Ultimate Bet fraud perpetrators named and fined

Many people’s suspicions have been confirmed: Frank Catania and his team found “clear and convincing evidence to support the conclusion” that WSOP Main Event winner Russ Hamilton, who was involved with Ultimate Bet’s affiliate program, was the main culprit in the superuser fraud. According to Inspector Frank Catania’s report, Hamilton “was the main person responsible for and benefiting from the multiple cheating incidents.” The Kahnawake Commission intends to prosecute Hamilton and all others involved in the cheating incidents, which spanned over 3 years.

Ultimate Bet itself is not getting off lightly from this serious breach of security – the Kahnawake commission will impose a series of penalties on UB, which include these:

• UB must commence reimbursing all affected players by November 3, 2008.
• UB must also ensure all black-listed persons – those deemed “unsuitable” by the KGC – are removed from UB by November 3, 2008, regardless of their level of ownership, management and operation. While this is done UB will continue to provide complete records of its day-to-day operations to prevent any further wrongdoing.
• Ultimate Bet’s web logs, game logs and all other logs will be kept and made available to the KGC for immediate inspection whenever requested.
• What is probably the most painful sanction for UB: on top of the estimated $6 million they have already refunded to affected players and the undisclosed amount yet to be refunded, the KGC has decided that “Ultimate Bet shall immediately pay a fine of $1.5 Million USD to the KGC for its failure to implement and enforce measures to prohibit and detect fraudulent activities.”
• And of course, “Ultimate Bet’s failure to comply fully with these measures will result in the immediate revocation of its KGC gaming permit.”

These sanctions are the result of Frank Catania’s first report, but the investigation is not over – a second report is apparently due in November, with any further evidence uncovered by the Catania team between now and then.

We will keep you updated on this issue as more names come to the surface and more comments from the involved parties become available.