Maybe Annie Duke Should Not Have Stood By UltimateBet After All??

Despite numerous rumors to the contrary, poker pro Annie Duke revealed to Gambling911.com's Jenny Woo this week that she is willing to continue to put her name behind UltimateBet.com. The 3rd largest online poker room catering to North America was embroiled in a "cheating scandal" last year.

"I really have a lot of faith of the new management's commitment to offer a good quality secure site," Annie Duke told Woo.

In Part Three of Jenny Woo's interview, Ms. Duke discusses the UltimateBet fiasco and her full reaction as well as her opinion on the changes made with this year's World Series of Poker, specifically the delayed final table. Here is some of what she said:

JENNY: What did you make of Peter Eastgate's win in the WSOP? And what's your opinion on the changes that were made this year?

ANNIE: Unfortunately, I didn't get to watch most of it which was up until the final table because I was tied up in New York on a schedule where t.v. wasn't really an option. I haven't been able to catch up on that yet but I did watch the final table. I felt that honestly he played the best of everybody at the table. From what I saw at that final table I felt that he deserved it of anybody at that table. He played really really well. The thing that I liked about Peter in particular was that I saw a lot of really hyper-aggressive play. Now to be fair I didn't see the whole final table, I saw what was on t.v. I don't know much else about him but I'm impressed the way he played. But as far as the young thing, I don't think it's particularly surprising. Poker is getting to be such a young game. There's so many people in their early twenties entering that event and a lot of them are really really good. I'm glad to see somebody who I felt was very talented win that event.

As far as the delay - I know that it definitely raised ratings which is really important and I think that whatever delay people had to take understanding that the better poker that runs on t.v. the better it is for the poker economy which is better for you as an individual. People should really try to think of the big picture as opposed to whatever inconvenience they're feeling by it. I think that we had the misfortune of having that delay introduced in a very very important election year in which I think it took away much of the ability of the WSOP being able to hype their players and get people to pay a lot of extra attention to what was going on. This wasn't' just an election year. This was a super duper high profile important election year. If it were to happen during Kerry-Bush, I think we could of probably gotten more focus on poker world. (Haha) I think there's no question that that will happen again next year but with it being a little bit shorter. It'll be interesting to see what happens next year when people are actually interested in interviewing these people as opposed to thinking about Sarah Palin.

JENNY: There has been a lot of controversy surrounding a much publicized insider cheating scandal involving UltimateBet. You have stood firmly by their side through all of this. How have your friends on the poker circuit reacted to this scandal?

ANNIE: I think that there's mixed reactions. Everybody's horrified that it happened - including me. I just want to get that out of the way. There are no excuses for what happened. It's ugly, it's ridiculous and it's incredibly upsetting. With that being said, I think there's a large portion of people out there who got their money back which I think is amazing. I had one player call me up who's an old time player playing for a really long time and who said to me, "Annie in all the years that I've been playing and all the times that I've been cheated this is the first time I've ever gotten my money back." I think that there's recognizing there are things that have happened. This was not the site cheating anybody, this was individuals cheating people. It's really horrible that it happened but the site did good by it and made sure that everybody go their money back and let's move on because the site is secure. There are other people who had a fair reaction to it - which is - you can't compensate me for the loss of confidence. My heart really goes out to those people because they are absolutely right. We go into these games and the moves that you think are supposed to work aren't working. Now you start to take those out of your game and I understand that it can have a deep and long term and long lasting affect on your game. They're right, there's no way for UltimateBet to compensate somebody for whatever long term affects that event had on their game. So to that I don't really have an answer. As far as the monetary issues, for me it was all made good on. In this administration - so to speak- definitely stood good by everything, has an amazing security center going forward, they made good on something that wasn't their fault.

I feel like being part of a solution and making sure that there are good and secure options going forward. I think my brother said this to somebody, "look UltimateBet's going to continue with or without Annie, it's going to still be there. Would you rather have Annie there trying to make sure that everything is secure going forward or would you rather have her just leave and not be a voice for the community"? So that was my take on it. I just felt like the right thing to do was to try to make sure this was handled well, that people were made whole, to have people feel that they had somebody they could talk to about it and that I could do what I could to make the site better and to make it a good option for people. I really have a lot of faith of the new management's commitment to offer a good quality secure site and I'm willing to continue to put my name by that.

