New Blackjack Card Marking Cheat Scam!

Here´s a new and very effective version of the old "Spill The Drink Card Marking Scam."

The scam has a player sitting on a blackjack game with the dealer dealing the first card. The player receiving the card in first position sees the card is an Ace and proceeds to spill a drink on the card. The card is quickly changed out by the table games staff and replaced with a new Ace. Little does the staff realize but the cards were in play for almost an entire shift. The player involved in the unknown scam will simply look for the bright white edge of the new Ace when the deck is presented after the new shuffle for the cut. He will cut one card in front of the Ace and have a double digit edge over the house when he receives the Ace.

This scam is very easy to pull off. If you take several decks of used cards and place a new Ace of Diamonds into the mix, the newer white border easily stands out and presents the perfect cut and steer target.

Latest Blackjack Dealer Card Reader Cheat Scam!

Is it possible for a cheating blackjack dealer to work with a partner by signaling out certain card values without typical flashing techniques? There is one clever way to do it:

Have you ever observed the reader device on a blackjack table? It´s the little red, black or green plastic bracket that the dealer slides his cards into to determine whether or not he has blackjack when his up card is either a ten or ace. This reader device, which is installed on blackjack tables to both save time and protect the casino from cheating dealers looking to signal the value of their hole card to cohorts, is often overlooked when casino bosses are trying to spot cheating blackjack dealers.

It is not commonly known that if a ten value card is placed in the reader device horizontally instead of vertically, you will see the index value if the hole card is a ten point card. Now that the dealer has obtained the value, it is as simple as a prearranged signal to the agent on the game. Advanced knowledge of the hole card
NOT being a ten-value card can also be employed as well. Also factor in that most dealers often place their hand on top of the card covering all or most of the card as it is placed in the reader device.

Look at the photos below showing a typical game where the dealer has a Queen as the up card. As shown below the dealer should place the hole card in the reader device vertically. Unless an Ace is the hole card you will not see any symbol and/or index in the optic viewer. When you place the ten point value card in the reader device horizontally, parts of the index of any ten value card will show within the optic. All of the opportunities now present themselves for a dealer/partner scam.

The up card is shown incorrectly being placed in the reader device. An example of the hole card that the dealer sees in the optic is also shown. The King of Hearts is our hole card.

UltimateBet Signs Two Major Poker Pros In Wake Of Cheats Scandal!

Just like Absolute Poker before it, UltimateBet has figured out the best way to sweep the latest major online poker scandal under the rug--sign top of the line "clean" poker pros to join its team to distract attention from the cheating issues. It seems that this now common solution goes hand in hand with online gaming commissions´ lack of meting out any serious punishment to the cheats caught rigging online poker. An article by Gary Trask, who appropriately calls UltimateBet´s actions "damage control," gives the details.

UltimateBet signs two major poker pros in wake of cheating scandal

Call it damage control. Call it good P.R. Or simply call it a case of good timing.

Whatever the case, UltimateBet's signing of two high-profile poker pros -- Eric "Rizen" Lynch and Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy -- in the immediate aftermath of a troublesome cheating scandal had a stirring affect on the poker community, prompting the popular pros to try and immediately defuse any questions about a lack of ethics.

"I realize that this decision is not without controversy and assure everyone that it is a decision I did not take lightly," Lynch wrote Wednesday on his blog at www.rizenpoker.com, just one day after his partnership with UB was announced. "The most important reason for me personally (I cannot speak for the other pros) is that I believe in my relationship with Ultimate Bet that their management is committed to creating the premier place to play poker online. I believe that the new management 'gets it' and that my input and feedback will be listened to and used to improve the site."

Meanwhile, Josephy added on the Poker Fives poker forums: "I have always enjoyed playing at UltimateBet. The interface and the structure are 2nd to none. It is my belief that management is committed to doing the right things on a going forward basis. Thus, I have decided to support them. I will do all I can to ensure the players really like the improved UB."
Last week, UltimateBet's owner, Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG, admitted that its security had been breached by former employees and accounts with access to opponents' hole cards were used to cheat in high-stakes games.

