This just keeps getting bigger and bigger, regardless what officials at Absolute Poker say to try and put out the fire. A second name has surfaced, a certain A.J. Green, apparently an associate and close friend of Scott Tom, the first big-wig implicated. One thing I can tell you about all this is that no matter how many names end up publicly linked to this scandal, we will never know the full scale of it. This scam is huge! I have been getting tons of e-mails asking if it is still safe to play online poker. My response is always the same, as it was in my book "Dirty Poker." Playing online poker is safe most of the time, which really means about two-thirds of the time, I mean COMPLETELY safe. Granted, I don't expect to see many scams of this nature, but the sites, contrary to what they claim, are not entirely safe from outside hackers. Remember this: if they can hack US government sites, they can hack offshore online poker sites.
Here's the latest article:
Absolute Poker Scandal: Who is AJ Green?
The weekend hardly got in the way of the ongoing "Absolute Poker scandal" involving an internal breach where at least one AP high ranking employee had been cheating real customers. The online poker community is intent on believing that others from the company may also be involved.
Today, the regulatory body licensing Absolute Poker released a statement and all eyes now seem to be focusing on one AJ Green, who had previously been employed as a manager at Nine.com and as a former Vice President of Operations at Absolute Poker. He is said to also be close friends with another suspect in the Absolute Poker scandal, Scott Tom.
Many have said AJ Green is still with Nine.com in Costa Rica even though that company was moved to the Netherlands Antilles last year and most of its management staff were either let go or moved to Curacao.
From the Nine.com website:
Nine.com is now privately owned with offices and representatives in Curacao and Antigua. Recognized for its outstanding service to its customers, the management team who have built Nine.com remain in place and are committed to continuing to provide the same excellent service.
It should be noted that while AJ Green may have been in management at Nine.com, he was far from high ranking. Gambling911.com was close to all the Nine.com executives prior to being absorbed into VIP.com. In fact, we attended their 2005 celebrity Super Bowl bash in Las Vegas along with cast members of the Sopranos who were good friends with Mike (Nichols) from Nine.com (not to mention Superman Dean Cain).
Both Nine.com and Absolute Poker operated next store to one another in a Mall outside of Escazu, Costa Rica. Another online gambling company, Jazz Sports, operated out of the same mall.
AJ Green and Scott Tom are believed to have become good friends during the period in which the two businesses operated alongside one another. It does not appear that AJ Green was part of the fraternity that the original founders of Absolute Poker were members of. Gambling911.com has always been well aware that AP was started by a bunch of poker playing fraternity brothers. AJ Green can easily be implicated here. Don't think for a moment that these frat brothers are going to implicate one another if any were involved. That simply won't happen.
AJ Green is described by those who know him in Costa Rica as an "a**hole". We hardly knew the guy to say one way or another.
By late Sunday, PocketFives was reporting that the "culprit" was indeed a person "second in charge" at Absolute, which goes against previous statements that this individual was either a "tech geek who knew the software intimately" or a "consultant".
"This person was the second in charge and has been fired from Absolute Poker, and his one superior Scott Tom is going to be removed from running AP for a significant period of time. For legal reasons the Absolute Poker release is not going to specifically name this person, and I will elaborate on that fact and why it makes perfect sense. Most of us know this persons name already as it has already been widely reported."
A representative for Absolute Poker told Gambling911.com that he is hopefully that this individual's name will be released.
"This person was Scott Tom's best friend and actually lived at Scott Tom's house in Costa Rica. Scott Tom has been living in Panama for quite some time, and the day to day operations of AP were left to the care of his best friend and second in charge at AP. Unfortunately since the person in command of AP was also the thief he obviously issued numerous steadfast denials of any wrong doing. Basically he was investigating himself.
"Since this person was a high ranking official he had access to very sensitive information, not only regarding the operations of the company, but also very sensitive information regarding player accounts, balances, names, deposits, withdrawals etc. Because of the Internet Gaming Act their is still a wide gray area as to what is sensitive and what is not. As such the attorneys for both AP and the KGC have the same opinion that is best not to release his name publicly for the simple fact that they do not want more harm being done to the industry as a result of this person possibly trying to disclose this information publicly as a retaliation for him being fired from AP.
"Further, even though Scott Tom was not involved in the actual theft, he is responsible for the actions of his friend and second in charge of the company, which is why he is being removed for a significant time frame while the entire process of restoring trust in AP takes place."
Scott Tom is currently in hiding and no doubt fearing for his life and the possibility that he could be taken into custody, which is essentially what the online poker community wants to see at this point. He has not made any statements.
There are also reports that the individual behind this cheating scandal has a serious coke habit.
An individual posting anonymously on the MajorWager.com posting forum claims that original shareholders in Absolute Poker are owed a total of USD 250,000,000 and that Scott Tom has "blown them off".
"Let's discuss exactly how Scott Tom and his cronies have treated shareholders. These are the people that risked their hard-earned savings to give Absolute Poker its start many years ago.
"Scott Tom and his cronies have totally blown off shareholders. While they are busy flying around the World spending thousands and thousands on luxury - shareholders have seen little more than a trickle.
"Today, Shareholders are totally ignored by Scott Tom and his Absolute Poker Management. Calls and emails are ignored. Shareholders have no access to Scott Tom. Behind a curtain setup by lawyers, Absolute Poker was sold to yet another shell company belonging to Scott Tom. This minimized any return shareholders can get."
Monday, October 22, 2007
Roulette Computer Wars!
I get at least 100 e-mails per month asking about roulette computers, and more than half of them ask me about the two main online purveyors of this equipment, Mark Anthony Howe and Stefano Hourmouzis. It seems that these two are always at each other's throat and constantly accusing the other of everything from selling bogus equipment to running websites with a host of phony names. But what's really important here is whether either or both of them have roulette computers that are going to make you any money. The answer is yes and no. The "no" is that none of their computers will earn you enough to overcome the overall expenses of conducting a roulette operation. There are many expenses involved, and some of the roulette profits must be expensed to create continuous playing opportunities, without which you will soon be out of business. What I'm saying is that both their computers (whichever ones they're offering at any time) will actually give you a slight edge but not enough to really get off profitably.
So where's the "yes." The answer to that is that these computers serve well as a training function. Teams should practice with these relatively cheap computers to see whether they can function the equipment while staying under the casino radar. As I tell dozens of people every week, success is only partially about the equipment. If your not top notch in the human-operational area, you will fail regardless of what your equipment is, so it's best to start with low-level equipment before investing in the expensive stuff.
I also hear that Hourmouzis is giving a free roulette computer seminar at the Hilton attached to the Melbourne, Australia airport. Well, if you happen to live in Melbourne or can take a cheap ride there from another Australian city, it might be worth the experience, otherwise I'd probably let it go. Using this equipment, though at times burdensome, is not difficult.
