Absolute Scandal

[Skallagrim]

All good comments about how to spin things our way. I especially like the post UIGEA take.

But I am still pessimistic about how this will get reported to the general public through the MSM.

TE, you're our contact to the PPA, perhaps they should get out in front on this one: "UIGEA leads to Americans getting cheated at poker site."

Skallagrim

[TheEngineer]

[ QUOTE ]
TE, you're our contact to the PPA, perhaps they should get out in front on this one: "UIGEA leads to Americans getting cheated at poker site."

Skallagrim

[/ QUOTE ]

Definitely.

[JPFisher55]

Great, now everyone will run to the government to save them from one isolated instance of cheating. The government cannot prevent fraud, dishonesty or cheating anymore than it can bring off prohibition.
Let AP suffer the consequences in the free market. I already left them because of the evidence and their response. What is really needed is a more free market by some final confirmation, new law or court case, that online poker is legal in US.

[TheEngineer]

[ QUOTE ]
Great, now everyone will run to the government to save them from one isolated instance of cheating. The government cannot prevent fraud, dishonesty or cheating anymore than it can bring off prohibition.
Let AP suffer the consequences in the free market. I already left them because of the evidence and their response. What is really needed is a more free market by some final confirmation, new law or court case, that online poker is legal in US.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think PPA could use the tone that UIGEA caused this by reducing competition, thereby stifling the self-correcting free market.

[TruePoker CEO]

This is a bad scandal. There was no reason for that sort of reported functionality to even exist on AP live games, let alone allow it to be exploited.

While I clearly would have business reasons to prefer not getting tarred with this brush, my argument AGAINST the proposed "spin" is based on a political reality not personal interest alone.

US poker players who want to play online need to face the backlash from this scandal, not join in a lynch mob.

A "spin" which emphasizes how "bad" things are offshore will bite you in the ass if you want to play over the next couple of years online.

The "cheating issue" is real and bad in this light. However, it should be "spun" as something a rogue programmer did, not a US v foreign spin. Otherwise, you WILL be playing into a theme which would seek to shut down ALL online poker for the US, and NOT only pending study.

The PPA should spin damage control, but not fan the flames for an outright ban. If you want to make it MORE difficult for US players to play online for 3 - 5 years, then "spin" this story as negatively as possible, along US v. foreign lines.

We run an honest business. We run it from offshore for our US players because we must. We would seek to obtain a "licensed" US imprimateur in a heartbeat if it were available, but it is not.

We are not going to become politically active in this fight precisely because it should be up to the US PLAYERS, what they want available to them.

We are going to continue with US players because we think the market should be served, not prohibited. We will provide poker services to those US players in legal markets who want to play at TruePoker.

[TruePoker CEO]

This has nothing to do with the UIGEA.

[TheEngineer]

[ QUOTE ]
This has nothing to do with the UIGEA.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd suggest that the reduction in competition resulting from UIGEA has restricted the ability of the free market to clear bad apples from the marketplace.

[Skallagrim]

I would agree with TruePokerCEO except for one thing: what he fears would be done with us making our spin is precisely why our enemies will spin it the way I anticipated in my first post ("Online poker bad, shut it down")

But his words of caution are very well placed. Any PPA response has to anticipate the negative spin and negative use of this story. My toss off "UIGEA leads to Americans being cheated..." was never meant to be the actual message.

How about "Unintended consequences of UIGEA: lack of clear US legal status lets rogue employee cheat Americans at poker site and probably get away with it"? Note I also used the words "clear US legal status" not "regulation."

Skallagrim

Edited again because of what whangarei says below. Employee is technically correct even if he was a part owner.

[whangarei]

Just for clarity, it appears it is not a "rogue programmer" but rather the CEO/founder who was cheating.

[Grasshopp3r]

There are scandals and cheating in every aspect of business. Without the threat of imminent prosecution and appropriate regulation, they are harder to detect and prevent.

Enron
Arthur Andersen
Nicolas Leeson
LTCM