The company announced that "certain player accounts did in fact have an unfair advantage" and that "the individuals responsible were found to have worked for the previous ownership of UltimateBet prior to the sale of the business to Tokwiro in October 2006." In addition, Tokwiro said that it eliminated the "software hole" that allowed hole cards to be seen and was going to institute new procedures to "prevent, detect and investigate unfair play and fraud."

Lynch went on to say in his blog that he saw no "red flags" as he researched whether or not he wanted to be associated with UB.

"I obviously cannot reveal the details of conversations that I've had with people both internal and external to the company, but I can say that I did more detailed research on this decision than I have any other business related decision in my life," Lynch wrote.

"I talked with and interviewed people both in and out of the company (the people I used outside of the company were contacts that deal with that management team on a regular basis for various reason whose opinions I both highly respect and believed to be unbiased) and not a single word I heard raised a red flag to me."

"If I had ANY doubts in my mind that going forward that the management team at Ultimate Bet did not have security as a top priority and that they had the ability to execute those security improvements in the future we wouldn't be having this conversation because I would not have signed with them."

In 2007, Lynch cashed five times at the World Series of Poker and made two final tables, winning over $163,000. His online successes are well documented. Last December, he finished first in Event #5 of UltimateBet's Online Championship (UBOC), securing $57,875. On May 1, Lynch won $10,400 after capturing UltimateBet's $40,000 Guaranteed Sniper tournament.

"We're extremely impressed with Rizen's talent both at the online poker tables and at land-based tournaments," said Annie Duke, UltimateBet's Cardroom Consultant, of Lynch, who also announced on his blog that a "significant portion" of his proceeds from Ultimate Bet would go to charity. "But we're most impressed with the integrity and strong values he shares with Josephy."

Josephy, a WSOP Bracelet winner and New York native, joined UB's list of Star Players just one week before Lynch and took his place at the online poker room alongside other pros like Shawn Rice, Scott Ian, Mark "P0ker H0" Kroon and Gary "Debo34" DeBernardi. Josephy won his bracelet at the 2005 WSOP, Event #8. His most lucrative win, however, came in September of 2006 at the UltimateBet Aruba Poker Classic, where a second place finish earned him nearly half a million dollars.

"A Star Player is one who has an undisputed high level of skill, lots of integrity, and is well respected in the world of online poker," Duke added. "One look at his impressive record reveals that JohnnyBax epitomizes a Star Player and is the perfect addition to our roster of respected and talented poker players."

James Bond Poker Cheats Caught in Cyprus Casinos!

A new tiny-hidden-camera scam has been busted in Cyprus, no doubt targeting poker variant games that now appear regulary in casinos across the world. Back in 2005, we saw the "Three Card Poker Gang" caught with their mini-cameras in their sleeves in London after bagging more than a half million bucks in profits. Now we have a Russian gang going down for the same gig in Cyprus, and more and more I´m seeing Eastern Europeans at the forefront of high-tech-gadget casino cheating. Remember, it was a group of Hungarians who put down the famous Ritz roulette scam back in 2004 with laser scanners embedded in cell phones. Just like the Russians took over the fraudulent credit card business, they´re taking over the casino cheating business!

The headline in the Cyprian Famagusta Gazette read:

"James Bond" mafia ring caught Cheating in Cyprus!"

Four Russians appeared in court in occupied northern Cyprus accused of trying to swindle thousands of pounds from casinos by using "James Bond-style equipment" to try and beat the casinos.

The men, dubbed "The James Bond Mafia" by local press, cheated casinos by using pin-hole cameras hidden in cigarette packets, tiny microphones and even a van equipped with "enough surveillance gadgetry to conduct a full scale CIA operation".

Satellites, shortwave radio, internet and other cutting-edge devices never seen in Cyprus were discovered in the van, which was stationed outside the casino in a car park.

The officer leading the investigation told the Famagusta Gazette that after they found two suitcases of high tech gadgets in the Russian men’s hotel suite he knew they were dealing with highly skilled criminals.