One of the things that I said - and I said it in my testimony - is that online poker is unique to other financial markets because in other financial markets when you get cheated there's no way to make anybody whole. One of the reason's why people should feel very comfortable about playing online is because when incidents like this happen the sites will stand up and behave if they're regulated and make the community whole. Well, if I'm endorsing a site that's going to do just that and I walk away then I'm a total hypercritic anyway.

JENNY: What's next for you in the poker circuit?

ANNIE: I'm really going to be stepping up to the number of tournaments that I play now that I'm out of my dispute with the WPT. I'm going to be heading to Vegas on Saturday (Dec. 13) and I'm going to be playing in the Main Event there at Bellagio. Then I'm going to be playing at this thing at the Commerce. I'm just really going to step up the number of major events that I'm playing. It's funny that you ask that because I was talking to somebody in November and I was looking what had happened to my schedule; I had intended to play at the Bike (The Bicycle Casino - Los Angeles) at the end of August and then I had a commitment come up. Then I had intended to play down in Aruba but had to go to New York. And I was going to do two Poker After Dark's but I was still in New York. I finally got back and I can finally play at the Bellagio. But literally it was three months of intense "I'm going to play this, I'm going to play this, and I'm going to play this" where everything else in my life kept getting in the way.

I've now gone through my schedule and have blocked out tons of poker coming up so that I can start being a poker player again.

JENNY: Thank you so much for taking the time out of your very busy schedule to do this interview.

ANNIE: Thank you. Talk to you soon.

Phil Hellmuth Implicated in NEW UltimateBet Online Poker Scandal!

In the aftermath of their sisterly online insider poker scams, Absolute Poker and UltimateBet formed the Cereus Poker Network, and were at great pains, along with the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, to assure players all had been fixed as far as cheating is concerned.

Along With Absolute Poker, UltimateBet is one of the two online poker rooms brought to mainstream attention by "60 Minutes" coverage of their cheating scandals. You would think that we wouldn't hear about any new cheating incidents on either site for a while...But new allegations have surfaced!

A hand played online this weekend resulted in the losing player being awarded the pot. When the mistake was pointed out on the Ultimate Bet forum, the moderator declared it a "software glitch" and said he'd look into it. However, circumstances make the incident seem more ominous.

Reprints of the hand played reveal the losing player who took the pot to be none other than Phil Hellmuth, poker legend and Ultimate Bet spokesman. Further, the hand was played in a most unusual fashion. Hellmuth's opponent, Doubleballer, had the king of diamonds and queen of hearts in his hand. The flop came out king-king-jack, rainbow.

Doubleballer raised before the turn and the river, and Hellmuth called, seeing a two and a nine, with no flush possibilities. Doubleballer bet his three kings at the showdown, Hellmuth called, and then mucked. But Hellmuth was paid rather than Doubleballer.

On a hand in which Doubleballer clearly had three kings, it would seem Hellmuth would either fold, or raise. Raising could be a bluff, or indicate a full house of another set of kings with a higher kicker possible. But to call, when the hand was apparent, with losing cards, seems strange.

Once the story reached the poker forums, other incidents at Ultimate Bet came to light. One player told how he was nearing the end of a tournament, when the program thanked him for finishing in sixteenth place, even though two cards had yet to be dealt. Another mentioned meeting a small blind of $100, then folding, only to find $700 in chips deducted.

UltimateBet guaranteed a long and exhaustive audit of all software after the cheating last year. But it appears there are quirks, and worse, still happening in the system. Until the Kahnawake and Cereus respond more transparently and forcefully, Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker, and online casinos will gladly accept the customers fleeing these Internet gambling sites.

What will happen next???

Poker Players Alliance Launches US Ad Campaign To Regulate Cheat-Plagued Online Poker

The Poker Players Alliance launched a new newspaper advertising campaign Tuesday aimed at underscoring the need for federal regulation of poker. The ad, which comes after recent stories on cheating scandals at Ultimate Bet and Absoluter Poker appeared in the Washington Post and 60 Minutes, will be placed in three influential Washington, D.C. newspapers - The Hill, The Politico and Roll Call.

"It's time for some straight talk," the ad declares, with a picture of a hand holding a royal flush over a poker table as the background. The ad goes on to argue that sensible federal regulation is the only way to protect the millions of Americans who play Internet poker every day. "We can't guarantee that every company will play by the rules," it reads, "But we're certain good laws will deter and punish those that don't." It adds that the federal government has neglected its responsibilities; wrongly believing that censoring the Internet will prove effective.

