Whitewash?

Well, months have passed and most of us have a hard time remembering the particulars on the Absolute Poker situation. We know a lot of the old details but they do grow hazy. I saw the recent news articles about the situation and decided to wait a bit and think about what I read before commenting.

If you remember, there were huge threads in forums. There were some long articles written by those with the spreadsheet from Absolute in a very detailed form that players don’t even know exist to request. Our parent company paid for one of the analysts to visit the company and then write an article that was broken into parts because of length.

So, when I read the stuff a couple of days ago, it seemed there wasn’t much being offered that hadn’t been exposed by the online community.

So, I went to the Kahnawake site and found this in their news section:

News

Mohawks respond to Internet Gaming decision

Mohawk Council of Kahnawá:ke Grand Chief Michael Ahríhrhon Delisle, Jr. announced today that he is e… [More...]

Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake
15 January, 2008

KGC completes investigation of Absolute Poker

The Kahnawake Gaming Comission has completed it’s ongoing investigation of Absolute Poker. Click [More...]

Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake
11 January, 2007

Update: Absolute Poker active and ongoing investigation

The Kahnawake Gaming Commission has received a report from Gaming Associates which it is now in the … [More...]

Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake
12 December, 2007

Absolute Poker active and ongoing investigation

The Kahnawake Gaming Commission’s investigation into the Absolute Poker situation is active and on-g… [More...]

Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake
22 November, 2007

KGC To Investigate Absolute Poker

The Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC) announced today an audit into the current and historic activit… [More...]

Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake
17 October, 2007

News Archives

OK, that at least gave a time frame and if you klick on all of them you’ll get a picture of postponement.

You will recall that initially Absolute made light of the situation. They only became responsive when the network’s hue and cry reached a crescendo. A bit later Kahnawake entered the fray with an announcement they would have an ‘outside’ party investigate and report to them.

All this seems well and good until you note that the outside company had a long term relationship with Kahnawake that went back into the time when the head of the operation was the same Chief that is now the supposed 100% owner of absolute. There is a lot of overlap here that makes one wonder about the independence of the investigation.

The investigation has a little bit of added info. There appear to be a couple of more names that folks hadn’t tracked down. The stuff in our reporting is now acknowledged as fact. But, if you go look at the work product of 3 months of investigation, you end up with a 4-page rehash of information that at best has been slightly expanded or confirmed.

I can’t say that anything regarding cheating is ongoing at this point. But, I do know that the work product of all this is rather modest and doesn’t do much more than confirm what we already knew. There was an early, successful attempt to destroy records but that doesn’t get expanded on. Who did it? You’ve got me and evidently the folks that investigated. How did the investigation determine the accounts that used the backdoor and can we be sure that was all? Same answer.

Is Absolute a site you can deposit and play on with confidence? I really don’t know. I don’t think I ever will. The relationships between the parties and the privacy that both Kahanawake and Chief Joe have makes me uncomfortable. Canadian law enforcement has reduced capability inside the reservation. It would seem the provincial and federal prosecutors cannot be rigorous in inspecting such a situation with gets exacerbated by the company presence in Costa Rica while owned by a Canadian who supposedly operates with a board of directors according to the report. That seems ludicrous. If you own 100% of a business, a board of directors is anything but the independent group of individuals tasked with fiduciary responsibility.

I can’t say all this has or hasn’t been resolved. Sadly, I doubt there is a person out there that can that wouldn’t be more interested in taking the Fifth. I just hope the Kahnawake folks didn’t have to pay too much for the investigation because they (and we) didn’t get much for it.

ADDENDUM:

I am in the midst of trying to resolve my defective new laptop from Toshiba. I would recommend you never purchase a Toshiba product – especially any higher ticket ones. And, I’d have to say the same for Walmart. I was hesitant with Walmart but thought they couldn’t be that bad. My bad!

——-

The touchpad on the laptop is defective. It became eratic shortly after the purchase and then quit working at all.

I have hired a software engineer of my acquaintance to contact them again. I attempted to do so yesterday. I have a slight hearing problem and have difficulty with people speaking broken English. I am retired but was actually a software engineer before retiring. My skills may be somewhat antiquated but I was more capable than most of explaining the situation.