The target of the gang was the popular "Viva Casino" in Kyrenia, where the Russians carried out their operations for over a week, before raising the suspicions of the casino detectives – who in turn, carried out their own surveillance on the Russians.

According to allegations, the Russians had perfected a fine-tuned system and had been moving from casino to casino in the occupied areas. The Viva Casino reported the men had taken over US$18,000 from them last week in "winnings".

If found guilty, the gang could face up to 10 years in prison

Followup To My Article On Poker And Steroids Cheating

Last month I wrote an article about doping in the online poker world. Today I found this followup article on the PokerVerdict website written by Hugo Martin. As he says about my article, I found his to be pretty interesting as well, and worthy of putting on this blog. So please read it and let me know what you think...and don´t forget that this article was written before UltimateBet admitted to the huge online poker scam on its site.

Pills, Thrills and Bad Beats
Doping and Poker, the Future of Tournaments?
By Hugo Martin 30 May 2008

A recent article in Gambling Online magazine by Richard Marcus focused on using pharmaceutical drugs in order to enhance one’s poker game.

The article was interesting and maybe a touch hysterical, claiming that this was the dawn of “poker steroids” and seemed more concerned about players taking drugs like Modafinil and Adderall when they played online.

Whilst I agree that there is an issue about the use of these drugs in big buy-in live events, getting worked up about some kid taking these pills while they multi-table online seems a bit pointless. As I have written somewhere else, online poker is the Wild Wild West, anything goes baby!

You only have to look at recent online cheating and ghosting scandals to know that there is plenty of monkey business going on. The ZeeJustin multi-accounting and Sorel Mizzi ghosting fiascos were probably just the tip of the iceberg on those fronts, let alone the superuser debacles at UltimateBet and Absolute Poker.

Basically, when you’re playing online you have no clue what your opponents are up to. Who cares if they’re taking recreational or prescription drugs that help their game? You’re playing because you want action, and maybe the only action you can get is online with some nutter who is doped up to the eyeballs who also happens to be asking his roommate, and other various buddies who have dropped round for a couple of beers, how he should play this next hand.

Capiche? When playing internet poker, remember rule number one, Caveat Emptor.

Playing live, though, is a whole ‘nother ball game. I shall specifically address tournaments as these days poker is considered a sport, especially the big buy-in events such as the WSOP, EPT and WPT main events.

Modafinil and Adderall are primarily prescribed for ADHD, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and narcolepsy. In other words they help you pay attention, and stay awake. Modafinil has been used by the military to aid the performance of pilots and soldiers in combat situations.

Mike Matusow is on record talking about various medications he has used and how different combinations have helped him maintain focus during long tournaments. Diagnosed with bi-polar disorder (also known as manic depression) Matusow has been frank about how having his prescriptions changed have helped or hindered his game.

From an interview with InsidePoker magazine he gave in 2006 Matusow talks about the reason he went out 64th after having a very healthy chip stack in a big tournament in Atlantic City,

“I was fucked up on the wrong medicine my doctor gave me and it had me suicidal at the table.”

Another player who has benefited from popping pills is retired poker pro Paul Phillips. According to Wikipedia Phillips claimed that Modafinil and other drugs aided his concentration in big tournaments which led to him winning over $2 million, including a WPT title, during his time as a professional poker player. The drugs had been prescribed to him for treatment of ADHD.

Obviously these two players had serious medical issues and therefore legitimate reasons to be taking these drugs. Performance enhancement at the poker table was a happy side-effect. Will loads of poker players decide that they suffer from ADHD or suddenly decide that they have always been bi-polar, but just never realized it before, just so that they can get the “right” prescriptions? Maybe Mike the Mouth will find a new line in selling his meds.

At the moment there are no rules regarding drug use in poker, but if there are going to be rules implemented where do we draw the line? We all know players who suddenly find a bit of confidence after one or two drinks, should that be allowed? Or what about the players who loosen up too much after a couple of drinks? Nobody is complaining about them.