A fallacy I'd like to put to rest concerning the people selling roulette computers is that "If they have the equipment that supposedly works, why don't they use it themselves instead of selling it?" Well, it's not that black and white, I can surely tell you that. There are people with lots of legitimate reasons who sell casino-winning tips and equipment instead of applying it themselves. So don't assume that these people are frauds, even if they may be using "shell websites" to push their stuff.
More on this topic will be coming.
So where's the "yes." The answer to that is that these computers serve well as a training function. Teams should practice with these relatively cheap computers to see whether they can function the equipment while staying under the casino radar. As I tell dozens of people every week, success is only partially about the equipment. If your not top notch in the human-operational area, you will fail regardless of what your equipment is, so it's best to start with low-level equipment before investing in the expensive stuff.
I also hear that Hourmouzis is giving a free roulette computer seminar at the Hilton attached to the Melbourne, Australia airport. Well, if you happen to live in Melbourne or can take a cheap ride there from another Australian city, it might be worth the experience, otherwise I'd probably let it go. Using this equipment, though at times burdensome, is not difficult.
A fallacy I'd like to put to rest concerning the people selling roulette computers is that "If they have the equipment that supposedly works, why don't they use it themselves instead of selling it?" Well, it's not that black and white, I can surely tell you that. There are people with lots of legitimate reasons who sell casino-winning tips and equipment instead of applying it themselves. So don't assume that these people are frauds, even if they may be using "shell websites" to push their stuff.
More on this topic will be coming.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Absolute Poker Mystery Man/External Hacking
So now we have learned the identity of the man allegedly behind the Absolute Poker scandal, and AP itself has admitted to the internal breach. But, they say, no person can hack into their system from the outside. Should we believe this? Absolutely not! I have seen external hacking into major online sites with my own eyes as recently as a year ago, and I highly doubt that since that time any site has become 100 percent impenetrable. In fact, it is my opinion that total security will never be achieved in online poker. And even if it were, this would not stamp out internal cheating by programmers who know the systems. Online sites have long claimed that it is not worth the money to anyone involved in their employ to cheat, but apparently it is to some, and no matter how much money people make, some of them for numerous reasons are compelled to cheat for more. In my book "Dirty Poker" I enumerated some of these. I am not looking to exaggerate this, but just be aware, and if you think something fishy is going on while playing online, it very well could be. In that case, get off that particular site and go elsewhere.
Here's that "Thief ID'd" article:
Absolute Poker Mystery Man Revealed
In an attempt to uncover the names and faces behind Absolute Poker, Internet sleuths have been working around the clock trying to identify various individuals, many of whom showed up on the pages of Gambling911.com during the month of August 2006.
Absolute Poker has been in the midst of an unprecedented crisis involving an internal breach (see: Absolute Poker Admits "Internal Breach" ).
Of special interest to the online poker community at Two Plus Two was Jenny Woo's posing with a gentleman some mistook for alleged "culprit" in the Absolute Poker "cheating scandal" as one Scott Tom.
Many claim Tom is the so-called "smoking gun" in all of this. Absolute management deny that Tom had anything to do with the cheating episode. Tom himself has remained in hiding.
"Scott Tom is one of the original founders. He has played on the site but is no longer legally involved," a spokesperson for Absolute Poker told Gambling911.com. He was also never a CEO of Absolute as some have reported. Absolute Poker claims a tech employee gained access and was able to play in tournaments against real Absolute customers while having the ability to see all their whole cards. Not surprisingly, the Absolute Poker employee won.
The individual appearing with Jenny Woo in the above photo was a non-management employee by the name of Juan. Woo and Rebecca Liggero of CasinoCity.com made a routine visit to both Absolute Poker and Nine.com's office in one of Costa Rica's leading shopping mall complexes. Many have drawn connections between Nine.com and Absolute as a result, however, much of Nine.com's staff was eliminated when the brand was moved to Curacao late last year and incorporated into VIP.com.
"Here I am with Rebecca and Manuel" Jenny made mention of another Absolute Poker employee many in the online poker community were trying to identify on Saturday. Manuel is active in affiliate gatherings.
Like with most US-facing online gambling companies, few if any of the actual principals involved are willing to show their faces or use their real names out of fear they will become targets of US Federal and State investigations into "illegal web gambling". Calvin Ayre, the high profile founder of Bodog.com, has recently shown up on one such list, Gambling911.com learned this week. Only Costa Rican employees were photographed during the 2006 visit.
Members of the Two Plus Two forum, convinced that Tom is the main culprit and not some tech guy out to prove he can break into the software platform, would love to see the Absolute Poker co-founder brought to justice. Reactions are such that a public hanging may not be too far-fetched either.
Still, Absolute Poker contends that management - either current or former - would have any reason to engage in such criminal activity.
"Absolute Poker takes in so much money, why would any of the owners risk damaging such a successful business by cheating?" the rep points out.
The representative also eased concerns over Absolute Poker potentially having a "run of the bank" as a result of this crisis.
"It's business as usual and payouts are not being delayed in the least."
Of major concern to Absolute Poker was the fact that an excel sheet containing confidential customer information had been sent out by an "irresponsible" employee.
By Saturday, Absolute had started calling everyone in the POTRIPPER tournament and giving them $500 for accidentally releasing their personal information according to a report filed at PocketFives.com.
On a side note, a plane carrying Absolute Poker executives from Panama City, Panama to Costa Rica nearly crashed Wednesday evening following two aborted landings. This is one week that Absolute Poker management were hoping would end quickly but the upcoming week may not have much better in store based on the persistence of the online poker community in getting to the bottom of this matter. A third party auditing firm has also begun its investigation into the Absolute "breach".
Here's that "Thief ID'd" article:
Absolute Poker Mystery Man Revealed
In an attempt to uncover the names and faces behind Absolute Poker, Internet sleuths have been working around the clock trying to identify various individuals, many of whom showed up on the pages of Gambling911.com during the month of August 2006.
Absolute Poker has been in the midst of an unprecedented crisis involving an internal breach (see: Absolute Poker Admits "Internal Breach" ).
Of special interest to the online poker community at Two Plus Two was Jenny Woo's posing with a gentleman some mistook for alleged "culprit" in the Absolute Poker "cheating scandal" as one Scott Tom.
Many claim Tom is the so-called "smoking gun" in all of this. Absolute management deny that Tom had anything to do with the cheating episode. Tom himself has remained in hiding.
"Scott Tom is one of the original founders. He has played on the site but is no longer legally involved," a spokesperson for Absolute Poker told Gambling911.com. He was also never a CEO of Absolute as some have reported. Absolute Poker claims a tech employee gained access and was able to play in tournaments against real Absolute customers while having the ability to see all their whole cards. Not surprisingly, the Absolute Poker employee won.
The individual appearing with Jenny Woo in the above photo was a non-management employee by the name of Juan. Woo and Rebecca Liggero of CasinoCity.com made a routine visit to both Absolute Poker and Nine.com's office in one of Costa Rica's leading shopping mall complexes. Many have drawn connections between Nine.com and Absolute as a result, however, much of Nine.com's staff was eliminated when the brand was moved to Curacao late last year and incorporated into VIP.com.
