Just Conjecturin', Vol. 48: Real Names Behind the New Hamilton / Makar UB Cheating Accounts

As we mentioned last tine out, a release of data by Russ Hamilton's former computer guy, Travis Makar, has led to the confirmation of eleven new known accounts used by Hamiilton in the UltimateBet insider cheating scandal.

Those familiar with the scandal may remember than four years back, when the Kahnawake Gaming Commission issued its report publicly blaming Hamilton, they also released a list of 31 people who were allegedly involved to various degrees. As exposed here back then, that list was composed roughly 50/50 of outright fake names created for Hamilton's use, along with a number of people associated with either UltimateBet or Hamilton himself who had some connection with the outed accounts.

Those also included in the KGC lists included Makar, his wife Lauren and mother Becky, along with several friends of Hamilton's including Natalie Digioia, Ron Saccavino and Dennis Novinskey.

Photos released two days ago by Makar included the screennames of four more UB accounts likely used by Hamilton in the cheating, and yesterday I published an additional seven accounts that can be gleaned by cross-referencing the photos to UB data files I have.  Those eleven new cheating accounts:

BEER2GO
DIAM123
ILENDU
GOGRACY

BRANSON
STRAYCAT1980
DANAS
TUNICADOG
VEGASRUN
WINDSORWIN
GREEKTOWN

Today comes the publishing of the primary account information for each of the eleven files.  A couple of them  are already linked to Hamilton, and the task for readers (should they join in the effort) is to provide more links to the other people listed and confirm what's known.  Hat tips here to all who come up with relevant info.

My working assumption is that when Hamilton set up his scheme, he scoured his extensive lists of friends and relatives for people who weren't likely to play poker, or as in the earlier cases of Saccavino and Novinskey, he just went ahead and used an account in their name.  Unlike a theory proposed by Druff over at the pokerfraudalert blogs, I don't think that most of these were used for cashing-out purposes, though it's possible.  I think it's more likely that these accounts were used to cheat at the tables by Russ, who then transferred the illicit winnings back to other Russ accounts.

It is also possible that some of the people listed here have connections to close Hamilton associates such as Fred David or Charles "Woody" Moore, the latter who is actually the person linking Makar to Hamilton over a decade ago.

From the top, then, the first of two posts looking at the latest 11, which all seem to link to real people.  Let's start with the four accounts directly listed by Makar in one of his photos.  While these accounts appear to actually have been in use by Hamilton, if the standards used in the official KGC report on the UB cheating were applied here, then all of these names would have been included as purported co-conspirators, which also says something about the shoddy job done by the KGC.  Maybe they were, maybe they weren't, but their names are on these accounts:

BEER2GO             

Dana Dotson

P.O. Box 656

Fredericktown, MO

Mrs. Dotson appears to be a 76-year-old grandmother living in Fredericktown, a nice little town on the northeast edge of the southern Missouri Ozarks.  (I've been there.)  This account's info brings up a couple of points about this latest batch of accounts, in which the recurring theme of names and addresses general involves several distinct locations -- Las Vegas, Michigan (where Hamilton formerly lived), Texas (where a lot of Hamilton's associates have lived), and the Missouri Ozarks.

Most of the names in the latest batch also seem to be white men in their 50's, which would tend to be the general descriptor for many of Russ's sportsbetting/golf/poker cronies.  Mrs. Dotson doesn't seem to fit that bill, though either of her two sons, Doug or Ron, might.

DIAM123  

Alfonso Ceron

3585 S. Maryland Pkwy, Ste. G

Las Vegas, NV

Alfonso and his wife Brenda (alternate spellings of last name include "Cerrone" and "Cerone"), own and operate the off-off-Strip business Gold Rush Jewelry Design; this is the business address of the place.  The connection to Hamilton may well come from a previous business venture of Hamilton and Mansour Matloubi's, in which they were involved in Thailand in a business that manufactured faux diamonds.


ILENDU

Pete Anello
"Great Anello" in street-address field
Las Vegas, NV  89123

Anello is a Vegas-area real estate broker who likely has golf (and possibly sportsbetting) ties to Hamilton.  Needs some firming up with additional info, and he doesn't seem to be a regular poker player.


GOGRACY

Mary Banks
1291 Bruce St.
Pahrump, NV  89048

This one might be a fake, the only one of this first batch for which that can be said.  "Mary Bruce" is the only one of these four I can't match up via the intertubes to that address, which of late belongs to a man named Reed Reynolds, who runs a smallish AAAA Handyman Svcs. business from that address.  I doubt Reynolds has any more to do with this than "Mary Banks".

More interesting, perhaps, is the "gogracy" name, along with a "rickycgracy" as the password for one of this account's associated entries. While there is another "Ricky" attached to the next batch of accounts, there are a couple of Rick C. Gracy folks on the web who fit the general profile of some of these friends of Hamilton's.  Does anyone know?