Absolute Poker whacked with $500,000 fine

The Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC) fined Absolute Poker $500,000 last week for its role in the "superuser" account cheating scandal.

An audit by the KGC, conducted by Australian firm Gaming Associates, found that seven accounts "were used to compromise AP's systems by participating in live poker games with players using software that enable the viewing of the 'hole cards' of each of the other players, resulting in unfair play," according to a KGC statement.

Allegations that players were cheating on Absolute Poker first surfaced last October in the TwoPlusTwo.com forums, when players noticed "Potripper" went on an incredible winning spree that included a 20-minute stretch where he never folded a hand before the flop.

One of the players in the forums requested a complete hand history from Absolute so he could investigate the cheating complaints. Absolute complied, but the file Absolute e-mailed the player turned out to have much more than the hand history. It included hole cards for every player, IP addresses and the user details of everyone either playing at or watching the table.

A detailed analysis of the file posted in the forums indicated that the likelihood of players cheating by seeing the hole cards of everyone at the table was high, and players began to press Absolute Poker for an explanation.

Absolute Poker initially denied that any cheating had occurred, but later reversed course and paid any player that had lost money to the accounts in questions. Absolute Poker also said at the time that it had closed the security breach.

In its final report, the KGC confirmed that Absolute Poker had fixed the software, but they asked the online poker room to place a "security deposit" with the Commission in case it needed to investigate them again.