What about illegal drugs? Cocaine, marijuana and so on. I suspect half of the Amazon room at the Rio would have to be ejected if that was the case. How fair or unfair is it? Taking the example of the two players above those are cases where both players were already skillful at a high (no pun intended) level.

Giving an already good player more of edge by being able to perform longer mentally and at a more concentrated level than normal certainly sounds disadvantageous to the rest of us mere mortals. According to Richard Marcus in Gambling Online, Modafinil,

“not only helps in gathering knowledge with a sharp, observational outlook, but also in applying intellect without normal taxation”

I can already hear mass-clicking on Google trying to look up where they can get a hold of some of this Modafinil. “Applying intellect without taxation”, you mean you won’t even have to try? Sounds good doesn’t it?

Marcus goes onto write that it may be possible that the drug can also help wipe out tilt, enabling a player to see beyond the immediate result and instead focus on the big picture. Wow, I know a lot of players who would like that.

Is it possible for tournament poker to become like cycling or athletics? Where if you are not taking anything you are the odd one out and in fact have given yourself almost no shot at winning? Poker players and shrewd gamblers are always looking for an edge so this sort of scenario could well end up being a reality. After all, if you’re as good as Phil Ivey then maybe the only way to beat him is to give yourself that little bit more mental muscle.

But, let’s not forget the luck factor. Fortunately poker, and especially tournaments, as we all know, has a large element of chance built into it so in a way it doesn’t matter if some ice cream opposite you is loaded up on “brain steroids”, he is still not immune to bad beats just like the rest of us.

Also, it has to be said, that pretty much every really good player has actually worked very hard on their game, logging in hours and hours, online or live, of hand after hand. No amount of Adderall or Modafinil can be a substitute for experience.

Confidence In Online Poker Security Waning Rapidly In Wake Of UltimateBet Hole Card Poker Cheats Scam!

Native policing of gambling in doubt after online cheating hole card scam!

MONTREAL - Confidence in the ability of Mohawk regulators to police lucrative online gambling operations on the Kahnawake reserve has been shaken following the second cheating scandal in less than a year.

UltimateBet.com, which is owned by a company controlled by former Kahnawake grand chief Joe Norton, acknowledged on Thursday that unnamed insiders had altered its poker software to allow them to see opponents' hidden cards.

"The individuals responsible were found to have worked for the previous ownership of UltimateBet prior to the sale of the business to Tokwiro [Mr. Norton's company] in October 2006," the site said in a statement. "Tokwiro is taking full responsibility for this situation and will immediately begin refunding UltimateBet customers for any losses that were incurred as a result of unfair play."

The company refused to disclose the amount of fraudulent winnings, but poker observers have said it runs into the millions. An analysis of the scandal on the online poker forum twoplustwo.com found that one of the cheaters won more than $600,000 in the space of four months last year. The software glitch was in place for at least 15 months, UltimateBet said.

In January, Absolute Poker, also owned by Tokwiro Enterprises, was fined $500,000 by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission for a similar cheating scam, which was also blamed on rogue employees. The commission, first created in 1996 when Mr. Norton was grand chief, has three members from the community, which is just south of Montreal.

Bobby Mamudi, an industry analyst and managing editor of the London-based Gaming Intelligence Group, said the new cheating incident is another blow to the reputation of Kahnawake's gambling industry. "They definitely do seem to be losing credibility and not doing too much about it," he said. He called the cheating uncovered in Kahnawake "quite unique" in the global online gambling world. Sites taking bets on sporting events have been shut down for failing to have sufficent funds to pay winners. "There's never been something like this to do with poker and this kind of overt cheating," he said.

The federal government considers the 400 or so poker and sports-betting sites operating from Kahnawake to be illegal, but, fearing a confrontation, both the federal and provincial governments have been reluctant to intervene. Last March, however, an aide to Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said the government was studying ways of shutting down the gambling, possibly by targeting financial transactions with illegal Internet operators.

Murray Marshall, legal counsel to the gaming commission, said that Kahnawake's regulation is among "the tightest in the world" and said similar frauds have occurred in casino gambling and banking. "We would obviously prefer to prevent all possibilities of this kind of thing happening, but no system is infallible," he said.

