Millions scam: The biggest scandal in online poker
At the end of the 20th century, online poker still had no idea that it would become a sensation. In fact, even the Internet is not as widely available as it is now. The combination of these two factors makes Greg Pierson and John Carl true business geniuses. The two understand in time why computer games are gaining more and more popularity. They look ahead to the future and combine two seemingly easy-to-combine discoveries - the Internet and poker.
Pierson and Karl put all their efforts into creating an online poker platform. Pierson himself is a professional player. His trip to Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker and his meeting with Russ Hamilton changed the world of the game.
Greg and John created the platform and Russ is their ambassador. His task is to get the news about the poker site to as many professionals as possible in the real version of the game. This is how the Ultimate Bet is created. The company gets its license in Canada and very soon starts gaining popularity. It provides several varieties of poker.
Everything is going great, but it crashes very quickly. In 2008, clear evidence was published that between 2004 and 2008 the company amassed huge profits after quite deliberate fraud. The media described the scandal as the biggest fraud in the history of online gambling.
The scheme is quite simple. Fake profiles participate in the game, but they have the biggest advantage in poker - seeing the opponent's cards. Thus impersonators know when real users are bluffing and when they are playing it safe. Of course they do not take advantage of their advantage in 100% of the cases, so as not to arouse too much suspicion.
In the end, honesty prevails and the truth becomes available to all. As a result, the company compensated its customers with more than $22 million. Whether the amount should have been lower or higher is another question.