AP Visit: I'm going to Costa Rica

[Daack]

I'd imagine a media outlet with an interest in the story is thinking about sending him down.

Hopefully a well respected organization worthy of broadly publishing his previous work, any new findings, and the rest of this drama...

[whangarei]

[ QUOTE ]
I'd imagine a media outlet with an interest in the story is thinking about sending him down.

Hopefully a well respected organization worthy of broadly publishing his previous work, any new findings, and the rest of this drama...

[/ QUOTE ]

That makes sense.

[cyc]

Nothing against Nat (I do not know him, but great work on opening this issue), but the whole idea of going to meet AP without having access to anything (practically) sounds dubious to me.

It would make sense to go meet AP if,

1. You have access to all logs (server logs, access (admin) logs, client logs, game logs), all clients that have been developed (normal, admin (if any), superuser (if any), beta/test) and access to talk to people working in the company on all issues that have come up in the past few weeks.

2. You can work along with Gaming Associates or any third party auditor who is looking into this issue - your findings till now along with their auditing might give better results than each of your working independently

3. You should have option to ask for auditing for more than past few weeks logs - to make sure the current issue is limited only to few tournaments as AP have claimed.

Definitely AP is not going to give you access to any of these, so what would one achieve by going to meet AP? You can as well get that information through a conference call and on that you can have more than one person talking to AP.

My 2 cents.

Cheers!
Cys

[ericicecream]

[ QUOTE ]
you have to wonder why they would be willing (almost eager) to have one of the initial people to crack the case over to check out their operations. seems like even after all this they are still full of themselves. im hoping nat asks all the hard questions and leaves them speechless. in my opinion they have severely underestimated our intelligence so far and continue to do so.

[/ QUOTE ]

I think they realize they have been very lax in security and are trying to make changes that will make them a better company. I think they realize that we will not take their word for this, and hope that allowing Nat to investigate things will gain some credibility for the future.

Of course they are trying to save their company, why wouldn't they.

[ffredd]

[ QUOTE ]

However, online poker takes place in no-man's land, where nobody is accountable to no set of laws and no court of justice. No legit district attorney could prosecute these people even if they wanted. There's no law to abide, so public outrage, lobbying and campaigning are all that a rogue operator has to fear.


[/ QUOTE ]
You may be right, but I don't see how you can be. Every company is registered in some country, and every action takes place in some country. Why wouldn't the laws of the relevant country apply? This seems to be a case of fraud commited in Costa Rica by people who live in Costa Rica and work for a company in Costa Rica. How can it not be possible to prosecute them in Costa Rica? Isn't fraud illegal there?

[Josem]

[ QUOTE ]
You may be right, but I don't see how you can be. Every company is registered in some country, and every action takes place in some country. Why wouldn't the laws of the relevant country apply? This seems to be a case of fraud commited in Costa Rica by people who live in Costa Rica and work for a company in Costa Rica. How can it not be possible to prosecute them in Costa Rica? Isn't fraud illegal there?


[/ QUOTE ]

Of course you're right.

It's just that many of the muppets who post here have an American-centric view of the world - the world ends at the end of the 48 contiguous states.


The only difficulty is whether this is sufficiently high enough priority for Costa Rican law enforcement officials, and whether they have a legal system that is able to manage this.

[holl@b4x]

Interesting, this is a tough spot. The issue isn't the money, obviously if you go you should get paid for your expenses + fee for your time, the question is are they going to give you access to any meaningful, pertinent information.

Either way, I can't see how this would hurt us because Nat will come back and tell us what he saw and what they would/wouldn't answer. That alone is more information, and I highly doubt they're going to attempt to bribe him. I think you should try to negotiate with them for more access before you go, saying if you don't have access to X then the trip isn't worth your time. Either way thanks for putting in the time on this it's been a really compelling scandal, and don't let the trolls get to you.

[waveydavey]

[ QUOTE ]
Of course you're right.

It's just that many of the muppets who post here have an American-centric view of the world - the world ends at the end of the 48 contiguous states.


The only difficulty is whether this is sufficiently high enough priority for Costa Rican law enforcement officials, and whether they have a legal system that is able to manage this.

[/ QUOTE ]
Living in Alaska I'm sure glad you posted the bold part!!

[nath]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Its an insult to Nat that you'll assume that he'd be taken advantaged of by AP. /arg.

[/ QUOTE ]

no one reasonable is saying he is gonna be "taken advantage of." rather, we think he will simply be ineffective bc he doesnt have the resources, skills and experience to conduct a full audit and bc ap will not give him full disclosure. he will see what ap wants him to see and ap will give rehearsed nonimplicating answers.

regardless, im all for him going down there. its better than nothing and while its unlikely he uncovers hard evidence he will certainly be able to pick up on some aspects of the operation.

[/ QUOTE ]

hammer meets nail.

[/ QUOTE ]
If that's your way of saying "Oh, someone wrote a well-thought-out and reasoned argument that my trolling happens to agree with," then yes, hammer meets nail

[ericicecream]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
nat,

if you would like some company and assistance, i am free for the next few weeks

[/ QUOTE ]

p.s. I highly suggest u take snagglepuss up on this offer...2 sets of eyes are better than one, and I think a 2-man 2+2 team will aid the authoritativeness of your ultimate report.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree. 2 or even 3 guys would be best. Less intimidation, and more ideas.