"This does nothing to protect consumers," reads the ad. "What it does is limit our personal freedoms and drives players underground or overseas. Worse, billions of dollars that could be raised from regulation are lost. And in this economy every nickel counts."

On November 19, the US Treasury and Federal Reserve pushed through the final regulations for financial institutions to adhere to the 2006 UIGEA bill, which effectively banned Internet gambling by outlawing the transfer of funds from a financial institution to Internet gambling sites.

Companies have been given until December 1, 2009 to comply.

Absolute Poker Hits Top 10 Safest Online Casinos!

Who says there´s no redemption for online poker sites hit by cheat scandals? Believe it or not, my computerized rankings of safest online poker rooms now say that Absolute Poker has made the list. Will it stay there? Wait and see...Will UltimateBet soon make the list? I don't know but if its board makes good on their promises, it certainly has a chance.

Simple Ingenious Poker And Casino Cheating Scams…Where Have you Gone?

For the past five years we have been hearing about high-tech poker and casino cheating scams. For the past two years, most of what we’ve been reading about on the Internet has been online poker cheating, especially the software manipulation insider cheat scams at UltimateBet and Absolute Poker. But what about simple brick and mortar casino cheating? Has the simply ingenious genre of casino cheating been forever obliterated by the genesis that has evolved into high-tech digital camera, laser and microcomputer cheating? Will we ever again see effective casino cheating moves performed by that delicious combination of wit and balls?

Remember my famous Savannah roulette pinching/dragging move that fooled casino surveillance for five years and bilked casinos worldwide for millions? If you don’t, read about it. It is surely a refreshing break from the barrage of articles about 60 Minutes’ coverage of the UltimateBet online cheating scam, and the Savannah needed no computers, lasers, cell phones or digital cameras. My partners and I did it with just our hands and our balls, and to date it remains the best gambling cheating move ever, either online or off. It may not have earned the $60 million that the UltimateBet online hole-card-reading poker scam did, but it never got caught either and made the trio who performed it rich enough to never have to work again.

In any event, I hope to hear of a real “nuts and bolts” brick and mortar casino or poker cheat scam because I am starting to lose the faith. I retired from casino cheating nine years ago, and no one has followed in my footsteps. I am not encouraging people to cheat casinos, but people will always try to cheat the casinos regardless of what I say or don’t say. I am only saying that instead of reading about all this high-tech gizmo wizardry cheating, which seems to get caught anyway, I would love to hear of an old-school cheating team coming up with a clever cheat move that would put a smile on my face.

Remember, I don’t care what anyone says…For me, the best casino moves are those that are simple and fly beneath the radar. Remember that magical acronym “KISS?” That’s right, “Keep It Simple Stupid!” So if anyone out there hears about any clever old-fashioned poker or casino cheat moves, please let me know and I will be glad to write about them.

And if you’re a cheat team worthy of my envy and are out there now doing a great “low-tech” move, don’t forget to let me in on it as soon as you’re done, the way I let you in on the Savannah!

Other Online Poker Rooms Crying Foul!

The "60 Minutes" segment on insider poker cheating scandals ended with one of the folks who uncovered the scam suggesting that the same thing may be happening at other online poker rooms. That didn't sit too well with the rest of the online poker community, many of whom are extremely loyal to Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars among others.

"Yeah it wasn't great for online poker but it could've been way, way worse. The final piece was far from the outright "hatchet job" we were told it would be," expressed the folks from WickedChopsPoker.com.

But one man has stood in the line of fire since the segment aired. That would be Todd "Dan Druff" Witteles, the same man who made the remark about potential cheating scandals about to occur elsewhere.

WickedChops has observed the amount of heat Witteles is taking for his closing comments:

"The people who did this were very greedy and very blatant. But the scary thing is there may be other accounts out there like this, maybe even on other sites that are not being done with the same sort of recklessness. And maybe this has been going on on more than Absolute Poker and UltimateBet, maybe it's going on in several other places, and maybe it's still going on on these sites."

He's getting slammed more than Gambling911.com and WickedChopsPoker.com combined over at TwoPlusTwo.com.

"The funny thing about this is Druff was one of the guy's who helped unearth the Absolute mess, doing the poker community a big service," point out the folks at WCP. "Dude is getting no slip-up equity for that. And in the 2+2 podcast, it was also revealed that Druff even clarified his ‘controversial' statement that he did feel safe on other sites, but 60 Minutes didn't air it."