"Here I am with Rebecca and Manuel" Jenny made mention of another Absolute Poker employee many in the online poker community were trying to identify on Saturday. Manuel is active in affiliate gatherings.
Like with most US-facing online gambling companies, few if any of the actual principals involved are willing to show their faces or use their real names out of fear they will become targets of US Federal and State investigations into "illegal web gambling". Calvin Ayre, the high profile founder of Bodog.com, has recently shown up on one such list, Gambling911.com learned this week. Only Costa Rican employees were photographed during the 2006 visit.
Members of the Two Plus Two forum, convinced that Tom is the main culprit and not some tech guy out to prove he can break into the software platform, would love to see the Absolute Poker co-founder brought to justice. Reactions are such that a public hanging may not be too far-fetched either.
Still, Absolute Poker contends that management - either current or former - would have any reason to engage in such criminal activity.
"Absolute Poker takes in so much money, why would any of the owners risk damaging such a successful business by cheating?" the rep points out.
The representative also eased concerns over Absolute Poker potentially having a "run of the bank" as a result of this crisis.
"It's business as usual and payouts are not being delayed in the least."
Of major concern to Absolute Poker was the fact that an excel sheet containing confidential customer information had been sent out by an "irresponsible" employee.
By Saturday, Absolute had started calling everyone in the POTRIPPER tournament and giving them $500 for accidentally releasing their personal information according to a report filed at PocketFives.com.
On a side note, a plane carrying Absolute Poker executives from Panama City, Panama to Costa Rica nearly crashed Wednesday evening following two aborted landings. This is one week that Absolute Poker management were hoping would end quickly but the upcoming week may not have much better in store based on the persistence of the online poker community in getting to the bottom of this matter. A third party auditing firm has also begun its investigation into the Absolute "breach".
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
HOLECARDGATE!
The Absolute Poker scandal is getting deeper by the minute, and it is now certain that crooked players have been freely peeking at opponents' hole cards, and some nefarious employees at AP have been involved.
This really pisses me off! Not because online poker is being proven in at least this instance to be a fraud, but because I warned the public about all this almost two years ago in my book "Dirty Poker." I spoke about "Peeker" and other hole-card-reading programs that were being sold for lots of money, those that are used without co-conspirators working for the sites. What really gets me livid is how so many of the big-time poker know-it-alls like Mason Malmuth and others on these "informative" websites had badmouthed me and my book, Malmuth referring to it as pure rubbish. Well, lo and behold, now some people are starting to see the light. Like I said now, and I will say it again, beware of playing online poker. Between collusion, bots, hacking, hole-card reading, money laundering, and employee thieves, you can bet your last ace that as much as 1/3 of people playing online are cheating! And that number will go up.
If this cheating problem is not resolved, in 10 years online poker risks going the way of the dinosaur!
Here are the latest articles about Absolute Poker and Pokerstars:
#1 Many people are extremely curious as to how the Absolute Poker and Pokerstars investigations are progressing. Neither situation has been resolved as of yet, so we can only tell you the things that we have heard from various sources within the industry. Until we receive some sort of official statements from either company, take anything you read here with a grain of salt.
The Absolute Poker investigation into "Holecard-Gate?" From our perspective, it has been a frustrating stonewall of silence. We've heard one "official" statement from the company, which was an affiliate manager posting a poorly-written "statement" on a poker affiliate website.
Keep in mind that this scandal first erupted about 3 to 3 1/2 weeks ago. I am not sure whether or not the company is actually investigating or just hoping that the whole thing just goes away and people forget about it. Until the company issues some sort of formal statement to the players of its site, we are not going to let the issue drop.
This isn't some small matter. Many in the poker community think that there is something shady going on at the company. The company's response to the entire matter has been pretty weak so far. Their only "statement" raised more questions than answers. If I were the owner of a poker room and people were questioning in the integrity of my site, I would be going wild, posting on every message board and sending out email after email to my users, making sure that they knew that my site was safe to play on. That is if there were no problems with my site. Absolute Poker's silence in this matter is deafening. Is there truth to the accusation that there were some "superuser" accounts on Absolute Poker that could see hole cards of other players at the table? I would suggest that someone high up at Absolute Poker seriously address this question.
In the matter of "theV0id", Pokerstars is still investigating by all accounts.
Pokerstars has made all of the right moves so far. They immediately began the investigation once the allegations of multi-accounting surfaced, they reached out to the online community to keep them posted and confirm that there was indeed an investigation, and they seem to be thoroughly investigating before making any decision.
We've heard rumors that they will be confiscating all of the earnings from "TheV0id" for the main event win, but this is unconfirmed. Until you hear it directly from Pokerstars, don't believe anything that you hear. The "TheV0id" account hasn't been banned as of yet from Pokerstars, that's all that we can tell you with 100% certainty.
Considering that there may have been cheating involved in their biggest event of the year, you can forgive Pokerstars for taking some extra time to make sure that every detail is checked and re-checked before making an official decision and announcement.
#2 Absolute Poker: Going, Going..
Online poker room absolute poker in big trouble The Absolute Poker controversy keeps getting more wild by the day.
So when we last left you, Absolute Poker had issued a statement denying that anyone had access to a "superuser" account and that no one could see any hole cards. After poring over the hand histories and evidence, they said, they had found no evidence of any wrong-doing. They would continue to investigate though, they had said. I thought at the time that Absolute Poker would just go into ignore mode from that point on, and the issue would eventually be dropped.
Well hold on..
Apparently, "CrazyMarco" (the player who had come second in that now infamous tournament that was won by "Potripper") asked for the hand histories from this tournament from Absolute Poker.
Absolute Poker sent the hand histories. Unfortunately for them, they also included the hole cards of every player at the table, and not just CrazyMarco's hole cards.
After viewing just a couple of hands, you can come to the conclusion that Potripper was cheating. The evidence is overwhelming. It is just ridiculous, and I find it hard to believe that they didn't do a better job of hiding it. Always getting his money in good, and never putting in an extra chip when he is behind in a hand. Going over the top of a re-raiser of a board of 8d 6d 3s holding the Q 10 of clubs, when his opponents are holding K J and Q J. Holding pocket Jacks against an opponent holding A Q, and check folding on the turn when a Queen comes out. Playing almost every hand when his opponents aren't dealt a big hand, but folding when an opponent at the table is dealt a big hand. Open folding KQ one hand (when an opponent is dealt AA), but raising 2/6 UTG when none of his opponents at the table have big hands. Going through a stretch when he wins something ridiculous like 65 hands out of a total of 90 hands. You can go on and on; if you need to see for yourself, there is plenty of evidence on Pocketfives and Twoplustwo. The people on those sites have done a TREMENDOUS job in getting these hand histories out to the public. Who knows how many other tournaments on Absolute were won in this fashion?
Absolute automatically loses all credibility because they say that there was no evidence of a "superuser" account in the hand histories. Oh really?
