A few people have asked me WTF I’m talking about saying that November 2008 will go down as an historical month where everything changes/d. To spell it out, you have:

The November Nine — historic simply as it pertains to the conclusion of a single not-so-little tournament that seems to be the barometer for all things related to the poker industry.

Midnight Rule-push for UIGEA Regs — we’re just one of 100 single-issues affected by the Bush administration’s attempts to party it up like frat boys and trash the joint before checking out … but regardless, it means we have a whole bunch of additional clean-up to do.

60 Minutes/Washington Post Exposés — whether it’s determined to be fair-and-balanced good-for-poker coverage or a damning hatchet job hacked with a double-edged blade of lies … the Thanksgiving weekend stories represent the official exposure of the online poker biz, hairy warts and all, to the non-poker world.

Clonie Gowen vs. Full Tilt Lawsuit — a loyal soldier turns on her poker-biz commanders, with attempts to air grievances in American court threatening to bring the multibillion-dollar operations of a super-private jurisdictionally challenged business into the public domain. While FTP reps actively petition the Feds to let them open these books but only if they can pay extra taxes, the former Full Tilt covergirl was arming herself with a taser gun and aiming it at a Red Pro.

Formation of Cereus — the two most scandal-ridden online poker sites officially join forces to create a recovering cheater supersite, flooding their own tables with “refund” money to keep the action moving.

Plug Pulled on PokerBlog.com — hardly the biggest deal in the bigger picture … but PartyPoker’s apologetic canning of Dr. Tim represents a new fiscal reality facing even the most legitimate of online poker sites and their workers.

Introduction of HB 222 in Texas — Take 2 on trying to bring the game that had everything to do with the creation of an $18 billion industry (subject to all the hubbub above) back home where it belongs.

All this, of course, is going on in the midst of a major lawsuit related to internet authority in Kentucky — where unprecedented government action has shaken up/down the online poker industry, forcing noticeable shifts in business ops and resource allocation. Clearly:

The Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative, another lobbying organization on the side of internet poker players, released a statement first thing this morning regarding the recent 60 Minutes broadcast and corresponding Washington Post articles. SSIGI really doesn’t mince words, starting with wording that calls government prohibition of internet gambling being “a failure and a mistake.” More about legislation that would regulate the industry in the following statement:

“60 Minutes” and Washington Post Coverage Highlight Why Congress Should Regulate Internet Gambling and Protect Consumers

Current prohibition leaves Americans unprotected

Jeffrey Sandman, spokesperson for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative, today issued the following statement in regards to recent coverage on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” and in The Washington Post on the dangers Americans face when they gamble online.

“The 60 Minutes and Washington Post stories demonstrate unambiguously that the existing government prohibition on Internet gambling is a failure and a mistake. The millions of Americans who continue to gamble online are vulnerable to being defrauded by offshore operators who exploit U.S. prohibition policies, leaving U.S. consumers without legal protections when they make a bet or play poker online. It is clear that a different approach is necessary to protect consumers, as well as to recapture the billions of tax dollars currently lost to offshore gambling operators and out of the U.S. economy. Now more than ever, Congress should understand why it should step in and regulate the industry to protect the public. We are hopeful that increased attention in the media about the issue will lead to increased movement in Congress.

More…

Nice statement from the Poker Players Alliance just came across the transom. We’ll see if it leads to more coverage of our issue in the non-poker political press. Regardless, I think historically November ‘08 will be seen as a period where everything changed for the industry (for better or worse is yet to be determined) … probably the most significant period since Sep/Oct ‘06.

Statement by PPA Chairman D’Amato on “60 Minutes” and Washington Post Coverage of the Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet Cheating Scandals

Washington, D.C. – “The recent cheating scandals underscore the need for U.S. licensing and regulation of online poker to help protect consumers. While even the most highly regulated industries are susceptible to fraud and abuse, regulation does provide assurances that when consumers are harmed they have recourse, and that the offenders will be sanctioned. The continued pursuit of poker prohibition, on the other hand, will only drive this industry underground. As the Washington Post pointed out, prohibition represents a widening disconnect between 21st-century technology and 20th-century laws.

