Former employees had ‘unauthorised software code’ allowing them to see opponents’ hole-cards.
Wednesday 4th June 2008
Online casino UltimateBet.com has announced that its players were cheated by up to 18 ‘super-user’ accounts for around 20 months after perpetrators gained access to an ‘unauthorised software code’ allowing them to see their opponents’ hole-cards.
Following an internal investigation triggered over concerns with an account named 'NioNio', the company behind UltimateBet.com and AbsolutePoker.com, Tokwiro Enterprises Enrg, released a statement confirming that deception had taken place by people who has ‘worked for the previous ownership of UltimateBet.com prior to the sale of the business to Tokwiro in October of 2006’. The former Grand Chief of the Kahnawake, Joe Norton, owns Tokwiro and yesterday’s announcement followed revelations of a similar 'super-user' cheating scandal at AbsolutePoker.com earlier this year.
The culprits behind both cases have not been named and Tokwiro stated that it would refund players any losses once the investigation is complete. In addition to ‘NioNio’, other usernames that were used include Sleepless’, ‘NoPaddles’, ‘nvtease’, ‘flatbroke33’, ‘ilike2win’, ‘UtakeIt2’, ‘FlipFlop2’, ‘erick456’, ‘WhackMe44’, ‘RockStarLA’, ‘stoned2nite’, ‘monizzle’, ‘FireNTexas’, ‘HeadKase01’, ‘LetsPatttty’, ‘NYMobser’ and ‘WhoWhereWhen’.
“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,” read a statement issue by Tokwiro.
“Tokwiro is taking full responsibility for this situation and will immediately begin refunding UltimateBet.com customers for any losses that were incurred as a result of unfair play.
“The fraudulent activity was enabled by unauthorised 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 of 2008 and existed prior to UltimateBet.com's acquisition by Tokwiro in October of 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 Kahnawake Gaming Commission, have confirmed that the software code that provided the unfair advantage has been permanently removed.”
Online casino UltimateBet.com has announced that its players were cheated by up to 18 ‘super-user’ accounts for around 20 months after perpetrators gained access to an ‘unauthorised software code’ allowing them to see their opponents’ hole-cards.