The best part of this story is just being fleshed out right now though. Who was involved in this operation?
Absolute Poker not only made a huge blunder in sending out the hand history with all of the hole cards displayed, but they also included the email addresses / account id's / IP Addresses of everyone who opened up a table as an observer during this tournament.
Apparently an Absolute Poker account with an ID of 363 opened up Potripper's table two hands into the tournament and railed him the entire way. The ID number is significant because this would indicate that this account was one of the first accounts EVER at Absolute Poker, making it likely that this is a person with extremely close ties to the company (employee, owner, shareholder, etc.)
Potripper folds the first two hands of the tournament, then ID 363 opens up Potripper's table to observe, and suddenly Potripper starts going wild, winning practically every hand.
The prevailing theory in the poker community? Potripper was a dummy account, and ID 363 had access to hole cards, and was relaying them to "Potripper."
Apparently the IP address of User ID 363 resolves to Costa Rica as well, which is home to Absolute Poker.
The story gets more interesting by the minute, and I am doing my best to keep up with it.
I feel that it's important to report on this story, as it has big implications for online poker as a whole. In the end, protecting players is much more important to me than burning a bridge with an online poker room. We need to do our part to get the story out there, so that everyone can figure out exactly what happened, and make sure that it doesn't happen again. Nothing can be explained away in regards to this situation, the cat is out of the bag.
This really pisses me off! Not because online poker is being proven in at least this instance to be a fraud, but because I warned the public about all this almost two years ago in my book "Dirty Poker." I spoke about "Peeker" and other hole-card-reading programs that were being sold for lots of money, those that are used without co-conspirators working for the sites. What really gets me livid is how so many of the big-time poker know-it-alls like Mason Malmuth and others on these "informative" websites had badmouthed me and my book, Malmuth referring to it as pure rubbish. Well, lo and behold, now some people are starting to see the light. Like I said now, and I will say it again, beware of playing online poker. Between collusion, bots, hacking, hole-card reading, money laundering, and employee thieves, you can bet your last ace that as much as 1/3 of people playing online are cheating! And that number will go up.
If this cheating problem is not resolved, in 10 years online poker risks going the way of the dinosaur!
Here are the latest articles about Absolute Poker and Pokerstars:
#1 Many people are extremely curious as to how the Absolute Poker and Pokerstars investigations are progressing. Neither situation has been resolved as of yet, so we can only tell you the things that we have heard from various sources within the industry. Until we receive some sort of official statements from either company, take anything you read here with a grain of salt.
The Absolute Poker investigation into "Holecard-Gate?" From our perspective, it has been a frustrating stonewall of silence. We've heard one "official" statement from the company, which was an affiliate manager posting a poorly-written "statement" on a poker affiliate website.
Keep in mind that this scandal first erupted about 3 to 3 1/2 weeks ago. I am not sure whether or not the company is actually investigating or just hoping that the whole thing just goes away and people forget about it. Until the company issues some sort of formal statement to the players of its site, we are not going to let the issue drop.
This isn't some small matter. Many in the poker community think that there is something shady going on at the company. The company's response to the entire matter has been pretty weak so far. Their only "statement" raised more questions than answers. If I were the owner of a poker room and people were questioning in the integrity of my site, I would be going wild, posting on every message board and sending out email after email to my users, making sure that they knew that my site was safe to play on. That is if there were no problems with my site. Absolute Poker's silence in this matter is deafening. Is there truth to the accusation that there were some "superuser" accounts on Absolute Poker that could see hole cards of other players at the table? I would suggest that someone high up at Absolute Poker seriously address this question.
In the matter of "theV0id", Pokerstars is still investigating by all accounts.
Pokerstars has made all of the right moves so far. They immediately began the investigation once the allegations of multi-accounting surfaced, they reached out to the online community to keep them posted and confirm that there was indeed an investigation, and they seem to be thoroughly investigating before making any decision.
We've heard rumors that they will be confiscating all of the earnings from "TheV0id" for the main event win, but this is unconfirmed. Until you hear it directly from Pokerstars, don't believe anything that you hear. The "TheV0id" account hasn't been banned as of yet from Pokerstars, that's all that we can tell you with 100% certainty.
Considering that there may have been cheating involved in their biggest event of the year, you can forgive Pokerstars for taking some extra time to make sure that every detail is checked and re-checked before making an official decision and announcement.
#2 Absolute Poker: Going, Going..
Online poker room absolute poker in big trouble The Absolute Poker controversy keeps getting more wild by the day.
So when we last left you, Absolute Poker had issued a statement denying that anyone had access to a "superuser" account and that no one could see any hole cards. After poring over the hand histories and evidence, they said, they had found no evidence of any wrong-doing. They would continue to investigate though, they had said. I thought at the time that Absolute Poker would just go into ignore mode from that point on, and the issue would eventually be dropped.
Well hold on..
Apparently, "CrazyMarco" (the player who had come second in that now infamous tournament that was won by "Potripper") asked for the hand histories from this tournament from Absolute Poker.
Absolute Poker sent the hand histories. Unfortunately for them, they also included the hole cards of every player at the table, and not just CrazyMarco's hole cards.
After viewing just a couple of hands, you can come to the conclusion that Potripper was cheating. The evidence is overwhelming. It is just ridiculous, and I find it hard to believe that they didn't do a better job of hiding it. Always getting his money in good, and never putting in an extra chip when he is behind in a hand. Going over the top of a re-raiser of a board of 8d 6d 3s holding the Q 10 of clubs, when his opponents are holding K J and Q J. Holding pocket Jacks against an opponent holding A Q, and check folding on the turn when a Queen comes out. Playing almost every hand when his opponents aren't dealt a big hand, but folding when an opponent at the table is dealt a big hand. Open folding KQ one hand (when an opponent is dealt AA), but raising 2/6 UTG when none of his opponents at the table have big hands. Going through a stretch when he wins something ridiculous like 65 hands out of a total of 90 hands. You can go on and on; if you need to see for yourself, there is plenty of evidence on Pocketfives and Twoplustwo. The people on those sites have done a TREMENDOUS job in getting these hand histories out to the public. Who knows how many other tournaments on Absolute were won in this fashion?
Absolute automatically loses all credibility because they say that there was no evidence of a "superuser" account in the hand histories. Oh really?
The best part of this story is just being fleshed out right now though. Who was involved in this operation?
Absolute Poker not only made a huge blunder in sending out the hand history with all of the hole cards displayed, but they also included the email addresses / account id's / IP Addresses of everyone who opened up a table as an observer during this tournament.
Apparently an Absolute Poker account with an ID of 363 opened up Potripper's table two hands into the tournament and railed him the entire way. The ID number is significant because this would indicate that this account was one of the first accounts EVER at Absolute Poker, making it likely that this is a person with extremely close ties to the company (employee, owner, shareholder, etc.)
