The CBS 60 Minute Poker Face story about the online poker cheating that occurred on Ultimate Bet and its sister company Absolute Poker finally aired on November 30th, 2008. Anticipated by the poker community long after the “story” actually broke. The concern of the poker community was how this would effect the general public and how online poker would be perceived. The story was typical of 60 Minutes, offering a balanced approach but lacked insight to deeper issues at hand. These issues have been talked about more in depth (and more eloquently) on other sites/blogs so I’ll keep mine short.
It wasn’t too bad. I think most expected this piece to throw poker back to the Old West mentality of shady back room operations. They certainly did play into that with the opening statement but that’s as far as it goes. Who watches 60 minutes these days anyway? Will there be any backlash to online poker because of this piece? I seriously doubt it will have any effect on the debate that has been going on in the poker community for sometime now.
The key issues we wanted to be the front runner for the story; The UIGEA, regulation, and so on, weren’t even touched upon aside from CBS mentioning that online poker is illegal in the United States. Which we all know is more of a grey area. What was the purpose of this story? A filler in a boring news program.
The issues that mean so much to us will be fought in the shadow of big media just as the have been. Hopefully some of the general public will be inclined to inquire more and stumble upon the sites of the people who have been putting in work in the trenches. Hopefully they will see the implications of the UIGEA, how the move to ban ones right to play poker online, in the privacy of their homes, is much bigger than just the issue at hand. Hopefully some of them join us in the fight.
UltimateBet and Absolute Poker Cheating Background - Link Dump:
- Superusers and Silence: How UltimateBet let players get cheated for millions
- Nat Arem: Absolute Poker Cheating Scandal
- Absolute Poker Cheating Timeline
- Absolute Cheating: An inside job
- Inside Bet: Washington Post Coverage
- UltimateBet Press Release Regaurding Unfair Play
- Prohibition vs. Regulation Debated As U.S. Bettors Use Foreign Sites
- Joe Norton
- The Absolute Poker Cheating Scandal Blown Wide Open
- Kahnawake Gaming Commission News Releases
What others are saying
- Statement by PPA Chairman D’Amato on “60 Minutes” and Washington Post Coverage of the Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet Cheating Scandals
- Two Plus Two Pokercast Episode 50 - Mason Malmuth and Serge Ravitch discuss their thoughts on the 60 minutes piece.
- Hard-Boiled Poker: On 60 Minutes Cheaters
- Up for Poker: 60 Minutes does its job, not ours
- Steal the Blinds: 60 Minutes/Washington Post Exposé on the AP/UB scandal
If I missed a good link to add here please let me know and I’d be more than happy to add it.
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