Responses to the recent findings report from the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC), concerning the Ultimate Bet cheating scandal, have been flying in, not only in the many popular online poker forums, (including ours here at PokerRoad) but from Ultimate Bet themselves, in the form of both an official press release and a lengthy blog post from Tokwiro Chief Operating Officer Paul Leggett.

Both the press release and the blog post reiterate numerous key points brought up in the KGC's findings report, points Tokwiro, the parent company of UB, seems to clearly want kept in the forefront of people's minds when they're talking about this, the most notorious cheating scandal in the history of online poker:

-Tokwiro was found by the KGC to be unaware of the cheating that was going on when they acquired the company in 2006.

-Tokwiro has fully cooperated with the investigation and has both paid the $1.5 million fine imposed by the KGC as well as- partially thanks to a settlement with UB's previous owners- over $22,000,000 to players effected by the scandal.

-Tokwiro not only now uses different software than was used during the scandal, but also has new expanded ethics policies, tougher rules regarding account names and an expanded, state of the art Security Department.

In Leggett's blog, which shows a more personal side than the official statement is able to, he also states his pleasure that all the user names involved in the scandal have been released, though he is obviously aware that there are still many unanswered questions, particularly revolving aroung the 31 unreleased names eluded to in the report, who along with Russ Hamilton, may have also been involved in the cheating scandal.

Leggett ends his blog with a hopeful tone, seemingly aware that there is still much to be done but optimistic for the future of Ultimate Bet now that- at least in the company's eyes- they have been cleared of the majority of the culpability.

"I know a lot of people will never like our company and brand because of this unfortunate incident, which I respect their decision as I am sure I might have similar feelings if our roles were reversed.  However, there are a lot of people who were refunded a lot of money, who know that we were not involved in the cheating and that UB is a safe place to play poker now. I know a lot of them are very appreciative of what we did and I think the individuals who work for UB should be proud of this accomplishment."  -Paul Leggett, COO Tokwiro


Story by Mark Anderson