Potripper folds the first two hands of the tournament, then ID 363 opens up Potripper's table to observe, and suddenly Potripper starts going wild, winning practically every hand.
The prevailing theory in the poker community? Potripper was a dummy account, and ID 363 had access to hole cards, and was relaying them to "Potripper."
Apparently the IP address of User ID 363 resolves to Costa Rica as well, which is home to Absolute Poker.
The story gets more interesting by the minute, and I am doing my best to keep up with it.
I feel that it's important to report on this story, as it has big implications for online poker as a whole. In the end, protecting players is much more important to me than burning a bridge with an online poker room. We need to do our part to get the story out there, so that everyone can figure out exactly what happened, and make sure that it doesn't happen again. Nothing can be explained away in regards to this situation, the cat is out of the bag.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Find the best online casino odds
If you have the heart and soul of a gambler, but no outlet for your aspirations, it is time to do what you have thought of but never tried. Get busy at a casino online! On the other hand, if you are a seasoned online gambling veteran and feel that you are using your hard-earned cash on the wrong games, you may need to try something else. Consider this a guide or suggestion of what games play most in your favor. With the exception of some poker games, all online casino games are fairly easy to learn and often, the ones that are the most layered and most difficult to learn are truly only games of chance, so you can play with limited knowledge. With that serving as a disclaimer, consider learning a new game to help build your bankroll into a budget while you can scrape some profit off the top after every session of play.
In regards to your best online wagering, take into account the odds that belong to the house versus the player. One group of wagers that many don’t take into account in the online gambling world is sports gambling. You can read up on a game line and really make an educated bet that could potentially win you a nice percentage payout. In regards to sports gambling, talk to your friends that are sports fanatics. You may enjoy sports yourself and watch games, but if you haven’t played the sport at a high level of play, don’t consider yourself an immediate expert. There are exceptions, yet there are those who believe that because they hear Bill Walton and Marv Albert’s NBA commentary, they have been enlightened in regards to all things basketball. Anyone who has played a sport at the college or pro level can empathize with this statement; you have to deal with friends who attempt to educate you on all things athletic on a per game basis. So find a free education, because there is a load of money to be won on athletic events!
Within the casino walls there are of course popular games that offer good player odds. These would fall into a category of a smart wager. Generally, the games pit the player against a house dealer and offer different options within play. Consider games such as craps, pai gow poker and baccarat; all games that dependent on the bet made (Pass Line in craps, for example), offer the best odds to the player. This is a smart way to spend your money. You don’t want to cut into your bankroll immediately because you were “feeling” something. Let that feeling approach you again, after you have won a nice amount and then play with a little risk while keeping your budget and bankroll intact! When you take all the casino glitz away, you want to realize that you played with your head on and without distraction of the magic if. What if this, what if that? Be in the moment, choose your games wisely and know how to play them well and you will find your wagers to be wise and hold more potential than in any other scenario!
In regards to your best online wagering, take into account the odds that belong to the house versus the player. One group of wagers that many don’t take into account in the online gambling world is sports gambling. You can read up on a game line and really make an educated bet that could potentially win you a nice percentage payout. In regards to sports gambling, talk to your friends that are sports fanatics. You may enjoy sports yourself and watch games, but if you haven’t played the sport at a high level of play, don’t consider yourself an immediate expert. There are exceptions, yet there are those who believe that because they hear Bill Walton and Marv Albert’s NBA commentary, they have been enlightened in regards to all things basketball. Anyone who has played a sport at the college or pro level can empathize with this statement; you have to deal with friends who attempt to educate you on all things athletic on a per game basis. So find a free education, because there is a load of money to be won on athletic events!
Within the casino walls there are of course popular games that offer good player odds. These would fall into a category of a smart wager. Generally, the games pit the player against a house dealer and offer different options within play. Consider games such as craps, pai gow poker and baccarat; all games that dependent on the bet made (Pass Line in craps, for example), offer the best odds to the player. This is a smart way to spend your money. You don’t want to cut into your bankroll immediately because you were “feeling” something. Let that feeling approach you again, after you have won a nice amount and then play with a little risk while keeping your budget and bankroll intact! When you take all the casino glitz away, you want to realize that you played with your head on and without distraction of the magic if. What if this, what if that? Be in the moment, choose your games wisely and know how to play them well and you will find your wagers to be wise and hold more potential than in any other scenario!
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Money Laundering thru Online Gambling with Bots!
Well, here's some more dirty dealing in online gambling. For those of you who've heard about money laundering through brick and mortar casinos, now some clever criminals have figured out how to do their laundry while gambling online! This article appeared yesterday in the UK's The Register.
Online casinos hit by bot armies
Don't bet against money laundering robots
By Burke Hansen in San Francisco → More by this author
Published Tuesday 9th October 2007 10:15 GMT
Botnets are fulfilling law enforcement fears that online casinos could prove fertile ground for money laundering, according to a recent, little-noticed report by risk compliance firm Fortent.
Some are engaging in variations of an old casino scam, in which preprogrammed-to-lose bots transfer dirty money - obtained through stolen credit cards, illicit drug sales or whatnot - to a chosen winner. Others flood a room and conspire to defraud a legitimate player by leveraging the mathematical advantage inherent in knowing more of the cards. Another scam involves spamming a known player in the hopes of stealing password and account information, and then bleeding the account dry through the fraudulent games described above.
Fulltiltpoker.com apparently got hit by a botnet attack recently and refunded money to the defrauded customers. A USA Today tally last month estimated that $2.5 mil to $3.5 mil per year are laundered this way.
"We are definitely seeing activity by bot-herders in online casino games, which is something we hadn't seen before," Symantec security analyst Zulfikar Ramzan noted.
We've generally been skeptical of allegations that the online casino industry would make a good platform for widespread money laundering, primarily due to the ready-made trail left by the transactions. However, the use of botnets is more problematic, due to the fact that until recently botmasters had not been targeted by the FBI, and the actual computers involved belong to innocent third parties.
Money laundering can theoretically be accomplished through many types of transactions - for example, by selling phony merchandise on eBay and transferring the money without delivering anything at all. It's therefore questionable just how much more susceptible cybercasinos are than other online businesses to money laundering. Risk compliance companies like Fortent or AccuitySolutions have products to push, after all. However, the fact that the US authorities have driven much of the online gambling and payment processing activity underground raises serious concerns about just how secure some of these sites are.
Not that gamblers are a risk-averse group, of course.®
Burke Hansen, attorney at large, heads a San Francisco law office
Online casinos hit by bot armies
Don't bet against money laundering robots
By Burke Hansen in San Francisco → More by this author
Published Tuesday 9th October 2007 10:15 GMT
Botnets are fulfilling law enforcement fears that online casinos could prove fertile ground for money laundering, according to a recent, little-noticed report by risk compliance firm Fortent.
