Sixty Minutes Expose, Not So Harsh: 2

The Sixty Minutes expose left the online casino supporters feeling a bit relieved that the claims of harshness towards the industry where just that, rumors. Although they were tough on online casinos and the companies that have caused scandal over the past few years, they were fair according to most viewers. The biggest issue at the top of the program was the fact that most online casinos are located in many different international locations. There are no regulations for internet gambling that span the globe, so that is where it gets messy. They claim that even though internet gambling is illegal in the United States it is almost impossible to enforce punishment to individual players playing in off shore online casinos or poker rooms.

Steve Kroft, the show’s host, interviewed several online casino players that were key players in the UltimateBet and Absolute Poker cheating scandals. They were a helpful part in the investigation and with their cooperation the authorities were able to receive details of the cheating that is pretty well known through out the online gambling circles. The people who were victims of the cheating were also interviewed as to how much they lost and when they became suspicious that they were not being dealt a fair hand at their favorite online casinos.

One player in particular, David Paredes, made enough money playing poker at the online casino that he was able to pay off his school loans from his days at Harvard Law and had enough left over to live in a pricy apartment in New York City. He was a victim of what is called “fleecing” from a player called “Nio Nio”. He was asked how much he lost during that time and he answered, “I'm probably down somewhere in the range of $70 000 to that particular player." But he mentioned that there were other people who lost more at the online casinos, "In the range of $250 000, $90 000, $70 000, $210 000," he told Kroft.