Was Drug Use at the Root of the Absolute Poker Cheating Scandal?

The Absolute Poker scandal is like an onion. The more you peel it, the more layers there are yet to be peeled. Now it seems that the need for drug money might have underpinned this entire fiasco. Absolute founder Scott Tom and a manager brought on in the past months, A.J. Green, are widely rumored to be the culprits in this cheating scandal.

According to a report in Gambling911.com, Green is a drug user. In a post on the gambling911.com site, they report, “His drug addiction is well known within Costa Rica betting circles.”

But nobody knows for sure. A.J. is rumored to now be in hiding in Panama City, Panama.

This story is far from over. I’m curious as to who released the spreadsheet that contained all the details of this deception. Could the person who released this information be someone highly placed in Absolute who was aware of what was going on and wanted to blow the whistle?

Was it a representative who worked for Absolute and released the date inadvertently? But if a customer service representative—clearly not a job that’s high up in Aboslute’s management chain—had access to that data (whether accidentally or on purpose) it points to an abysmal absence of security.

How much security could there be if someone could release information that sensitive? If one customer service representative could release that data, so could all of them. When you have an entire class of employees with information so sensitive it could bring down an entire company—and perhaps an entire industry—something is missing in the security chain.

Stay tuned. This story will continue to develop as investigations get underway. It’s had all sorts of twists and turns so far and there’ll probably be more in the future.