Some are engaging in variations of an old casino scam, in which preprogrammed-to-lose bots transfer dirty money - obtained through stolen credit cards, illicit drug sales or whatnot - to a chosen winner. Others flood a room and conspire to defraud a legitimate player by leveraging the mathematical advantage inherent in knowing more of the cards. Another scam involves spamming a known player in the hopes of stealing password and account information, and then bleeding the account dry through the fraudulent games described above.
Fulltiltpoker.com apparently got hit by a botnet attack recently and refunded money to the defrauded customers. A USA Today tally last month estimated that $2.5 mil to $3.5 mil per year are laundered this way.
"We are definitely seeing activity by bot-herders in online casino games, which is something we hadn't seen before," Symantec security analyst Zulfikar Ramzan noted.
We've generally been skeptical of allegations that the online casino industry would make a good platform for widespread money laundering, primarily due to the ready-made trail left by the transactions. However, the use of botnets is more problematic, due to the fact that until recently botmasters had not been targeted by the FBI, and the actual computers involved belong to innocent third parties.
Money laundering can theoretically be accomplished through many types of transactions - for example, by selling phony merchandise on eBay and transferring the money without delivering anything at all. It's therefore questionable just how much more susceptible cybercasinos are than other online businesses to money laundering. Risk compliance companies like Fortent or AccuitySolutions have products to push, after all. However, the fact that the US authorities have driven much of the online gambling and payment processing activity underground raises serious concerns about just how secure some of these sites are.
Not that gamblers are a risk-averse group, of course.®
Burke Hansen, attorney at large, heads a San Francisco law office
Dirty Poker in the New York Times!
Well, for those of you who don't recall the "Peeker" hole-card reading software I wrote about in my book "Dirty Poker," read this article that recently appeared in the New York Times. Not many people wanted to believe me when I exposed this type of cheating in online poker, but as John Lennon said in his song "Imagine," "I'm not the only one..."
September 20, 2007, 9:42 am
How Not to Cheat
By Steven D. Levitt
Let’s say you discover an old lamp and rub it, and out comes a genie offering to grant you a wish. You are greedy and devious, so you wish for the ability, whenever you play online poker, to see all the cards that the other players are holding. The genie grants your wish.
What would you do next?
If you were a total idiot, you would do exactly what some cheaters on the Web site Absolute Poker appear to have done recently. Playing at the very highest stakes games, they allegedly played every hand as if they knew every card that the other players had. They folded hands at the end that no normal player would fold, and they raised with hands that were winners but would seem like losers if you didn’t know the opponents’ cards. They won money at a rate that was about 100 times faster than a good player could reasonably expect to win.
Their play was so anomalous that, within a few days, they were discovered.
What did they do next? Apparently, they played some more, now playing worse than anyone has ever played in the history of poker — in other words, trying to lose some of the money back so things didn’t look so suspicious. One hand history shows that the players called a bet at the end when their two hole cards were 2-3 and had not paired the board … there literally was no hand that they could beat!
I don’t know whether these cheating allegations are true, because all the information I am getting is third-hand. The poker players I’ve talked to all believe it to be true. Regardless, I bet these guys wish they had it to do over. If they had just been smart about it, they could have milked this gig forever, winning at reasonable rates. For the stakes they were playing, they could have gotten very rich, and their scheme would have been nearly undetectable.
(Note that I say nearly undetectable, because while that poker site probably never would have detected them, I am working with a different online poker site to develop a set of tools for catching cheaters. Even if these guys were careful, we would catch them.)
Tags: cheating, crime, gambling, poker
September 20, 2007, 9:42 am
How Not to Cheat
By Steven D. Levitt
Let’s say you discover an old lamp and rub it, and out comes a genie offering to grant you a wish. You are greedy and devious, so you wish for the ability, whenever you play online poker, to see all the cards that the other players are holding. The genie grants your wish.
What would you do next?
If you were a total idiot, you would do exactly what some cheaters on the Web site Absolute Poker appear to have done recently. Playing at the very highest stakes games, they allegedly played every hand as if they knew every card that the other players had. They folded hands at the end that no normal player would fold, and they raised with hands that were winners but would seem like losers if you didn’t know the opponents’ cards. They won money at a rate that was about 100 times faster than a good player could reasonably expect to win.
Their play was so anomalous that, within a few days, they were discovered.
What did they do next? Apparently, they played some more, now playing worse than anyone has ever played in the history of poker — in other words, trying to lose some of the money back so things didn’t look so suspicious. One hand history shows that the players called a bet at the end when their two hole cards were 2-3 and had not paired the board … there literally was no hand that they could beat!
I don’t know whether these cheating allegations are true, because all the information I am getting is third-hand. The poker players I’ve talked to all believe it to be true. Regardless, I bet these guys wish they had it to do over. If they had just been smart about it, they could have milked this gig forever, winning at reasonable rates. For the stakes they were playing, they could have gotten very rich, and their scheme would have been nearly undetectable.
(Note that I say nearly undetectable, because while that poker site probably never would have detected them, I am working with a different online poker site to develop a set of tools for catching cheaters. Even if these guys were careful, we would catch them.)
Tags: cheating, crime, gambling, poker
Friday, September 14, 2007
Belichick likened to a slot cheat!
This article appeared September 13th on AOL sports.
Bill Belichick: More Like a Card Counter or a Slot Machine Fixer?
How bad is Patriotgate, the cheating scandal that got Patriots coach Bill Belichick busted by the NFL today? Did Belichick just do what any coach would do to gain an edge? Steve Czaban sums it up nicely:
Don't give me the whole "cheating goes on all the time in sports, don't get so righteous" argument. Cheating does happen all the time, and so does PUNISHMENT for cheating. Mild cheating that doesn't involve technology, is one thing. Using tools and schemes and electronics is another.
That's RIGGING. It's the difference between counting cards in a casino, versus using a magnet to jack-up a slot machine's payout.
There's something respectable about counting cards, and something shameful about rigging a slot machine. By ordering an assistant to tape opposing coaches' signals, Belichick crossed over to "rigging a slot machine" territory.
Well, personally, I think the whole thing is blown out of proportion. This kind of stuff goes on all the time in sports. A good example of it is in baseball where baserunners on second base steal the opposing catcher's signs to the pitcher, or when opportunistic managers and coaches in dugouts steal the opposing third-base coach's signs to the batter. The same thing goes on in tennis where coaches illegally signal their players on the court to change something in their game.
But there is on thing I can relate to in this article: the comparison of card-counting to rigging slot machines. If Belichick did indeed cross the line by ordering an assistant to tape the opposing coach's signals, then, in my day, I jumped over the Grand Canyon if you want to compare card-counting to my moves!
Bill Belichick: More Like a Card Counter or a Slot Machine Fixer?
How bad is Patriotgate, the cheating scandal that got Patriots coach Bill Belichick busted by the NFL today? Did Belichick just do what any coach would do to gain an edge? Steve Czaban sums it up nicely:
Don't give me the whole "cheating goes on all the time in sports, don't get so righteous" argument. Cheating does happen all the time, and so does PUNISHMENT for cheating. Mild cheating that doesn't involve technology, is one thing. Using tools and schemes and electronics is another.