What a surprise, huh?

"Anyway, more high school drama is sure to ensue," WCP added.

Cliff ‘JohnnyBax’ Josephy Leaves UltimateBet

According to numerous reports out this week, online casino UltimateBet.com has reportedly axed its promotional relationship with successful American professional poker player Cliff ‘JohnnyBax’ Josephy.

Kahnawake-licensed UltimateBet.com announced in late-May that 42-year-old Josephy had been added to its roster of online poker professionals and would be the first member of its Star Players team. However, the former stockbroker from Syosset, New York, posted on an online forum at TwoPlusTwo.com this week that this relationship was now at an end.

“Just wanted you guys to know that you will no longer see me as a redlined pro in their lobbies nor will you see me wearing their patches at live events anymore,” wrote Josephy.

UltimateBet.com was the subject of a report last weekend on a cheating scandal by the long-running American television investigative news programme 60 Minutes alongside AbsolutePoker.com.

Josephy has been quoted in numerous sources as stating that he was contacted by Paul Leggett, Chief Operating Officer for the owners of UltimateBet.com, Tokwiro Enterprises, about the possibility of setting up a meeting between the two. However, he stated that when he responded, Leggett told him that someone else would speak with him instead.

“We set up a conference call last Friday and the other gentleman said ‘Before the others get on the line, I wanted to tell you that we’re no longer paying you starting next month’,” said Josephy.

The online casino then went on to offer the poker pro and lead instructor for PokerXFactor.com a ‘standard deal’, which he subsequently declined.

“It was as out of the blue as anything can be,” said Josephy.

“I thought it was surprising. I still haven’t heard from the people who were in favour of having me originally. Maybe they just wanted to use my name through their rough times to add credibility to the site.”

Kahnawake Gaming Commission And Excapsa Speak Out Over "60 Minutes" Online Poker Cheat Segment

KGC and Excapsa React to 60 Minutes Poker Scandal Show

Clarifications have been flying left and right after the airing of this past Sunday's CBS '60 minutes' show titled "The Cheaters" covering the Ultimatebet and Absolute Poker scandals. On Monday, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC) issued a public statement to clarify several important points they felt were left out of the show which reflected badly on them. Then Tuesday Dec.2, XMT Liquidations Inc. (XMT), the court-appointed liquidator for former Excapsa Software Inc., issued a press release correcting points that KGC brought up in their statement concerning Excapsa's ownership of Ultimatebet.

KGC POINTS RAISED:

1. The Ultimate Bet (UB) cheating was initiated while UB was owned and operated by Excapa (a public company whose Board of Directors included several high-profile Canadians). Pursant to a settlement agreement finalized in November, 2008, Excapsa agreed to pay Tokwiro ENRG US $15,000,000.

2. All players that were adversely affected by cheating (both AP and UB) were fully reimbursed. In the case of UB, these refunds amounted to over US $20,000,000. The reimbursement of UB players was affected within days after the Excapsa settlement. The KGC played a key role in facilitating and monitoring reimbursements.

3. The KGC and its agents have reviewed AP/UB operations and systems and have confirmed that all necessary steps have been implemented to prevent against cheating in future. Migration to the CEREUS software platform was approved and closely monitored by KGC.

4. Contrary to claims made in the 60 Minutes story, in addition to significant penalties levied under its Regulations (eg. fines totaling US $2,000,000), the KGC has initiated a criminal complaint against at least one cheater (Russ Hamilton) and is cooperating with law enforcement authorities. Other such complaints may follow.

FOLLOWUP on BEHALF of EXCAPSA, CLARIFYING THE CLARIFICATION:

The press release dated December 2 by XMT Liquidations Inc. on behalf of Excapsa Software Inc says that KGC's clarifying comments, in response to the CBS' 60 Minutes show, erroneously stated that: "...the Ultimate Bet ("UB") cheating was initiated while UB was owned and operated by Excapsa."

The XMT release stated that: "Excapsa never owned UB. UB was a licensee of Excapsa's gaming software and was owned and operated by an arm's-length third party. Moreover, it is a matter of public record and well-known to the KGC that Excapsa acquired the software code from a third party in July 2005, more than a year after the cheating on the Ultimatebet sites began."

It points out that KGC's own statement supports this timing:

"The Commission found clear and convincing evidence to support the conclusion that between the approximate dates of May 2004 (emphasis added) to January 2008, Russell Hamilton, an individual associated with Ultimatebet's affiliate program, was the main person responsible for and benefitting from the multiple cheating incidents."