UltimateBet, one of the most popular online poker sites, identified six player accounts that took part in fraudulent activity. They used 18 different online aliases, including NioNio, flatbroke33, ilike2win, UtakeIt2, FlipFlop2, WhackMe44 and RockStarLA. It said the "security hole" that allowed the fraud has been plugged and all of the individuals associated with the cheating have been permanently banned. It also promised to increase security.

Steven Ware, author of an upcoming book on poker strategy, has followed the UltimateBet controversy closely since players first voiced their suspicions online in January. In an analysis on twoplustwo. com of NioNio's winning hands, he wrote that the odds of someone getting that lucky were "about the same as winning the powerball [lottery] jackpot three days in a row."

In an interview yesterday, Mr. Ware said stricter oversight is needed of the Kahnawake gambling sites.

"Online poker is a billion-dollar-a-year industry, and it's unfathomable that companies in this industry would operate with a total lack of transparency, beyond the reach of the law," he said. "Kahnawake and the online gambling sites that it runs have shown time and time again that they are not willing to keep their games fair or protect the players."

UltimateBet officials declined to be interviewed yesterday. In an e-mailed statement, the company said the "perpetrators" of the fraud left the company "well before the fraudulent activity was uncovered." Asked whether the matter has been referred to the police, the company said only that it is in the hands of the gaming commission.

UltimateBet Online Poker Cheat Scam Comes Clean With Tokwiro Enterprises Admission!

Here we go again! I said it two and half years ago, that hole cards were being exposed in online poker games, and nearly everyone in the poker community called me crazy. But now Tokwiro Enterprises, owner of both Absolute Poker and UltimateBet, has had to come out of the closet and admit that its second prized online poker site
was devastatingly compromised, after its first, Absolute Poker, suffered the same blow from the same peeking-at-hole-cards scam.

The headlines blared: Close Former Employees Had Access to Opponents' Holecards for 21 Months

Tokwiro Enterprises, the company that owns both Absolute Poker and UltimateBet, today released a statement confirming that cheating had gone on at UltimateBet by people who, according to the release, “worked for the previous ownership of UltimateBet prior to the sale of the business to Tokwiro in October 2006.”

The player or players behind the 18 screen names that were identified as being corrupted have not been named. Tokwiro will refund players their losses once the investigation is complete. The usernames that were used to cheat are: NioNio, Sleepless, NoPaddles, nvtease, flatbroke33, ilike2win, UtakeIt2, FlipFlop2, erick456, WhackMe44, RockStarLA, stoned2nite, monizzle, FireNTexas, HeadKase01, LetsPatttty, NYMobser, and WhoWhereWhen.

The cheating was able to take place because the perpetrators had access to what Tokwiro is calling an “unauthorized software code” that allowed the cheaters to see their opponents’ holecards. The cheating took place from March 7, 2006 to Dec. 3, 2007, and it’s not known how much money the cheater(s) illicitly won.

As soon as the cheating was suspected, Tokwiro said it contacted the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC), the most used online poker regulatory commission, to start the investigation. Tokwiro is mandated to contact KGC if any suspicious activety might be taking place.

This is the second cheating incident to hit the company since it purchased Absolute
Poker and UltimateBet. The first occurred when it was discovered that several players at Absolute Poker also had access to software that allowed them to see opponents’ hole cards.

The entire press release, which provided a timeline of the incident, follows:

MONTREAL, CANADA (MAY 29, 2008) --- Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG ("Tokwiro"), proprietors of UltimateBet.com ("UltimateBet"), one of the world's largest online card rooms, today announced the results of its lengthy investigation into allegations of unfair play, which was triggered by concerns about an account named 'NioNio'. Tokwiro has worked diligently in cooperation with its regulatory body, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission ("KGC"), and with independent third-party experts to conduct a thorough investigation that included a comprehensive review of hand histories and game data, thorough analyses of software and network security, and audits of its security practices and procedures.

