/ Editor / 22 October 2007 / Leave a comment

Absolute Poker has issued a statement on the cheating online poker tournament that has undermined its credibility.

Joe Norton, a former Grand Chief of the Kahnawake Mohawks who license Absolute Poker in Canada, says as the owner of Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG, a company that owns 100 percent of Absolute Poker, he must accept the ultimate responsibility for the scandal.

The Kahnawake Gaming Commission announced last Thursday that it has commissioned Gaming Associates to investigate the matter.

Contradicting earlier reports that AP representatives had claimed a company tech employee had been responsible for the tournament cheating in an effort to make a point to management, Norton claims that preliminary findings indicate that ".....our poker system was compromised by a high-ranking trusted consultant employed by AP whose position gave him extraordinary access to certain security systems".

Transparency is all to the good. Although it all depends whose looking at you.

As Norton says: "...this consultant devised a sophisticated scheme to manipulate internal systems to access third-party computers and accounts to view hole cards of other customers during play without their knowledge. As this consultant was aware of the details of our fraud detection process, the likelihood that the scheme would be uncovered through our normal procedures was minimized. We consider this security breach to be a horrendous and inexcusable offence."

Norton assures cheated customers that Absolute Poker will pay for all losses suffered by affected players. Quite right.

And, of course, it will not happen again. Says Tokwiro: "Please be assured that we have corrected the problem that allowed the system to be unfairly manipulated." (Ergo: The employee has been sacked.) We are working furiously to increase the safeguards within our systems. While we are satisfied that our systems are secured, we realize that our security systems must be continuously monitored and enhanced."

But why now? Why not before? "Without question, this incident has been unfortunate for all concerned," says he. And most unfortunate for Absolute Poker, one imagines.

More to follow...