The online poker industry is bracing for a full-frontal attack on its credibility–and perhaps, its very existence–from a top investigative television show.

Several poker writers have reported that they were recently contacted by the American TV news show “60 Minutes” for information and interviews about the recent cheating scandal at online poker room Absolute Poker.

(In that scandal, the room was fined half a million dollars by a regulatory agency after a player with ties to the room cheated by using rigged software that allowed him to see opponents’ hole cards.)

One poker writer, Nat Arem, wrote on his blog, www.natarem.com: “I was contacted by 60 Minutes (for) a story about the Absolute Poker scandal from last fall (and) for on-camera interviews with Steve Kroft…I spent a little while on the phone with the producer (and) recapped the whole story as well as I could…60 Minutes plans on going to a number of different locations. I’ve heard that Canada, Costa Rica and Las Vegas are all possible travel locations. I may or may not be meeting up with 60 Minutes in Costa Rica, if and when they come down…

“In terms of agenda, I’ve been told that the goal is to tell the story from soup to nuts. I don’t really know if that means a negative agenda for online poker, but I get the feeling that it might. That means that this story is unlikely to be a good thing for online poker on the whole. I wish that programs like 60 Minutes would always tell the whole story (and) explain why some sites are secure and clean, but I can’t really be sure that will happen. If I do end up on camera, I will be sure to explain that this scandal was online poker’s Enron–the biggest and worst scandal in the history of the industry. It is not a commonplace occurrence and people should not take it as such.”

And now, with another online poker cheating scandal breaking in recent days–this time the allegations are against Ultimate Bet–it’s a sure bet the “60 Minutes” piece won’t just address the Absolute Poker situation.

If a segment about online poker does eventually air, it won’t be the first time “60 Minutes” has dealt with the issue of onine gambling.

Several years ago, the show did a piece about online sports betting, including an interview with Jay Cohen, the only American ever convicted and jailed for running an online gambling operation (World Sports Exchange).

Since his release from prison, Cohen is supposed to remain uninvolved with the online sports betting business, but sources say Cohen has returned to Antigua to secretly help run the sports betting site he founded with another San Franciscan, Steve “The Shill” Schillinger.

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