The investigation has concluded that certain player accounts did in fact have an unfair advantage, and that these accounts targeted the highest limit games on the site. The individuals responsible were found to have worked for the previous ownership of UltimateBet prior to the sale of the business to Tokwiro in October 2006. Tokwiro is taking full responsibility for this situation and will immediately begin refunding UltimateBet customers for any losses that were incurred as a result of unfair play.

The fraudulent activity was enabled by unauthorized software code that allowed the
perpetrators to obtain hole card information during live play. The existence of this
vulnerability was unknown to Tokwiro until February 2008 and existed prior to
UltimateBet's acquisition by Tokwiro in October 2006. Our investigation has confirmed that the code was part of a legacy auditing system that was manipulated by the perpetrators. Gaming Associates, independent auditors hired by the KGC, have confirmed that the software code that provided the unfair advantage has been permanently removed.

Throughout the investigation of this incident, Tokwiro's consistent priorities have been:

To permanently remove the ability to engage in unfair play.
To complete its investigation and come to a full understanding of what occurred.
To refund the affected customers.
To implement measures that prevents future incidents.

The Company said, "We would like to thank our customers for their patience, loyalty and support, as well as for their understanding that we are doing everything we can to correct this situation. The staff and management of UltimateBet are fully committed to providing a safe and secure environment for our players, and we want to assure customers of our unwavering resolve to monitor site security with every resource at our disposal."

Investigation Timeline

These are the key events in the course of the incident.

January 2008: UltimateBet is alerted to suspicions of unfair play on the part of the
account "NioNio". Within 24 hours, UltimateBet contacts the KGC to provide formal notice that UltimateBet has initiated an investigation of the incident.

UltimateBet subsequently forwarded a copy of all related data to the KGC.
January 2008: The "NioNio" account and related accounts are suspended pending further investigation.

February 2008: Preliminary findings indicate abnormally high winning statistics for the suspect accounts. After discussions with the KGC, UltimateBet engages third-party gaming experts to assist with the analysis.

February 2008: Investigators confirm that the suspect accounts are associated with
individuals who had worked for UltimateBet under the previous ownership.
February 2008: UltimateBet discovers the unauthorized code that allowed the perpetrators to obtain hole card information during live play. The code was part of a legacy auditing system that was manipulated by the perpetrators of the fraud.

February 2008: UltimateBet immediately removes the unauthorized code and works with the KGC and with third-party auditors to verify that the security hole has been eliminated.

March 2008: Six player accounts are confirmed to have participated in this scheme. No accounts were deleted at any point, although some account names were changed multiple times. The following account names are known to have been used in the fraudulent activity: NioNio, Sleepless, NoPaddles, nvtease, flatbroke33, ilike2win, UtakeIt2, FlipFlop2, erick456, WhackMe44, RockStarLA, stoned2nite, monizzle, FireNTexas, HeadKase01, LetsPatttty, NYMobser, and WhoWhereWhen.

May 2008: The investigation confirms that the fraudulent activity took place from March 7, 2006 to December 3, 2007.

May 2008: Gaming Associates certifies that the software code that enabled unfair play was removed from UltimateBet servers in February of 2008.

May 2008: Customers affected by this incident are identified, and plans for corrective action are reviewed with the KGC.

Corrective Actions Taken:

The following actions have been taken or are currently underway as a direct result of this investigation:

The security hole identified in UltimateBet's investigation has been permanently
eliminated.

UltimateBet is establishing a state-of-the-art software Security Center that
consolidates and greatly enhances existing security capabilities. The first release of the new Security Center focuses solely on the immediate detection of abnormal winnings. Gaming mathematicians, poker professionals, and security software developers have all contributed to the specifications for the new Security Center.

UltimateBet customers are no longer permitted to change account names unless they have suffered abuse in chat rooms. Requests for changes must be supported by proof of abuse and must be approved by the Chief Compliance Officer. In addition to its existing security department, UltimateBet has established a new specialized Poker Security team of professionals dedicated to fraud prevention.

