Not the best year or so for Bodog. Domain struggles, downsizing, rumors of sealed indictments, severe payout issues and declining traffic have combined to essentially cripple a company that was a rising star in the poker world only a year or so ago

One of the more unique takes on the online poker format came to a halt today with the closing of Duplicate Poker. Duplicate, which operated openly in several US states as a result of it’s original approach to poker, announced the closing in a brief statement on the room’s website: Duplicate is sadly bidding farewell to its players. Caught in the middle of the global financial situation the company is not able to continue to provide service.

In a statement released yesterday, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission laid the lion’s share of the blame for the recent cheating scandal at Ultimate Bet at the feet of Russ Hamilton, an individual often referred to as one of the original owners of UB (or one of the several associated companies), but who the KGC report describes as an “individual associated with Ultimate Bet’s affiliate program.” KGC ruled that UB has to, among other things, refund all players who were cheated, submit to heavy oversight, and pay a fine of 1.5 million. Sound familiar

It’s a little strange to see these opinions from a generally sober corner of the pokerverse, but after the last year with the scandals at UB and Absolute, it’s pretty hard for anyone to not have had their faith in the integrity of online poker shaken.

Hole card cameras are widely credited with changing the game of poker and fueling the public demand for televised poker offerings. A new twist on that basic innovation promises to again alter the way that spectators interact with the game