What is Digg?125 Comments
- mishabear, on 12/01/2008, -2/+38Incredible story. And people want to stake elections on computerized voting?
- soccerman90, on 12/01/2008, -2/+33***** our government. Instead of regulating something they love to just make it illegal even though they know everyone is still going to do it anyway. Online gambling has the full ability to be a legit business, it is instead turned into an crime filled free for all. Didnt we learn anything from the prohibition?
- docz0r, on 12/01/2008, -3/+32I would personally like to revert back to wild west standard for cheaters. Now that would be a wild Vegas trip.
- billbuckner, on 12/01/2008, -0/+23http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4639016n
full video here. this is why 60 Minutes still gets 10 million plus viewers each week. - xero69, on 12/01/2008, -2/+23Wait, so gambling online is a gamble within itself? My head asplode.
- xero69, on 12/01/2008, -0/+18Thankfully computerized voting is not run on a server farm located on an Indian reservation in Canada, which is overseen by a handpicked council with absolute power. Don't worry though, the day may come soon enough!
- scottspfd82, on 12/01/2008, -2/+18There's a lot of misinformation here, not the story, but in the comments. First of all online gambling is NOT illegal in the US. The port security bill doesn't make it illegal, it just makes it harder for financial institutions to handle the transactions, players are doing nothing illegal under US law.
Second, online gambling is actually less prone to cheating than brick and mortar games. This is a shocking incident, but these players should have figured this out long before they did. I've ran hundreds of thousands of dollars through online poker rooms and have a nice profit to show for it. It's regulated better than you'd think. Absolute isn't the best example, but you can guarantee that if Full Tilt or Stars had this happen the repercussions would have been much worse. Keeping the games secure is in the poker rooms best interest.
Thousands of players play with millions of dollars every single day without incident. Cheating in online poker is not nearly as rampant as you guys seem to believe it is. - billbugger, on 12/01/2008, -2/+18And the "war on drugs"
- TheDeepFriar, on 12/01/2008, -2/+17what happens on the internets stays on the internets
- jahurt, on 12/01/2008, -0/+15Thankfully computerized voting is run by private corporations with political ties. Good to know my vote is secure.
/sarcasm - pintomp3, on 12/01/2008, -2/+12that would almost be preferable to having them run by diebold.
- ncolgan, on 12/01/2008, -0/+9Good point. Criminalization means a lack of regulation, making it no less common and potentially more dangerous.
- themonkman, on 12/01/2008, -0/+8Criminalizing things that a good enough number of people desire creates a monopoly for those with the wherewithal and minimal care for the consequences or rule of law to supply what is in demand.
- ncolgan, on 12/01/2008, -1/+9I agree with the statement for the most part, but poker is one of the few exceptions. There's quite amount of skill involved and the trick is getting the odds in your favor and beating the rake. However, that's nearly impossible with most games and certainly with the lottery. Given enough time, the house always wins.
- TopPairNine, on 12/01/2008, -0/+7To be clear 60 Minutes did a poor job of telling the story. Poker is not illegal, the laws are aimed at online sports books. Also calling it a joint investigation is stretch the information used was provided by the players that cracked the case,
- romlalji, on 12/01/2008, -0/+7I have been following this story for a while, 2+2 was the site that broke this open a while back, here are details for anyone interested-
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-go ... - MewtwoReturns, on 12/02/2008, -0/+7Buried because the MIT Blackjack Team did NOT cheat, but legitimately beat blackjack through card counting. Card counting != cheating, card counting = knowing when to raise the bet when the remaining cards in the deck favor you instead of the house.
- IphtashuFitz, on 12/01/2008, -3/+10Exactly why I would never play a game of poker on-line. I'd like to see this cheater figure out how to look at all his opponents cards while in any real casino. He'd be lucky to escape with only two broken arms instead of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
- hydr, on 12/01/2008, -0/+7I knew there was a reason I lost!
- HeWhoRoams, on 12/02/2008, -0/+7Its painfully obvious that no one really plays online poker here. MOST sites are safe. This is no different than WoW hackers or anything else. The scale of the money is appropriate to the amount of money moving hands at almost all poker sites.
Sign onto pokerstars or full tilt sometime and watch the high stakes games. They trade our annual salary on a single hand.
In summary, Ultimate is probably clean now, but probably won't survive this scandal. Most other poker sites are safe. - Tbird24, on 12/01/2008, -3/+9There are a few very reputable Poker Sites such as PokerStars and Full Tilt. Both have proved time and again that they care about their customers.
- insidius, on 12/01/2008, -0/+6It is not an illegal service, it is illegal for you to use it in YOUR country. It is legal in my country and pretty much the rest of the world so please dont make wild claims.
- TheKitchenSinkX, on 12/01/2008, -0/+6Is it just me, or did they keep discreetly making fun of Russ Hamilton being overweight?
- Buzzbean, on 12/01/2008, -1/+6That would be the lottery and any game played against the house where you have certain odds to win or lose. If it's odds against another player with the house taking the rake, the closest it would get to a tax on stupid people is if the person losing doesn't have the expertise to beat the person he's playing against. Then it's paid to who he's playing against with a bit going to the casino.