The refund process will begin immediately. The accounts associated with fraudulent
activity did not use an unfair advantage in all play sessions. Regardless, UltimateBet is refunding all losses to these accounts.

Accounts related to the fraudulent activity have been disabled, and the individuals
associated with those accounts permanently banned from the site. UltimateBet has worked closely and transparently with its governing body, the KGC and its designated expert auditors, to determine exactly what happened, how it happened, and who was involved, and has taken action to prevent any possibility of this situation
recurring.

Tokwiro is pursuing its legal options in regard to this incident.

WHEN WILL IT END???

June Scam Of The Month Is Posted!

The scam of the month for June is Card Swapping at brick and mortar poker tables. This is a devious scam pulled off by two cheating partners at the poker table who leave no cards unswapped! To read it, go to my Scam of the Month page.

Bwin Declares War On Cheats Using Poker Bots!

ICU INTELLIGENCE TO IMPLEMENT BotGuard, a pokerbot detection system, at bwin!

The war against poker bots is escalating! In a deal with ICU Intelligence, a data mining and predictive database analysis company, the huge online casino, poker and sports betting company known as bwin has taken the war against poker bots to the very Internet they breed on. With the development of BotGuard, ICU Intelligence has armed bwin with the first real orchestrated online defense against bots. If you are not familiar with the ongoing online war between poker sites and poker cheats using bots, the text below lays out the battlefield.

At a time when the number of internet poker players continues to rise, the number of people trying to take advantage of the game also increases. Auxiliary cheating software that recommends poker actions is becoming an increasing problem. In some cases the software plays without human interaction, a so called poker bot, which gives the player using such software an advantage towards ordinary players. bwin has always been in the forefront of this battle and takes every precaution to stop the fraudsters who are using poker bots. However, as the technology of the poker bots develops and becomes more sophisticated, new methods are needed to combat the problem. ICU’s BotGuard is designed specifically to find and detect the player patterns that single out poker bots from the human players.

“The increasing complexity and the amount of data that needs to be processed in order to detect poker bots is tremendous” says Kevin O’Neal, Press Officer at bwin. “BotGuard has the ability to detect complex patterns with tiny shades of differences in huge databases, which allows it to find the players that are using illegal software. This is what made us choose ICU’s solution as our next step in the fight against poker bots.”

ICU’s unique cutting edge technology, based on Artificial Intelligence, is what powers BotGuard. This gives it the ability to analyse and process the huge amounts of data required to search for bots among the masses of ordinary players. The fingerprint on every player is unique and every bot has its unique playing patterns. The way a person plays over time changes. A bot on the other hand plays in a similar way with few small variations. ICU’s BotGuard finds and flags suspicious players, allowing bwin’s fraud specialists to undertake a more thorough investigation before the appropriate countermeasure is executed.

“ICU is very pleased and excited to work closely with bwin.” says Andreas Holmström, CEO ICU intelligence. “bwin is a pioneer in the online poker development and we are proud that they are choosing ICU as their partner when it comes to surveillance against cheaters on their poker network.”

Rash of Sportsbooks Cheats and Scams! How to Avoid Them!

I have been getting tons of e-mails asking me about the safety of doing business with various online sportsbooks. Although sportsbook scams and cheat operations do not get the online press that poker scams do, believe me, they are prevalent out there in the cyberworld. Not only are there the typical scenarios where online sportsbooks go belly-up and out of business, leaving account-holders holding nothing but air, several sportsbooks operations are set up just to do that: abscond with account-holders´ funds once the accounts are opened, without a first bet even being made.

In additon to these online sportsbook scams, there have been shady individuals involved with online sportsbooks, especially those based in Costa Rica, who have been accused of more widespread criminal activities on several continents.

According to a report filed over a year ago by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Jaime Ligator, owner of the Horseshoe casino in San José, detained last May 18, contributed financially to the opening a call centre that was presumable used to defraud dozens of Americans with false prizes.

Ligator, when he was arrested, was the president of World Wide Land Investments which had offices on the third floor of Mall San Pedro. This is a firm that specializes in selling lots to North Americans, according to AM Costa Rica.