The people at Toshiba are a horror. First, they automated system gave me a dead line repeatedly. The attempt by the first party to transfer me after taking my information failed and I ended up reproviding all the information.

The English as a second language people were working from scripts. Along with asking me to spell my first name (James) at least 6 times along with address etc, they would not deviate from a prepared script that had nothing to do with the situation. I had reinstalled the touchpad driver and reinstalled the operating system to return the system to it’s original, default level and the unit went from operable without using the touchpad to unable to boot because the reinstall software evidently couldn’t find the touchpad either and just keep rebooting to complete the install.

Toshiba exascerbates the problem by not providing support in any other manner. The only opportunity to get satisfaction is the autmoated support line. Even if the electrical engineer can get an RMA from them I would live in terror that other problems will arise and I will have to go through all this again.

I don’t know if you’ve had problems with Toshiba before but please make a record of them as a service provider who is below poor and give your customers the benefit of any doubts you might have with them.

Also, Walmart — who sold me the computer — had evidently place a disclaimer inside the sealed box that said my only recourse was to Toshiba and they disavowed all responsibility. I believe this is against a number of laws and your policy.

The touchpad on the laptop is defective. It became eratic shortly after the purchase and then quit working at all.

I have hired a software engineer of my acquaintance to contact them again. I attempted to do so yesterday. I have a slight hearing problem and have difficulty with people speaking broken English. I am retired but was actually a software engineer before retiring. My skills may be somewhat antiquated but I was more capable than most of explaining the situation.

The people at Toshiba are a horror. First, they automated system gave me a dead line repeatedly. The attempt by the first party to transfer me after taking my information failed and I ended up reproviding all the information.

The English as a second language people were working from scripts. Along with asking me to spell my first name (James) at least 6 times along with address etc, they would not deviate from a prepared script that had nothing to do with the situation. I had reinstalled the touchpad driver and reinstalled the operating system to return the system to it’s original, default level and the unit went from operable without using the touchpad to unable to boot because the reinstall software evidently couldn’t find the touchpad either and just keep rebooting to complete the install.

Toshiba exacerbates the problem by not providing support in any other manner. The only opportunity to get satisfaction is the autmoated support line. Even if the electrical engineer can get an RMA from them I would live in terror that other problems will arise and I will have to go through all this again.

I don’t know if you’ve had problems with Toshiba before but please make a record of them as a service provider who is below poor and give your customers the benefit of any doubts you might have with them.

Also, Walmart — who sold me the computer — had evidently place a disclaimer inside the sealed box that said my only recourse was to Toshiba and they disavowed all responsibility. I believe this is against a number of laws and your policy.The touchpad on the laptop is defective. It became eratic shortly after the purchase and then quit working at all.

I have hired a software engineer of my acquaintance to contact them again. I attempted to do so yesterday. I have a slight hearing problem and have difficulty with people speaking broken English. I am retired but was actually a software engineer before retiring. My skills may be somewhat antiquated but I was more capable than most of explaining the situation.

The people at Toshiba are a horror. First, they automated system gave me a dead line repeatedly. The attempt by the first party to transfer me after taking my information failed and I ended up reproviding all the information.

The English as a second language people were working from scripts. Along with asking me to spell my first name (James) at least 6 times along with address etc, they would not deviate from a prepared script that had nothing to do with the situation. I had reinstalled the touchpad driver and reinstalled the operating system to return the system to it’s original, default level and the unit went from operable without using the touchpad to unable to boot because the reinstall software evidently couldn’t find the touchpad either and just keep rebooting to complete the install.

Toshiba exacerbates the problem by not providing support in any other manner. The only opportunity to get satisfaction is the autmoated support line. Even if the electrical engineer can get an RMA from them I would live in terror that other problems will arise and I will have to go through all this again.

I don’t know if you’ve had problems with Toshiba before but please make a record of them as a service provider who is below poor and give your customers the benefit of any doubts you might have with them.

Also, Walmart — who sold me the computer — had evidently place a disclaimer inside the sealed box that said my only recourse was to Toshiba and they disavowed all responsibility. I believe this is against a number of laws and your policy.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 1:04 pm and is filed under Pols and other Crooks. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.