Author Jennifer Newell's poker week in review for May 6-12.

Our consolidation of the week's news is quick and to the point — seven stories, to be exact — for the week ending May 12. Let's go.

No. 1 — Russ Hamilton Admits Guilt in UltimateBet Scandal

Former UltimateBet employee Travis Makar released audio tapes of a UB meeting held in the winter of 2008. At that time, the cheating scandal had been uncovered, and Russ Hamilton was recorded talking about it. In the recordings, he admits to stealing $16 million-$18 million by using the superuser accounts on UB and discusses how to minimize the company's admissions and paybacks to customers. It was revealed that Freddy Deeb benefited from chip dumping, Annie Duke had access to superuser accounts, and Phil Hellmuth was to be kept in the dark.

Hellmuth released his first statement ever about the UB scandal, saying that upon hearing the tapes, he realized exactly how misled he was during the entire process. He admitted to making a "horrible read" about his relationship with UB founders and apologized for trusting them for so long.

Duke used Twitter to respond to the allegations, noting that she only had delayed access to hole cards during tournaments in which she was commentating. She claimed this was standard practice for major tournaments.

No. 2 — Lock Poker Situation Worsens

Lock Poker has been facing customer complaints for many months due to long cashout times, and problems worsened when players were denied cashouts involving money that had been transferred from other players. As player worries increased in frequency and resonance, poker forum Two Plus Two expressed its concern by removing all Lock Poker advertisements from its site. In response to complaints directed at Lock-sponsored poker pros, two of them — Chris Moorman and Paul Volpe — announced that they were leaving the company and not renewing their sponsorships.

Other players, like Melanie Weisner and Matt Stout, expressed support for the company and explained that they will stay on as Lock Poker pros. Lock did rewrite its player-to-player transfer policy in light of the situation, noting it was adopting a 15% gross gambling revenue policy. This means that players must generate 15% in rake for the hosting site on any amount transferred before cashing out their funds.

No. 3 — Ultimate Poker Continues Improvements

Nevada's first legal, real-money online poker site — Ultimate Poker — hosted its first major multi-table tournament last weekend, and it sold out. Meanwhile, the company faced a number of complaints with registration difficulties, game lobby mistakes, and the inability to use a Verizon cell phone to verify location in order to play. There was also a growing concern among players that Ultimate Poker was using the services of Iovation for player verification, a company that was previously tied to UltimateBet.

Ultimate Poker was quick to respond to the Iovation concerns, discontinuing business dealing with Iovation last week in order to ease the minds of customers. In addition, UP resolved issues with cell phone carriers and announced that players could now use their Verizon, Cricket, and Virgin Mobile accounts in order to register for a new account and verify that account in Nevada. The company admits that it is in the "field test" period that will last 30 days, after which time more improvements can be made to the site.

No. 4 — Full Tilt Gets Closer to PokerStars

Since the Rational Group purchased Full Tilt Poker, it was kept fairly separate from PokerStars, but recent developments show that the parent company would like to integrate in more obvious ways. The first big step was last week's announcement that Full Tilt would run satellites for several PokerStars-sponsored live events — UK & Ireland Poker Tour, Eureka Poker Tour, Brazilian Series of Poker, and Australia New Zealand Poker Tour. Some satellites are already available.

The next step was to introduce new games to Full Tilt just months after bringing them to the PokerStars tables. Five-card Omaha and Courchevel were both made available on Full Tilt and featured in specials like "Game of the Week" promotions. In a step to bolster Full Tilt’s cooperation with live events, the site will now officially sponsor the UKIPT Galway stop, which has been turned into a festival of 55 tournaments and run at the newly-constructed "Full Tilt Poker Village."

No. 5 — Muchos Poker Banned from iPoker Network

The iPoker Network made a bold move last week by banning Muchos Poker from all activity pertaining to the network. The iPoker Policy Enforcement Team instructed all card rooms to stop accepting new players from Muchos and ban all existing accounts, which are to be closed properly.

The move follows numerous player complaints with the Lotteries and Gaming Authority regarding security concerns. The iPoker Network conducted a security investigation, though it has not released any official results.

No. 6 — States Online Gaming Updates

California may be closer to an online poker bill that will garner widespread support. A group of the state's major tribes that operate land-based casinos gathered last week to create a proposal that is likely to be introduced to the California legislature. The bill looks to be online poker only and will have the support of enough tribes to make progress with legalization. Many tribes have decided to be proactive with a new bill in order to control what legislation state lawmakers decide to enact.

The Poker Gaming Act of 2013 is nearing the end of a deadline when the Texas legislature completes its current session on May 27. The bill would legalize online poker, as well as land-based games in bingo halls or designated card clubs. State Representative Eddie Rodriguez has been pushing the bill in order to keep poker business in the state, something he estimates would enhance the state's economy with more than $10 million in revenue.

No. 7 — Countries Prepare for Online Gambling Restrictions

Turkey has decided to take a more restrictive stance on illegal online gambling. A bill is being considered by the Turkish Parliament to impose heavy fines on Internet gambling websites that are not licensed, as well as on any financial institutions that process money transfers to those sites. In addition, anyone who helps a Turkish resident gain access to those sites or facilitate money transfers will be punished with a prison sentence.

Singapore is studying ways to restrict access of its residents to online gambling sites. The Second Minister for Home Affairs is working with industry experts to devise a plan by the end of the year to keep players from accessing the sites, due to growing concerns over gambling addiction and other social risks that the government deems dangerous.