Online poker room Absolute Poker (www.absolutepoker.com) has been fined a half-million dollars by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC) for the cheating scandal that rocked the online gambling world last year.

During a six-week period in August and September of 2007, a group of cheaters playing poker at Absolute Poker used rigged software to see opponents’ hole cards. After winning hundreds of thousands of dollars, the cheaters were eventually caught when they continued to make seemingly-risky bets which indicated to observers that hidden cards were known. Hand histories were checked and the suspicions were verified.

The KGC, operated from an Indian reservation near Montreal, Canada, on which Absolute Poker and many other online gambling entities are licensed and/or run, regulates those entities.

Last week the KGC announced the fine, saying Absolute Poker was compliant in the cheating scandal, although the online room was not behind the scandal.

After learning cheating was occurring, Absolute Poker did not immediately report it to the KGC, and, in fact, tried to cover=A0=A0 it up by deleting records, the KGC said.

In addition to the $500,000 fine, which Absolute Poker has 60 days to pay, the online room will be subject to random audits by the KGC over the next two years, the KGC said.

Absolute Poker will have to put money in escrow to pay for the audits, the KGC said.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)