More…

They report, you decide:

Watch CBS Videos Online

As has been discussed earlier, Mike Sexton, Greg Raymer and Linda Johnson were also interviewed for the story. In this web exclusive, Steve Kroft discusses tells with them, which seems silly to talk about in reference to online poker.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Dan Druff over at Neverwin breaks down the Paul Leggett memo in a way that might make some think the AP/UB scandal is still going on, or at least a cover-up is:

* Tokwiro agreed not to prosecute the perpetrator in the Absolute Poker cheating, and to protect that individual’s identity, because this was the only way to ensure that the ability to cheat was fully discovered and disabled. Because of this decision, AP could continue operating and begin to reimburse affected players as quickly as possible.

Pretty sweet deal for the guy, huh? Wouldn’t you like to work for a company that will agree not to prosecute you for stealing millions from them, provided that you just show them how you did it, if caught? There is zero chance that this is true. It would have been easy for them to deconstruct this after-the-fact without this asshole’s help. Obviously they are protecting him either due to continued association/affiliation (likely), fear that he will spill the beans on everyone and everything else there (also likely), or both (most likely).

Must-read for anyone who wants to understand what all the hubbub is about.

While most of the poker community will anxiously be awaiting the 60 Minutes piece on the Absolute Poker/Ultimate Bet incidents at around 7pm ET Sunday; the Washington Post, who were investigating the story along with CBS News, will have their own story available in their Sunday edition. Their piece, which will also be found on their website, may be a better indicator as to how the 60 Minutes story will be covered later that night. Also, it’s figured that the Washington Post won’t be as limited in trying to tell the complete story, since 60 Minutes has to try and explain the situation along with discussing the legality of online gambling in a 12-15 minute piece. . There will also be an online chat on Monday with WaPo investigative reporter Gilbert M. Gaul and Serge Ravitch, an online player who was also involved in the investigation.

From APCW.org:

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, except for the crew of the 60 Minutes television show. They plan to air a story of lies about our industry this Sunday, and we’ve got a preview of the piece. Plus we discuss what’s been going on over the past 30 days, and what to look for over the next 30 days.

Nat Arem sure has sources. He recently received a forward of an inter-company memo from Tokwiro Enterprises COO Paul Leggett regarding the upcoming 60 Minutes story. Leggett has reason to believe that there will be a bias against Tokwiro and its companies, going further to say that online poker will emerge with a bad reputation. Thus, they did not appear on camera for interviews. (A little like saying that the jury has a bias, the judge is going to declare me guilty, so why defend myself?)

Leggett wrote:

“We have every reason to believe that the 60 Minutes producers are intent on portraying the online poker industry and our companies in a negative light, and we do not expect that the program will be either fair or balanced.

Because of 60 Minutes’ apparent bias against Tokwiro and online poker, we have decided not to appear on camera. We have, however, had many conversations with the program’s producers. We provided them with extensive background materials and documents, and we answered questions on-the-record, but off-camera. Despite all this, it is not likely that our views will be properly represented. Therefore, it is important that all of our staff know the following facts about our company:”

The remainder of the memo states some facts about Tokwiro Enterprises and the cheating scandals, most of which were released to the public in UltimateBet, Absolute Poker, or Kahnawake Gaming Commission press releases or statements.

The tone of the memo and words chosen by Leggett indicate that the 60 Minutes piece could portray online poker in a bad light. In fact, what Leggett fears is that Tokwiro and its online poker entities will look bad. Well, that is entirely possible because the way in which the scandals were handled was bad, and if that comes out in the reporting, who is really at fault, especially when the company in question refuses to go on camera with a statement and show otherwise? And in truth, what is said about AP, UB, and Tokwiro really doesn’t reflect on the entire online poker world, and there still remains some hope that the reporters for 60 Minutes and the Washington Post will make that clear distinction.

There’s been much talk online and off- about the long-awaited 60 Minutes story on the AP/UB cheating scandals — which we now know will air Sunday, to be seen by some 15 million viewers, far more than the 1.9 million who tuned in to see Peter Eastgate follow in Jerry Yang’s footsteps.

The generally spot-on Wicked Chops, for example, have been calling it a “hatchet job”. Well-informed poker-biz insiders have told me privately it’s going to be “terrible for poker”. I’ve even heard some say the WSOP’s cooperating with CBS will prove to be “Jeffrey Pollack’s downfall”.

I respectfully and wholeheartedly disagree.

The fear, of course, is that the piece will end up condemning the entire industry. But look, 60 Minutes doesn’t exactly have a history of botching stories in its 41 years on the air. They typically get pretty darn close to The Truth. There may be some short-term backlash to the not-so-pretty sides of online poker being revealed, but in the long run, we WANT the non-poker public to understand our dilemmas … and, assuming we really are on the right side of the UIGEA, some might argue we need them to.