The president of XMT, Sheldon Krakower, commented:

"It is disappointing that, without any prior consultation, the KGC chose to hastily issue a press release containing inaccurate and contradictory information. As we previously disclosed, XMT does not believe that management of Excapsa had any knowledge of the cheating tool and, importantly, there was absolutely no admission of liability or wrongdoing pursuant to the recent settlement with Blast Off. The settlement was an important step in Excapsa's liquidation process, avoiding costly litigation and reinstating payments under Blast Off's promissory note. Excapa obtained security for the $15 million settlement payment and the balance of the note payments, and also acquired an ownership interest in Blast Off's gaming software to hopefully generate further value for shareholders."

Mr. Krakower went on to say: "The KGC asked us to work with them to ensure that the $15 million settlement payment was used exclusively for player refunds. We took the lead in monitoring the disbursement process and gave the KGC full access to our files and records."

Fallout From UltimateBet Cheat Scam Focuses Attention On Phil Ivey And Other Top Pros!

The UltimateBet Scandal and CBS' "60 Minutes" coverage of it has now led to some negative speculation about some of today's big name poker pros, besides the alleged UltimateBet Scam mastermind Russ Hamilton. The scrutiny spotlight seems to have hit top pro Phil Ivey square in the face.

The question: Is it a conflict of interest for a part-owner in an online poker room the likes of Full Tilt Poker to rack up over $8 million in cash games over an 18 month span there? Last week, Phil Ivey's impressive statistics for his winning ways on Full Tilt Poker were published on the Internet for the entire world to see. In a span of about 18 months, Ivey is up more than $8 million in cash games ranging from Omaha to Stud to Hold em. You can name any game and Ivey has been beating it impressively. While his accomplishments were mind-boggling on so many levels, some people have brought forth some question as to the ethics behind the numbers as some people of players have called those results into question. While no one has come out and questioned the validity nor method in which Ivey has won what he has, some people do cite concerns of a bit of a conflict of interest in Ivey winning so much money on a site in which he has legitimate business interests.

Phil Ivey is largely regarded as one of the best, if not, the best poker player in the world. The man wins, consistently, no matter the game, stakes or venue. However, as a program which aired on 60 Minutes on November 30th shows, there were ways that people with inside knowledge of a large poker site's operations were able to profit from their standing with the site. With all the talk about superusers being able to see other players' hole cards, it was just a matter of time before other players looked at winning players with suspicion. Naturally, since players can now point to a real dollar figure to see how well Ivey has been doing, the inevitable marriage of paranoia was just a matter of time. However, most people have been quick to defend Ivey and do not believe for a moment that he has done anything wrong.

In fact, many of the people coming to Ivey's defense cite very obvious reasons as to why they are not at all suspicious of Ivey. For starters, as one of the world's best poker players, it is expected that Ivey is a big winner. Secondly, as Full Tilt Poker's moniker is "play with the pros", part of the allure of the site is having the opportunity to play with professional players whom most would never be able to play against otherwise. So he is not deceiving anyone into playing with him. If one decides to face him on the virtual felt, they do so at their own risk. To further this fact is that Ivey does not try to hide his identity at all as his screenname is "Phil Ivey" and his avatar is in his likeness. Lastly, those who know Ivey view him as a person of high character and one who does not need any unfair advantages at a poker table.

In being a part owner of Full Tilt, Ivey stands to make more money should Full Tilt Poker's success continue to thrive, not if he unwittingly brings it down in some type of cheating scandal. To jeopardize a consistent personal revenue stream would be an unnecessary risk. So if he is doing nothing wrong the question becomes, is it ethical for a person who is part owner of a poker site to take his clients money? Those chiming in online answer with a resounding yes. After all, the whole point of a game of poker is to take away another players money. So when one sits down to play, they understand the inherent risk and should they choose to play, that is completely on them.

Analysis Of "60 Minutes" Online Poker Cheating Segment

Regular viewers of "60 Minutes" may not have been aware of a major scandal in the online gambling industry before Sunday night's broadcast, but Internet poker enthusiasts already knew the score and were waiting for reporters to show their cards.

