[pzhon]

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NICE, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 7, 2005--iovation, the first online fraud detection solution that tracks the reputation of devices, announced it is providing fraud management solutions to leading online gaming sites worldwide -- effectively minimizing their risk of fraud and increasing the value of their operations. iovation inc. has signed Absolute Poker, Bodog, PointBet and Nine.com -- four progressive online gambling Web sites -- each with millions of transactions a year.

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That's not very relevant to the current situation.

Many sites have separate security departments for handling fraudulent credit card deposits and game integrity. Everyone expects that Absolute Poker has a functioning system for detecting fraudulent deposits which directly affect their bottom line, while not affecting many honest players. The cheating scandal is about the integrity of the games, which shouldn't directly affect Absolute Poker, but which affects the players.

Absolute Poker has demonstrated that it is unable to detect highly abberant patterns of play even when it is blatant and the subject of multiple complaints. By contrast, PokerStars and other sites have quietly detected collusion and compensated victims countless times.

What might hurt Absolute's bottom line is if gaming portals and competitors hype the difference in game integrity, and emphasize alternatives to playing at a site which doesn't care about player safety. Even if Absolute gets rid of the criminals it has been employing, it will still be years behind the other sites.

As the poker moderator of the Online Blackjack Guide, I changed my review of Absolute Poker to include a huge warning that they are not recommended, with a link to a thread describing the scandal. This might be against the interests of OBG itself in the short run, but it's important for its credibility and for its readers.