 47, and Seung Chui Cho, 22, all of Seoul, Korea, and Un Gi Kim, 37, of Toronto, bilked Casino Rama out of more than $200,000 by switching cards on the midi-baccarat game, which is a modified version of mini-baccarat. The cheating took place the first two days of August.

The casino cops obtained search warrants of the cheat organization's hotel rooms and seized fifteen grand. The rest of their cheat-winnings were not found. Perhaps the cheats sent the money back to Korea or blew it legitimately gambling somewhere else...who knows? In any event, all six were charged with cheating at gambling and possession of property worth more than $5,000 obtained in a criminal enterprise. They are being held pending a bail hearing.

My take: First of all, I don't know why casinos bothered putting in midi-baccarat tables. Unlike MINI-baccarat, players get to touch the first two cards of each hand, making the casinos vulnerable to card-switching.

As far as this Korean casino-cheat team goes, they were probably good but probably as well a bit too greedy. Two hundred grand is a big number over two days, even in high-action baccarat pits. I'm assuming that after the casino lost the ton of money to the Korean cheats, at some point they began zooming in their surveillance cameras and caught the switches. I wonder why it took "$200,000 long" to finally realize what was going on.

Also note that Korean casino-cheat teams and gangs are becoming much more prevalent the past few years, both in brick and mortar and online casinos. Just a few weeks ago, a huge Korean online poker cheating ring was busted for hacking into source codes of several online poker rooms.

Cake Poker Comes Under Online Poker Cheat Scrutiny!

The latest in the online poker cheating vine, which continues to tangle up like a massive spider web of cheating, is that Cake Poker network’s security system is flawed and that there are risks such as those encountered at the CEREUS poker network, which is the system used at UltimateBet.com and Absolute Poker.

According to online poker cheat insiders, Cake’s servers are not nearly as secure as they would have liked you to believe. Flaws in their security have made it susceptible for third parties to steal personal data transmitted between the players and the Cake poker room. Inasmuch any sensitive player account information could have been compromised during transmission. This security breach allowed user names and passwords to be stolen by data thieves...and supposedly opened the door for hole cards to be compromised the way they were at UltimateBet, in the online poker cheat scam of the century.

Cake poker room manager Lee Jones issued this statement on the latest online poker cheats scandal: “Our development team replicated the described scenario and confirmed that a vulnerability exists. We take this very seriously and have mobilized a team of senior engineers to address the problem. In short, we are adding an SSL layer to secure all communication between our servers and the client software. We’ve got everybody who can possibly help on this and will get the development and testing jobs completed as soon as humanly possible.

All this comes just months after Mr. Jones declared that Cake Poker had stronger encryption codes than the CEREUS poker network.

My take: Here we go again!

Low-Level Blackjack Cheats Continue Their Assault on Pennsylvania's New Casinos

Of course this is to be expected in any new casino area, but Pennsylvania, whose casinos opened up table games two weeks ago, is really getting hit by the riffraff of casino cheats. This is a far cry from the huge sums of money that cheats are siphoning off the new casinos in Singapore.

We've already heard about the bet-cappers and about the guy who ran away from the cage as he was about to be nabbed for passing $100 counterfeit chips of very poor quality. Now we're seeing the bet-pinchers, the guys who try to pinch back their losing chips before the dealer can sweep them into the table rack. Over the weekend, a twenty-eight year-old man named Thomas Albright bet $15, three red $5 chips on a hand of blackjack. He lost the hand and then attempted to remove one of the $5 chips from his bet, thus trying to save $5 on the hand. The dealer caught him on his first attempt, and naturally, like all rookie casinos do, the pit supervisor ran right to the videotape. Surveillance confirmed the pinch-action, then security read Albright the riot act...but with a twist. Instead of being barred permanently from the casino, he was ordered not to return for thirty days.

My take: Why didn't Albright try to pinch back two $5 chips instead of one...or why not the whole $15 bet? LOL