That's RIGGING. It's the difference between counting cards in a casino, versus using a magnet to jack-up a slot machine's payout.
There's something respectable about counting cards, and something shameful about rigging a slot machine. By ordering an assistant to tape opposing coaches' signals, Belichick crossed over to "rigging a slot machine" territory.
Well, personally, I think the whole thing is blown out of proportion. This kind of stuff goes on all the time in sports. A good example of it is in baseball where baserunners on second base steal the opposing catcher's signs to the pitcher, or when opportunistic managers and coaches in dugouts steal the opposing third-base coach's signs to the batter. The same thing goes on in tennis where coaches illegally signal their players on the court to change something in their game.
But there is on thing I can relate to in this article: the comparison of card-counting to rigging slot machines. If Belichick did indeed cross the line by ordering an assistant to tape the opposing coach's signals, then, in my day, I jumped over the Grand Canyon if you want to compare card-counting to my moves!
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Top Ten No-Nos if You're gonna Cheat Casinos!
10) Don't stand out in a crowd (like a Caucasian in Macao)
9) Don't approach the table if you're hands are shaking
8) Don't cheat mini-baccarat if you think it's blackjack
7) Don't try a mini-baccarat false shuffle scam--at least for a while!
6) Don't flirt with cocktail waitresses after you've done a move (you too, girls!)
5) Don't brag to cocktail waitresses that you just did a move (they'll rat you out!)
4) Don't switch in a cooler
3) Don't do high-tech poker scams if you've written a book how to prevent them
2) Don't tell your girlfriend you're cheating casinos (if she doesn't get her cut, she'll rat you out too!
1) Don't tell ANYONE you're cheating casinos (Not even your mother! She may not rat you out, but she's definitely gonna want a big Mother's Day gift!
Hope everyone has had a great summer. I'll see what I can come up with for the fall!
9) Don't approach the table if you're hands are shaking
8) Don't cheat mini-baccarat if you think it's blackjack
7) Don't try a mini-baccarat false shuffle scam--at least for a while!
6) Don't flirt with cocktail waitresses after you've done a move (you too, girls!)
5) Don't brag to cocktail waitresses that you just did a move (they'll rat you out!)
4) Don't switch in a cooler
3) Don't do high-tech poker scams if you've written a book how to prevent them
2) Don't tell your girlfriend you're cheating casinos (if she doesn't get her cut, she'll rat you out too!
1) Don't tell ANYONE you're cheating casinos (Not even your mother! She may not rat you out, but she's definitely gonna want a big Mother's Day gift!
Hope everyone has had a great summer. I'll see what I can come up with for the fall!
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Tennis great Kafelnikov linked to cheating?
A few weeks back, for the first time, the ATP, tennis's governing body, announced that it is investigating a suspicious betting pattern during a match between Nikolay Davydenko, a ranked player, and Martin Vasallo Arguello, a huge underdog, who nevertheless received most of the $7 million in betting action, EVEN after having already lost the first set. Betfair reported that the amount wagered was 10 times more than usual, incredibly on an underdog already down a set.
Well, this is reminiscent of a situation in a match between Yevgeny Kafelnikov, then a highly ranked player, and Fernando Vicente, who had been unranked and winless for several months, but incredibly took almost all of the action and won in three sets.
How is this related to the poker and gambling world? Well, several months ago I was asked if I'd heard any reports of Kafelnikov's being involved in a Russian professional poker cheating team. The person asking said he'd heard that Kafelnikov had been involved with the ex-Olympic gold-medal-winning Russian gymnast, Vera Shimanskya, who had indeed been arrested in a poker cheating scandal in Spain. So is there a connection there? I have no evidence on Kafelnikov, but the circumstantial evidence against Kafelnikov is adding up. He has also been caught in photographs with known Russian mobsters.
Anyone out there seen him playing lately?
Here's the article on the latest suspicious tennis betting-pattern, which includes paragraphs on Kafelnikov's suspicious match.
LONDON, England (AP) -- Tennis officials are following up reports of suspicious betting patterns in a match involving world number four Nikolay Davydenko, who retired when playing a lowly-ranked opponent in an ATP tournament in Poland.
art.davydenko.jpg
Davydenko pulled out of his second round match in the final set with a foot injury.
In an unprecedented move, British online gambling company Betfair voided all bets placed on Thursday's second-round match at the Prokom Open in Sopot between the defending champion and top seed Davydenko and world number 87 Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina.
Betfair said it received about $7 million in bets on the match -- 10 times the usual amount -- and most of the money was on Arguello to win, even after Davydenko won the first set 6-2.
"You try to leave it to the players to play the game the right way," said Andy Roddick, ranked fifth in the world. "I think we expect that of them. If something's found that's shady, I, for one, will be extremely pissed off.
"Obviously you want to wait and see it play out, but it's too bad that it only takes one idiot to ruin things and create a bad story."
Arguello won the second set 6-3 and was leading 2-1 in the third when the Russian retired. Davydenko said he aggravated a left foot injury in the second set. He received medical attention from a tournament trainer before deciding to quit.
"I don't think that he (Davydenko) has something to do with this," Arguello said later. "I was playing against him, but he was playing also with an injury, and that's all that I know about the match, and that's also what I felt in the match. I felt nothing else."
Betfair, which has had an agreement with the ATP since 2003 to share information on any irregular betting activity, said it was concerned with the volume of wagers coming in on Arguello from the start.
"We think the market quite clearly wasn't fair," Betfair managing director Mark Davies said.
"The prices seemed very odd. As a result, in the interest of fairness and integrity and in consultation with the ATP, we have decided to void the market and return all stakes to (bettors)."
It's the first time the company has taken such a step in any sport. Davies said Betfair would turn over its betting records for the ATP to investigate.
"The ATP takes issues surrounding gambling extremely seriously," the men's tour said in a statement. "We are committed to ensuring our sport remains corruption free and have strict rules in place governing this area.
"In addition we have memorandums of understanding with U.K. and European betting companies that ensures information pertaining to any ATP Tour match that may look suspicious, based upon gambling patterns, is shared with us immediately."
ATP officials said Friday that Davydenko had left Poland.
"Normally I try to fight to the end but it was very painful and I may have done even more damage by trying to finish the match," Davydenko said immediately after the match.
"Since the beginning of Monday I've had a problem with my left toes. Today that became a problem with my foot."
Since losing in the fourth round at Wimbledon to Marcos Baghdatis, Davydenko lost three straight first-round matches -- to Gael Monfils at the Swiss Open, Florent Serra at the Dutch Open and Gilles Simon at the Croatia Open -- before beating Andrei Pavel, 6-3 6-4 in the opening round in Poland.
Arguello lost 2-6 6-4 6-2 on Friday in the quarterfinals to another Argentine player, Jose Acasuso.