A former sportsbook owner, Max Allan Stone, was also named in the case and alleged to have been part of the scam that preyed on mostly elderly citizens living in the United States.

The scam artists called people in the United States informing them they had won a lottery. The victim was then supposed to send a “deposit” anywhere from $300 to $4,000 via Western Union, a police spokesman told AM Costa Rica.

Another of those named in the complaint, Severin Marcel Stone, 28, and presumably a relative of Max Allan, is being extradited back to the United States.

Severin Marcel Stone was detained in January in San Rafael de Escazú where he operated a food outlet in a shopping mall.

THE BetOnSports BUSTOUT

The BetOnSports saga continued last week with notification that they "do not anticipate that any distribution to creditors will be any more than a few cents on the dollar". Those players who were left with substantial account balances at the time of BOS's demise are starting to look like they will come away completely empty-handed. Unfortunately this is not the first offshore sportsbook failure, nor will it be the last.

HOW TO AVOID BECOMING A DEFUNCT SPORTSBOOK VICTIM

I would give you these suggestions to avoid losing your funds on account with sportsbooks that either go belly-up or are just plain scam operations:

Avoid credit wagering. While gambling on credit certainly has its place, and its benefits, it often leads into very murky waters. If offered a credit account from someone unknown to you, run, don't walk. This includes "forum personas" - plenty of scam artists have utilized credit offers through internet forums to rip-off unwary players. With no guarantee that you will be paid, you are setting yourself up for disaster. Be especially cautious of operations employing stateside credit agents - even if their intentions are honorable, the high risk of prosecution make this route generally unappealing.

Do business only with the cream of the crop. Appearances can be deceiving, and a well-designed website can easily disguise the fact that some sportsbooks are literally operated out of shacks in 3rd world countries. The biggest factor in sportsbook failure is lack of adequate cash flow, and most start-up operations are vastly undercapitalized. Large sportsbooks in operation for 5 or more years likely have had time to amass a cash reserve, and have a good enough handle on operating costs to keep themselves afloat. The same can't be said for smaller or newer sportsbooks, who represent a much riskier place to park your bankroll.

Stick to books advertising on well-known internet websites and gambling portals. While plenty of pump-and-dump schemes have been propagated through online gambling forums, most website owners will at least go to bat for those who signed up through their referral links if one of their advertisers goes belly-up. This, of course, varies by website owner. Most provide at least some degree of screening of their advertisers, and many have plenty of "inside connections" that can sometimes be used to expedite payments or resolve disputes. While this provides no guarantees of assistance, it at least leaves extra options open in extricating yourself from a sticky situation.

"There's no such thing as a free lunch." Be wary of incentives that seem too good to be true. Sportsbooks on the decline will often attempt to increase operating capital by enticing customers with generous deposit bonuses. In many cases, this is simply a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul as your post-up money goes right back out the door to process backlogged withdrawal requests. Don't get suckered into the tail end of a failing Ponzi scheme. Well-run (and well-capitalized) sportsbooks have no need for eye-popping incentives, which are often signs of desperation.

Diversify. The BetonSports saga has illustrated that no book is absolutely safe, regardless of backing, reputation, or business savvy. No one knows for sure if a book may fold, go bankrupt, or just pick up and walk away with customers' deposits. Spreading yourself out between 5 to 10 independently-run sportsbooks is a nice insurance policy if something unforeseen should happen to one of your standard "outs". Even a complete failure of one of your sportsbooks will only chop off a limited 10-20% of your total bankroll - not an attractive ending, but better than having all your eggs in one basket.

Keep balances low, and make frequent "profit-taking" withdrawals. Keep the minimal amount necessary for your daily betting in each account. The cash you keep offshore should be funds you are willing to lose in a worst-case scenario. Run up the score on one of your books? Take that opportunity to request a payout and preserve your capital - cash in a shoebox under your bed can't fall victim to offshore shenanigans. The goal should be to keep as little of your cash at risk as possible while staying funded well enough to avoid missing any profitable opportunities.