The report, a joint effort involving CBS's Steve Kroft and the Washington Post's Pulitzer-winning investigative journalist Gil Gaul, told the story of the insider cheating that went on at the Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker Web sites in 2007. Kroft and Gaul interviewed online poker players who grew suspicious when they saw competitors making amateur, newbie-style moves, but were still racking up big wins at the virtual tables. Complaints on poker-related message boards -- and to the Web sites' management -- went unanswered, so players did their own detective work with the help of software.

The honest players recreated the offending players' hands and posted those videos on the Web, going public with their suspicions. They finally got the company that owns both Web sites to admit that an employee was able to hack software code that enabled him to see all the cards played in a game. But the company granted anonymity to the employee in exchange for a full confession.

In the meantime, those who lost money to cheaters are still out tens of thousands -- and in some cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars. The "60 Minutes" piece painted a picture of an largely unregulated, offshore-based industry whose only governing body is a three-member commission that has suspicious ties to the business; hence no punishments. No charges have been filed in the cheating scandals, even though the TV report turned up the name of a former real-world poker champion that the commission said had conspired with five others over a four-year period to cheat players out of more than US$20 million.

The Players' Reaction:

Web sites and online forums dedicated to Internet poker had plenty to say about the CBS program's report. From a story on PartTimePoker.com: "Mostly, the story portrays online poker as an unregulated industry where cheating is possible and has occurred -- namely in the AP/UB scandal -- but stops short of saying online poker as a whole is entirely crooked and filled with cheaters."

But a poster on the TwoPlusTwo message board wasn't bluffing with this comment: "The general public is not going to differentiate between UB, Absolute or any other poker site. This will just make everything look crooked to the public eye. This is NOT good news and will not help internet poker imo [in my opinion]."

The report made it clear that there's not much clarity in the world of online gaming, thanks to the fact that most of the Web sites involved are based in the Caribbean or Europe. Online gambling is illegal in the U.S. and there have been several futile attempts by federal and state officials to take on the offshore sites.

So is Internet poker yet another example of 20th century law colliding with 21st century technologies? "I think that's a fair assessment," attorney Michael Fleming of the Mineapolis firm Larkin-Hoffman Daly and Lindgren, told the E-Commerce Times. Online gambling has become an $18 billion-a-year industry because of the murkiness of the legal situation, said Fleming, currently chairman of the American Bar Association's cyberspace law committee. "The federal government has not stepped up at all to create a federal gambling law to override the Internet specifics, and I don't see any interest in it doing that anytime soon."

Antigua, a host country to some Internet poker sites, has actually sought World Trade Organization action against the U.S. for its anti-gambling stance and wants $20 million in tariffs. "This is hardly an easy issue when you get to the international laws," Fleming said. "That money is going to come out of some importer-exporter's pocket, instead of the U.S. government's. This gets into all sorts of legal fun we haven't seen yet."

Some states have tried unique methods to enforce regulation on the industry, Fleming said. Kentucky's state attorney general tried to have the domain names of gambling Web sites declared "gambling devices," but an appellate court has brought that effort to a halt. The Missouri AG even went so far as to arrest the CEO of a UK-based gambling Web site while he was passing through the St. Louis airport during a layover.

"It's a good demonstration of the attempts to be creative because the states are so frustrated," Fleming said. And for those who say online gambling should be legal to make it easier to tax and regulate, decades of history are against that argument. "To some degree, this case shows why regulations would be important. But if you're a country who believed gambling shouldn't ever be done, it can be difficult to reconcile these desires: one, that regulation would be a good thing, but two, that gambling is a bad thing and should never be allowed."

Gambler Beware
The fact that that the Absolute Poker/Ultimate Bet scandal was the product of an inside job -- and that both Web sites are still dealing out hands to anyone willing to set up an account with a credit card -- hasn't escaped the notice of security experts like Ivan Macalintal, research manager at Trend Micro (Nasdaq: TMIC) .

"Even though it can be tempting, when you're involved in these (gambling) Web sites, you're not sure where they're coming from, or what the modus operandi is behind it," Macalintal told the E-Commerce Times. "If you're going to risk yourself in going to these sites, make sure you're properly well-informed of what's happening on your computer.

Unlike a casino in Atlantic City or Las Vegas, there's no reading of faces or eyes in online poker. In exchange for playing in the privacy of one's home, there's no looking for "tells," tics or player routines that might indicate a player's next move. And there are no pit bosses or security cameras to help enforce the rules. "You don't see who you're dealing with, who you're playing with," Macalintal said. "You have to be really careful. If you go to these sites, you have to be prepared for the risk that you're getting into."