More…

The day that UB and AP finally merge to create the Cereus Poker Network, comes this from the 60 Minutes section of CBSnews.com:

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. Ira Rosen is the producer.

It’ll be the first story on this coming Sunday’s 60 Minutes broadcast, and should be available online by Monday morning.

It’s not quite 60 Minutes … in fact, it’s closer to 73 minutes. Absolute Poker/Ultimate Bet honcho Paul Leggett speaks with the CBC’s (Canadian Broadcast Company) Susan Reisler for an extremely detailed and stoic Q&A. I can tell you I’m very suspicious. This looks like an infomercial to me. (The apparent title of the show is simply “Poker” — I wasn’t aware of that investigative journalism news program.) Though she gets into all the controversial issues — and even the inbred nature of AP/UB/Tokwiro/Norton/Kahnawake — there’s no follow-up to anything that might sound peculiar (like the inbred nature of AP/UB/Tokwiro/Norton/Kahnawake) … she just allows him to state the facts and timelines, as if he were giving a legal deposition under questioning from his own attorney.

CONFIRMED: This is indeed a production by Tokwiro Enterprises, aka AP/UB. Anyone wanna wager on how many attorneys were standing off-camera to keep all commentary in legal line?

Sorry if I sound cynical. Really, it’s an admirable effort from Paul Leggett, the guy Annie Duke stands so strongly behind. Via the mock news program format, he addresses just about any question any of us have had about the whole Black Sox of Poker sitch. Kudos to you, Mr. Leggett, seriously, and thanks for finally coming forward with so much candid info. Personally, I’m starting to see your point of view on all this … and there were only a few questions where your answers made me wonder why Ms. Reisler didn’t follow up with: “But don’t you think that sounds fucked up?”

Click here for the entire 9-part library … bonus points if you can find the point where Leggett says “We were the victim here.”

Also check out the vid below, where Annie Duke speaks her mind on why she’s so loyal and has so much faith in AP/UB security … right down to algorithms and dealing with bots … and be sure to watch 4 minutes and 10 seconds in, where Reisler does her 60 Minutes style wrap-up: Everything is safe and secure, and Russell Hamilton is the Ultimate Bad Guy — he’s not part of Tokwiro and is in really big trouble if they can ever get their hands on him.

[Cue neoclassical new-age healing music.]

NOTE: KafkaCR? That’s the new YouTube video uploader’s name … OK, the CR is for Costa Rica … but Kafka? The Jewish-Bohemian novelist who, according to Wikipedia, wrote about “troubled individuals in a nightmarishly impersonal and bureaucratic world”?

Oh, wait … I get it … Metamorphisis! Very clever project name, whether intentional or not.

CBS has posted their sked for this weekend — and while adjusting story line-ups is standard operating procedure for any real journalistic operation, that rumored Oct. 26 date isn’t so. What is on the agenda for this next Sunday [from CBSNews.com]:

Sunday, Oct. 26, 2008
CREDIT DEFAULT SWAPS - Steve Kroft examines the complicated financial instruments known as credit default swaps and the central role they are playing in the unfolding economic crisis. L. Franklin Devine is the producer.

T. BOONE PICKENS - The oil and gas maven is on a mission to lessen America’s dependence on foreign oil. Charlie Rose reports. Michael Radutzky and Tanya Simon are the producers.

GORONGOSA - American Greg Carr is using his great wealth to try to help some of the poorest people in Africa by attracting more tourists to their neighborhood - the beautiful national park of Gorongosa in Mozambique. Scott Pelley reports. Rebecca Peterson and Henry Schuster are the producers.

And a few minutes with Andy Rooney …

My personal guess is that they will time it with the final table of the main event … either the weekend immediately before or immediately after.

UPDATE: More good info on what 60 Minutes has in store on the NWP Radio podcast (about 45 min in).

A couple of things to strongly suggest today:

Tao of Poker - Should be on your required reading list daily. Check out the most recent post called “WSOP Day 18: Never Trust a Junkie” dated June 17th. Dr. Pauly’s insights are unique and thought-provoking, to put it mildly.

Wicked Chops Poker - Another that should be checked daily. Today it is the post about the 60 Minutes interviews that took place here at the Rio this morning. The guys also provide a daily dose of chicks, gingers, poker news, and more chicks.