While allegations of insider cheating and security breaches are still swirling around Absolute Poker, Absolute’s owner issued a statement to players on Sunday, attempting to break records.
“The integrity of our poker system has been compromised by a trusted senior consultant hired by AP, whose position has given us special access to certain security systems,” said Joe Norton, a former grand chief of the Canawake Mohawk region and owner of Tokiro Enterprise ENRG, which holds a 100% stake in Absolute Poker. 토토
“As with you, I am not pleased that AP has provoked the anger, doubt and concern of our valued customers by providing a timely and comprehensive account of this matter,” the statement said. “I hope that customers will be able to recognize that this remains a very complex and sensitive issue, and I would like to offer my strongest assurance that we will be as honest as possible about how this breach occurred and what we are doing to address the situation.”
Mr. Norton, who is currently traveling, has decided to respond by email to questions from Casino City. It will be posted here as soon as the email arrives.
The situation Norton is talking about began about a month ago when complaints began to surface at a gambling tournament in Absolute Poker that there was a “super-user” account at the table to view every player’s hole card.
According to a forum on TwoPlusTwo.com , the complaint began when a potripper had the good fortune of spending 20 minutes without folding a free-flop at one point during a poker game. The player, named “crazymaco,” was suspicious, and e-maild Absolute Poker requested an XLS file of hand records. Absolute Poker complied with the standard.
But what mad Marco received was far from a typical hand recording file. In addition to hand recording, each player’s hole card and IP address, as well as the user details of both the person at the table and the observer, were revealed.
Further investigation revealed that “Potter” folded his first two hands at the table in question, but when observer 363 arrived at the table, “Potter” did not fold his other hand for 20 minutes before flop, suggesting that somehow, No. 363 was relaying all hole cards to “Potter” using a super user account. To make matters worse, No. 363 IPs were tracked to a person under the name Scott Tom, who confirmed that Absolute Poker was “a former member of Team Absolute Poker.”
On Sunday, Norton’s admission that the company’s security breach was a “horrible and inexcusable crime” came eight days after Absolute Poker announced that it had conducted an “extensive investigation” and that “there were no security breaches in accordance with Absolute Poker’s knowledge, information and beliefs.” In the same statement, dated Oct. 12, Absolute Poker said that “an internal investigation determined that it was impossible to view Hall cards by any person, device, program, script or other means.”
The Canawake Gaming Commission and a third-party auditor, Gaming Associates, are currently investigating. The AP has announced that it will release the audit results upon completion.