Update, of sorts, on the Absolute Poker scandal.

On November 22, The Kahnawake Gaming Commission, posted on their web site that the “… investigation into the Absolute Poker situation is active and on-going. The Commission’s agents, Gaming Associates, are in the process of finalizing its audit of AP’s operations and will be submitting a report to the Commission of its findings. The Commission will review this report and decide the appropriate course of action. To avoid the possibility of jeopardizing its investigation, the Commission will not comment on this matter until such time as it has reached a decision. The Commission expects to receive a final copy of the audit report by December 7, 2007.”

They missed their self-imposed deadline, and on December 12 they posted the following message: “The Kahnawake Gaming Commission has received a report from Gaming Associates which it is now in the process of reviewing. The Commission hopes to complete its review and render a decision in this matter within the next two weeks.”

They missed that deadline too. It’s now about three weeks overdue.

What’s happening? I dunno. Your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps this little scandal is much too involved and complex to have ever hoped that the audit and review would be complete by the timeline originally suggested.

On the other hand, there’s always the odd chance that Absolute Poker is simply hoping that time puts them at a distance from this scandal—that everyone who was initially concerned eventually forgets—and that all recedes into dormant memories and disappears like a bad dream.

But I don’t want that to happen and neither should you. Poker can only thrive in an atmosphere of honesty and trust. Without that, it cannot succeed. For the sake of poker, for the sake of poker players everywhere, we need to keep a light shining in dark places. And right now the entire poker community is awaiting the results of that audit report, eager to learn what Absolute Poker plans to do to correct their myriad issues and prevent this sort of thing from happening ever again.

Can we expect the Kahnawake Gaming Commission and Absolute Poker to render their decision anytime soon?