UltimateBet to Repay over $15 Million

UltimateBet, the disgraced online poker operator, will repay at least $21.1 million to players that were swindled while playing on its site, the Kanhawake Gaming Commission said today.

In late September, the commission announced that by Nov. 3, UltimateBet was to begin repaying affected customers. The company was also instructed to remove all staff members the commission deemed "unsuitable" -- a term whose meaning was never qualified.

The commission did not indicate today whether these staff members had been removed.

Details of the cheating scandal came to light in June 2008. Under pressure from a well-organized group of poker players, UltimateBet revealed its software had been manipulated to allow certain users to view opponents' hole cards.

Between June and September, UltimateBet repaid $6.1 million to affected players; today, however, the commission said that UltimateBet will issue an additional $15 million.

That $15 million, according to Canada's National Post, was forked over by one of UltimateBet's previous owners, Excapsa Software Inc., a Toronto company currently undergoing liquidation in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

Excapsa sold UltimateBet to Joseph T. Norton, the former grand chief of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake, in October 2006. Chief Norton, ambiguously, has been linked to at least two groups that have an ownership interest in UltimateBet: Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG and Blast Off Ltd.

In a $75 million lawsuit filed by Blast Off against Excapsa, Blast Off argued that Excapsa did not disclose, at the time of purchase, that UltimateBet's software was corrupted.

Yesterday, Justice Sarah Pepall of Ontario Superior Court approved a settlement that sees Excapsa shareholders pay $15 million to Chief Norton's company. The identities of those shareholders were not given.

The commission, meanwhile, did not specify when its investigation into UltimateBet will conclude.

Because copies of Ontario Superior Court documents are not available electronically, IGamingNews was unable to acquire them by press time Wednesday.

For an in-depth look at the cheating scandals which occurred at two of Chief Norton's properties, Absolute Poker and UltimateBet, click here.