Click here to read the whole thing.

The main conclusions:

1. Beginning on August 14 and continuing for six weeks, various accounts were used to view hole cards, and the person(s) responsible have been removed from any role at AP.
2. After the activities took place, person(s) associated with AP operations deleted records and gaming logs to hamper the investigation.
3. No evidence shows that AP sanctioned or initiated the activities.
4. Principles of AP failed to contact the Kahnawa:ke Gaming Commission within 24 hours of becoming aware.
5. AP reimbursed all players with interest, but anyone who still wishes to make a claim can do so within 60 days of this report.
6. AP has taken appropriate actions to address the “vulnerability in its systems” to prevent this from happening again.

Sanctions against Absolute:

1. AP operations will be subject to random audits of logs and records over the next two years, the costs of which will be paid by AP. The site must also implement a continuous compliance program, and any person(s) responsible for any part of the cheating scandal must be removed from any role at AP, which the Commission feels has been done.
2. AP must pay a fine to the Commission of $500,000 due within 60 days.
3. AP must give a security deposit to the Commission to be held for two years which may be used to offset the cost of any future breaches of rules, laws, and regulations.
4. AP must pay the Commission for all costs incurred through the investigation, including the audit.

Finally, there is a resolution to this matter.

Yesterday, Chuck Barnett, member of the Board of Supervisors of Mohawk Internet Technologies, told me that the delay was due to the size of the audit report and the time it took to properly analyze it. Speaking of the members of the Commission, he said, “I will say that this has been at the forefront of their attention for the past month. I know that they’ve taken time away from their families during the holiday season to commit themselves to this task… This is a very serious situation which is being afforded the same sense of seriousness that it deserves.”

The only questions that remain have to do with Absolute Poker and Mark Seif. Will they make any statements with regard to the decision?

One poster on 2+2 actually transcribed some of my recorded conversation with Seif, revealing the masterful interview techniques of a highly skilled professional journalist:

Begin: 2:47

m: Well, specifically Dan, I’m talking about implications that I somehow benefited from or engaged in any of the malfeasance…

d: um, huh

m: …and I have categorically …(gggg)

d: um, huh

m: …and I am doing that right NOW…

d: um, huh

m: …and I will continue to do that because I have never, not once, EVER been able to see ANYBODY’S hole cards, other than mine, on ANY poker site that I have EVER played on…

d: um, huh

m: …nor have I had RELAYED to me any of that information.

d: um, huh

m: In fact, I have agreed just recently, I just agreed yesterday when Nat Arem contacted me via email….

d: um, huh

m: I agreed to have my entire SESSION that was at issue from February, 2006…

d: um, huh

m: …against Stuckinpgh, I have agreed to have ALL my hole cards turned FACE UP so that the ENTIRE match is exposed to the WHOLE world face up.

d: um, huh

m: I have never, uh, requested the hand histories before.

d: um, huh

m: I’ve not asked that anything be done with those. I’m fine with THEM getting…

d: sure

m: …the hand histories and exposing them.

End: 3:47

So wow, so much is going on right about now. A lot of smart people doing a little bit more than just geeking out about poker and the industry’s/game’s/lifestyle’s future. Wish I could be everywhere:

We’ve got the Global Poker Thinking Society getting together at Harvard — featuring Howard Lederer, Charles Nesson, and Crandall Addington.

And then this weekend is the California Poker Conference — where speakers include WSOP Commish Jeffrey Pollack, PPA Executive Director John Pappas, and some influential old-timers such as Mike Caro, Lou Kreiger, Barbara Enright, and many others.

And then on the next day, Pappas heads back to Washington DC, where he’ll be hosting the Poker Player’s Alliance DC Fly-in — a little Beltway lobbying fest on behalf of pro-poker legislation. This is the one I really want to be at — and we’ll try to stay on top of things from afar — because twisting Congressional arms enlightening our representatives is a lot of fun. I gotta say, it also kinda makes me proud to know that our success wooing Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) as a co-sponsor to HR 2610, the Skill Game Protection Act, kinda inspired it.

From CardPlayer:

JP: We had a really great meeting in August with Congressmen Pete Sessions in his Dallas, Texas, office. It was myself and a number of our local PPA members, including Clonie Gowen, who’s a Dallas, Texan, and Robert Williamson III, another Dallas, Texan. We went in and sat down with him and talked to him about the Wexler bill and why it just didn’t make sense that a game of skill is being outlawed on the Internet. And it really resonated and it really came through and what I saw was, wow, this is something we need to replicate, this is something we needed to do more of. Based on that meeting, I thought we needed to get people out to Washington. Whether we make 20 meetings or 200 meetings, I think it’s going to be a worthwhile event.

Very cool! (And well done, Pokeratizen politicos!) Good times, all around. And indeed, we should do more of that.

I’ll be in Vegas … assuming I make my flight, which leaves in — yeow! — four hours, to do the TV Co-hosting thing with Tom Schneider for the inaugural Poker Bowl. This should be a pro-studded affair … even Doyle Brunson will be playing, along with Greg Raymer, Scotty Nguyen, reformed self-colluder ZeeJustin … and Absolute spokesman Mark Seif. Like seriously, we have so much to talk about!

And so little of it to do with how to play [cards]As Ks[/cards] in middle position.

Dallas expatriate Chantel looked like she might do more-than-cash, but in the end, she went out in 48th or 49th place, with 45 getting paid. Though I’m not sure what the chip-stacks were pre-flop, the hand she busted out on might merit some discussion … (You gotta fold those queens, right?)

From CardPlayer:

Mon Mar 26 13:57:00 PDT 2007

Erick Lindgren Knocks Out Two Players
Chantel McNulty raises to $7,000 preflop and Derrick Harrington reraises to $22,500. Erick Lindgren, having both players covered, moves all in. Both McNulty and Harrington make the call. Lindgren shows AhKh, McNulty turns over QhQs and Harrington flips up AcAd. However, the board comes Jh-9h-7c-Kd-10h. McNulty makes her straight but Lindgren catches a heart flush to win the pot and eliminate both players.

Erick Lindgren now has around $170,000 chips.

Barry Greenstein would go out next, and an unknown would be the bona-fide bubble. Lindgren would go on to finish in 10th place, taking home about $25k.