Why is Russ Hamilton perpetrator of the Ultimate Bet online poker scandal not in jail?

He stole 22 million dollars.How can you do that and not be in jail?

I can’t really look into it at work because our filter blocks anything remotely related to gambling, but my guess would be that there’s some jurisdictional angle; i.e., the tribal government can’t reach him, and the province either can’t or won’t seek extradition. Wikipedia says that “both the Canadian and Quebec governments dispute the legality of Kahnawake’s gambling operations.” I suppose it’s also possible that the evidence cited against Hamilton wouldn’t stand up in court (I have no idea whether this is true or not).

60 minutes segment on the cheating scandals.

60 Minutes had the Kahnawake chief stating that they would work with any law enforcement agency that wants to bring them to justice. They said there was jurisdictional issues with the tribal government prosecuting him.

the people running the illegal online gambling operations are criminals themselves, crooks don’t call cops on other crooks, then the injuns would have to open up all their books in court

if i steal a few bucks from a mugger

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Pablo O’Malley, this is an official warning for use of derogatory language in General Questions. You have received at least four moderator notes, from three different moderators, in the week since you joined for insults and other inappropriate posts. If you continue this behavior, your posting privileges will be under discussion by the moderation staff.

Colibri
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Not to protest PO’M’s warning but I thought you screwed this on up. He said “mugger” and nope it wasn’t edited so he didn’t originally use “the N word”.

Then I saw “injun” :smack:

I need more coffee.

He didn’t technically steal the money. just by knowing other players cards doesn’t guarantee you will win.

Also, this should probably be moved to GD or the thing about games.

Wow - colour me edumacated about American culture. I’ve seen the word in cowboy films, but I had no idea at all it was perjorative. Given the wrong confluence of circumstances, I’d have totally used that word. I guess I now know better!

“Ahh, yes… I remember the time…
I had three aces, but he had four! Normally, this doesn’t bother me, but I know what I dealt him…”
-WC Fields.

The native bretheren running the casinos and other services, up to and including the biggest cigarette smugling operations in Canada, are in no position to throw stones.

Criminal law in Canada is strictly the federal government’s perogative (IIRC, prosecution and courts fall to the provinces). To prosecute this guy, the natives would have to open up to a full federal/provincial investigation team. The people running the illegal gambling operations would have to appear in court and testify to what they were doing, including under cross-examination from the defendant’s lawyers.

Back in the early 90’s several militant indian groups got into serious confrontations with the police which left one police officer shot dead, and then the Canadian army. Some of these reserves are tacit “no-go” zones where the government leaves it to the indians to run their own show. Smuggling cigarettes from the USA (where taxes are such that they are half the price) is also a favourite fundraising operation in some reserves. Whenever there is money to be made like this, stories are that organized crime is involved.

So the natives are no going to run crying to the government to fix their problems with illegal activities gone wrong. Nor are they likely to make up a system where they can inflict punishments on non-natives that are basically things kidnapping and unlawful confinement. The last time this was tried, in the late 1800’s, executing one white man brought the full force of the British Empire down on Louis Riel and the Metis of Manitoba. The confrontations of the early 1990’s were equally productive.

So, when crooks steal from each other, the law can do nothing until one side or other cooperates fully.

This is very different. If Mr Hamilton was controlling the cards, that would have been stealing. By seeing other players pocket cards increases your chances of winning, but does not guarantee it.

And if it was because of a flaw in the web site software that cards were “visible”, then whose fault is that? Of course, hacking is a crime in most jurisdictions, but first you have to prove it was hacking…

In that case…don’t use the word ‘Nip’ to talk about someone from Japan.

You can thank me later.

The best player in the world couldn’t beat an amateur, if the amateur can see the hole cards.

It wasn’t hacking either, Russ had the original software that allowed him to do this

Increasing your chance of winning = stealing. There doesn’t need to be a guarantee.

The best player in the world could beat an amateur, or vise versa. Seeing your opponents hole cards isn’t enough to win every hand. Mr Hamilton didn’t win every hand, there are always bad beats that you can’t control, unless you are controlling the cards being dealt.

I disagree. Increasing your chances=cheating, but not stealing. If Russ lost 4 million dollars on bad beats, did he steal -4million dollars? You can’t tell me how much money he won from seeing his opponents cards verses how much money he won due to luck.

If you can see the other players’ cards, then you guarantee that when you lose a hand, you lose only the ante, but when you win, you win it all. You’re not guaranteeing the outcome of any given hand, but you are guaranteeing the outcome of the whole game.

This is incorrect. If you can see my pocket and I go all in preflop every hand, you will have good odd of winning my money (like when I have 2-7 offsuit and you have pocket aces) but you cannot garentee winning the hard unless you can control the flop, turn, and river.

I assume we’re all aware that the use of the word “steal” here is in common parlance, not legal theft.