- jasdf, on 12/01/2008, -0/+5What stops two people from calling each other up on the phone to cheat (random players?)? I would think that collusion would be rampant.
- illogik, on 12/01/2008, -1/+6Good thing I was too cheap to play at the Real Money Tables...
- djsku82, on 12/01/2008, -0/+5It is, different stories. Usually three or four, plus good ole Andy.
- moulin1, on 12/02/2008, -0/+5An "administrative account" that can see the cards of all players in real time has absolutely no function in administering the website. The only purpose of creating such a feature is cheating the players. The concept that this was done by rogue former employees doesn't hold water. The website's creators planned this all along. And planned their flimsy cover story.
- joshkerr, on 12/01/2008, -0/+5The lesson on this report is that it pays good money to cheat at online poker. If only there was a tutorial on cheating attached to the post.
- cuoops, on 12/02/2008, -0/+5Dont' waste your money on online poker. Invest in the stock market........wait.
- insidius, on 12/01/2008, -0/+5It is not that hard to get around the deposit withdrawal issues and in fact it is quite well known that some of the reason PokerStars is so huge is because they are still actively stating they allow USA based players.
- scottspfd82, on 12/01/2008, -1/+6Poker is free money for smart people.
- UKLooney, on 12/01/2008, -0/+5My 'mate' worked in a Internet cafe where he could monitor any of the cafe's terminals via a VNC type connection. When he spotted someone playing poker, he would join the game and take them to the cleaners when the appropriate occasion arose.
Yes, it's really that easy... - dives425, on 12/01/2008, -0/+4I think the biggest problem is with collusion. 2 or 3 people teamed up at a 9 person table is a lot harder to detect online if the cheaters are clever. I know there are tools to detect this online, just saying, easier to do online than winking across the table at a live game.
- hollywoodphony, on 12/01/2008, -3/+7I kept reading that guy's name as 'Witless'. Probably because he decided to trust thousands of his own dollars to a faceless internet site based in a foreign country, leaving zero recourse were something to (inevitably) go wrong. I'm not saying these guys had it coming, but if you don't think internet gambling is sketchy, I'm not sure what is.
- iiiears, on 12/02/2008, -0/+4It is inexpensive entertainment for people who have extra cash.
Regulating it will help all involved.
Making it illegal helps no one.
and finally, Just because this is the first online gambling scandal you have read about does not make it the first online site to scam it's customers.
Read all the poker blogs written by the pros. - inactive, on 12/01/2008, -3/+7Said stupid people are burying you
- alvination, on 12/01/2008, -0/+4There's plenty of algorithms that poker sites use to see if players are colluding. They'll know if you and a buddy are consistently at the same tables at the same time and will figure it out.
- ncolgan, on 12/01/2008, -2/+6Cheating customers out of millions makes sense in the short run, but there is much more incentive to keep players safe from cheating in the long run.
- falstaff, on 12/02/2008, -0/+4What happens in Vegas takes a prescription and 4 weeks to go away. :(
- stillbourne, on 12/01/2008, -0/+4I agree "gambling" is really bad when you are dealing with stuff like lotteries, horse/dog racing, etc. You should not confuse that with poker. If it was all as random as you seem to think then you would not see the same faces over and over again in the poker tournaments. The awesome part is that the majority of the best players are math or science majors from Ivy league colleges. Please do not regurgitate prepackaged arguments when you have no idea how the subject matter works. The cards are random, yes. But that does not mean that there is not skill involved.
- logicalnoise, on 12/01/2008, -0/+3well if the cleaners is just down the street yeah I'd say it is.
- hiddencatch, on 12/02/2008, -0/+3"revert back" is redundant
- ryancawdor, on 12/01/2008, -2/+5Nothing, and I mean NOTHING surprises me anymore when I read stories of people being defrauded online. Whenever greed is involved, people take insane chances. Anybody willing to deposit money with an unregulated gambling entity located outside their country isn't thinking rationally.
- inactive, on 12/01/2008, -0/+3Don't blow all of your money on online poker, I've got a great investment opportunity for you. A bridge! You can own it, and collect the tolls.
- Mpwns, on 12/01/2008, -0/+3use pre-paid cards that can be used world wide. when you cash out they always mail you a check. and so far none bounced for me.
- susilou, on 12/01/2008, -0/+3"His considerable weight in silver"...???
- hydrodev, on 12/01/2008, -0/+3actually, you can use other reputable services to charge your credit card. Then transfer the money to the poker site, thereby shielding your actual cc info from the site.
P.S NEVER GAMBLE WITH MONEY YOU CANT AFFORD TO LOSE. - EtherGnat, on 12/01/2008, -0/+3If you actually have a significant edge when you gamble then you're not one of the stupid people getting taxed--your opponents are. I'm not sure saying "gambling is a tax on stupid people" means that everybody who gambles is stupid. I would interpret it to be that if you're stupid and you gamble (when the odds don't favor you) then you're sure to be "taxed".
- stillbourne, on 12/01/2008, -0/+3http://safari.oreilly.com/9780132271912
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