"I saw Davydenko playing very well the first set, and I saw also that he had problems with his feet, and that was true, he was not inventing that, so it's difficult to suspect him," Arguello told The Associated Press by telephone from his hotel room in Sopot.
Fellow Russian Marat Safin, playing this week in Washington, declined to speculate about the Davydenko situation.
"I don't really care," Safin said. "Whatever people do, and whatever they want to do, I don't care. I just want to play my matches and enjoy my time. I've enough problems myself."
At Wimbledon in 2006, Betfair reported irregular patterns surrounding a first-round match between British wild card Richard Bloomfield and Carlos Berlocq of Argentina.
Berlocq, who was ranked 170 places higher than Bloomfield, lost 6-1 6-2 6-2. Most of the bets placed were on Berlocq to lose. However, no wrongdoing was detected.
Allegations of match-fixing in tennis have cropped up in the past.
In 2003, bookmakers reportedly suspended betting six hours before Russian player Yevgeny Kafelnikov's match in Lyon, France, against Fernando Vicente after a big wager was place on the Spaniard.
Vicente, who had been winless for several months, won in straight sets. There was no suggestion either player was involved in wrongdoing, and no investigation was made by the ATP.
Several Russian tennis players were photographed a few years ago with Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, a suspected mobster from the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan, who was accused of fixing the pairs and ice dancing events at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
Photographs of Tokhtakhounov with Kafelnikov, Safin and Andrei Medvedev were taken off Medvedev's Web site in 2002 after the man's arrest.
Tokhtakhounov spent nearly a year in a Venice, Italy, prison but escaped extradition to the United States in 2003 on the Olympic rigging charges.
Well, this is reminiscent of a situation in a match between Yevgeny Kafelnikov, then a highly ranked player, and Fernando Vicente, who had been unranked and winless for several months, but incredibly took almost all of the action and won in three sets.
How is this related to the poker and gambling world? Well, several months ago I was asked if I'd heard any reports of Kafelnikov's being involved in a Russian professional poker cheating team. The person asking said he'd heard that Kafelnikov had been involved with the ex-Olympic gold-medal-winning Russian gymnast, Vera Shimanskya, who had indeed been arrested in a poker cheating scandal in Spain. So is there a connection there? I have no evidence on Kafelnikov, but the circumstantial evidence against Kafelnikov is adding up. He has also been caught in photographs with known Russian mobsters.
Anyone out there seen him playing lately?
Here's the article on the latest suspicious tennis betting-pattern, which includes paragraphs on Kafelnikov's suspicious match.
LONDON, England (AP) -- Tennis officials are following up reports of suspicious betting patterns in a match involving world number four Nikolay Davydenko, who retired when playing a lowly-ranked opponent in an ATP tournament in Poland.
art.davydenko.jpg
Davydenko pulled out of his second round match in the final set with a foot injury.
In an unprecedented move, British online gambling company Betfair voided all bets placed on Thursday's second-round match at the Prokom Open in Sopot between the defending champion and top seed Davydenko and world number 87 Martin Vassallo Arguello of Argentina.
Betfair said it received about $7 million in bets on the match -- 10 times the usual amount -- and most of the money was on Arguello to win, even after Davydenko won the first set 6-2.
"You try to leave it to the players to play the game the right way," said Andy Roddick, ranked fifth in the world. "I think we expect that of them. If something's found that's shady, I, for one, will be extremely pissed off.
"Obviously you want to wait and see it play out, but it's too bad that it only takes one idiot to ruin things and create a bad story."
Arguello won the second set 6-3 and was leading 2-1 in the third when the Russian retired. Davydenko said he aggravated a left foot injury in the second set. He received medical attention from a tournament trainer before deciding to quit.
"I don't think that he (Davydenko) has something to do with this," Arguello said later. "I was playing against him, but he was playing also with an injury, and that's all that I know about the match, and that's also what I felt in the match. I felt nothing else."
Betfair, which has had an agreement with the ATP since 2003 to share information on any irregular betting activity, said it was concerned with the volume of wagers coming in on Arguello from the start.
"We think the market quite clearly wasn't fair," Betfair managing director Mark Davies said.
"The prices seemed very odd. As a result, in the interest of fairness and integrity and in consultation with the ATP, we have decided to void the market and return all stakes to (bettors)."
It's the first time the company has taken such a step in any sport. Davies said Betfair would turn over its betting records for the ATP to investigate.
"The ATP takes issues surrounding gambling extremely seriously," the men's tour said in a statement. "We are committed to ensuring our sport remains corruption free and have strict rules in place governing this area.
"In addition we have memorandums of understanding with U.K. and European betting companies that ensures information pertaining to any ATP Tour match that may look suspicious, based upon gambling patterns, is shared with us immediately."
ATP officials said Friday that Davydenko had left Poland.
"Normally I try to fight to the end but it was very painful and I may have done even more damage by trying to finish the match," Davydenko said immediately after the match.
"Since the beginning of Monday I've had a problem with my left toes. Today that became a problem with my foot."
Since losing in the fourth round at Wimbledon to Marcos Baghdatis, Davydenko lost three straight first-round matches -- to Gael Monfils at the Swiss Open, Florent Serra at the Dutch Open and Gilles Simon at the Croatia Open -- before beating Andrei Pavel, 6-3 6-4 in the opening round in Poland.
Arguello lost 2-6 6-4 6-2 on Friday in the quarterfinals to another Argentine player, Jose Acasuso.
"I saw Davydenko playing very well the first set, and I saw also that he had problems with his feet, and that was true, he was not inventing that, so it's difficult to suspect him," Arguello told The Associated Press by telephone from his hotel room in Sopot.
Fellow Russian Marat Safin, playing this week in Washington, declined to speculate about the Davydenko situation.
"I don't really care," Safin said. "Whatever people do, and whatever they want to do, I don't care. I just want to play my matches and enjoy my time. I've enough problems myself."
At Wimbledon in 2006, Betfair reported irregular patterns surrounding a first-round match between British wild card Richard Bloomfield and Carlos Berlocq of Argentina.
Berlocq, who was ranked 170 places higher than Bloomfield, lost 6-1 6-2 6-2. Most of the bets placed were on Berlocq to lose. However, no wrongdoing was detected.
Allegations of match-fixing in tennis have cropped up in the past.
In 2003, bookmakers reportedly suspended betting six hours before Russian player Yevgeny Kafelnikov's match in Lyon, France, against Fernando Vicente after a big wager was place on the Spaniard.
Vicente, who had been winless for several months, won in straight sets. There was no suggestion either player was involved in wrongdoing, and no investigation was made by the ATP.
Several Russian tennis players were photographed a few years ago with Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, a suspected mobster from the former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan, who was accused of fixing the pairs and ice dancing events at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.
Photographs of Tokhtakhounov with Kafelnikov, Safin and Andrei Medvedev were taken off Medvedev's Web site in 2002 after the man's arrest.
Tokhtakhounov spent nearly a year in a Venice, Italy, prison but escaped extradition to the United States in 2003 on the Olympic rigging charges.
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