Sixty Minutes Expose, Not So Harsh: 1

As we reported in a previous report, there was a ‘Sixty Minutes’ expose that aired on CBS in late November that was highly publicized event. The program was supposed to make the online casino industry look horrible, but according to blogs and polls by viewers, the program was not as bad as it was once thought to be. The program had a not so clear out look on matters of illegality of online casinos and gambling in the United States. There were players who made negative statements about the industry whose identity was kept a secret and were only identified by their usernames. It is the general opinion of the viewing pubic that the program was fair in reporting the scandals involving Absolute Poker and UltimateBet. Those companies were at the center of a highly publicized cheating scandal earlier this year.

The program covered the cheating scandals that have plagued the online casino industry for years. The host of the program, Steve Kroft, outlined the scandals that have haunted online gaming corporations for years. One instance in particular was when Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker in 2003. His big win at the WSOP was seen as an inspiration for people to begin playing at poker at online casinos. This was what created the multi billion dollar industry that was later put to a halt by the United States government. The government has definitely given the online casino industry a pretty hard time throughout the past four years.

It has been said that the online casino industry needs to be punished for their actions in regards to the fraud and corruption that occurs in the inner circles of certain websites. Is it enough to take any of the potential tax revenue away from the US public? In the Sixty Minutes program online casinos were depicted more favorably than expected. Here are a few key excerpts from the show: "In the wild, wild west, when a poker player was caught cheating it was a capital offense, with the punishment quickly dispensed right across the card table. But today if you're caught cheating in the popular and lucrative world of Internet poker, you may get away scot-free. At least that seems to be what is happening in the biggest scandal in the history of online gambling. A small group of people managed to cheat players out of more than $20 million. And it would have gone undetected if it hadn't been for the players themselves, who used the Internet to root out the corruption. As a joint investigation by 60 Minutes and The Washington Post reveals, it raises new questions about the integrity and security of the shadowy and highly profitable industry that operates outside U.S. law."