Set Your DVRs

I was very quietly trying to post every day this month. Unfortunately my travel schedule and my packing schedule caught up with me.

The packing is done. The boxes and the furniture are on a truck bound for Las Vegas. For the first time in more than fourteen years, I have no home in New York City. I'm not particularly nostalgic about it, but it does feel a little odd.

In the meantime, I see that 60 Minutes is finally going to air the long-delayed Ultimate Bet / Absolute Poker cheating segment on Sunday night at 7pm. This is how the segment is described on the 60 Minutes website:

The Cheaters
60 Minutes and The Washington Post reveal how online poker players suspecting cheating were forced to successfully ferret out the cheaters themselves. That’s because managers of the mostly-unregulated $18 billion Internet gambling industry failed to respond to their complaints. Steve Kroft and The Washington Post's Gilbert Gaul report.

There's also a 1:28 teaser video:

I'm encouraged by the description of the segment on the CBS website. Players "were forced" to uncover the cheating on their own because site-owners in the "mostly-unregulated" industry refused to look into it. That seems to suggest that players are not in the wrong for playing, that they need protection and that regulation and oversight are needed for the industry. The promos during the Detroit-Tennessee NFL game today were less encouraging: "Plus, the story of a great poker swindle -- how cheaters won $20 million and got away with it."

The risk is that Joe Public will only hear "online gambling has too much potential for cheating" and "online gambling is illegal". 60 Minutes may even ultimately come down on that side of the fence. We'll have to reserve judgment until the full piece is shown. Unfortunately I'll be in Sydney, Australia when the segment airs, but I've read that it will be available online a few hours after 60 Minutes ends. I'll have my thoughts at that time.