The segment finally concludes with a devastating swan song, crooned by Todd Witteles, who was interviewed earlier. If anyone thought the program was reasonably accurate and balanced up to that point, or if anyone believed that the story wasn't going to be as bad as originally feared, Witteles' final devastating sonata was about as appealing as the sound of Yoko Ono's voice to rock fans.
Witteles' comments ended up being the most memorable quote of the entire story. Unfortunately, they were what most viewers will have taken away from the segment.
Witteles said, "The people who did this were very greedy and very blatant. But the scary thing is - there may be other accounts out there like this, even on other sites that are not being done with the same sense of recklessness, and maybe this has been going on at more than Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. Maybe it's going on at several other places and maybe it's still going on at these sites."
Witteles' comments were not only outrageous, they were reprehensible. While anything is certainly possible, to leave millions of viewers hanging now with serious questions about an entire industry, that other sites might possibly be corrupt - without any shred of credible evidence to support this accusation - is beyond ignorant.
No doubt officials at Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars and other top online poker sites must have been screaming at their television screens when they heard that comment. The implication that these entirely legitimate businesses are now doing the same things that rogue employees at two other sites have done was not only unfounded - it was slanderous.
It was an insult to the ownership, management and many hardworking employees entrusted with online security at these companies to be thrown into the same dung pile with the creeps who stole millions of dollars at Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet.
Witteles should have known better than to say what he said. And 60 Minutes should have shown greater balance by cutting out those unwarranted and very damaging remarks. He had already made his point once earlier in the show. It was not necessary to leave millions of viewers with the impression that all of the online poker operators are crooks.