Poker, like any other money-driven venture, has had its fair share of scandals.

Over the years, players have lost money to unscrupulous individuals and scam poker rooms.

Read on for top 4 poker scandals that you need to know about.

 

Top 4 poker scandals that you need to know about

Black Friday

On 11th April 2011, a scandal of monumental proportions rocked the poker community. Three online poker rooms were indicted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for operating illegal gambling business and Violations of the UIGEA.

PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker found themselves in the thick of things for offering online poker to US players without a license. Interestingly, Absolute Poker was the first to close shop after it declared bankruptcy followed by Full Tilt; taking millions of players’ money with them. Also, it is alleged that Chris Ferguson played a vital role in Full Tilt’s demise.

PokerStars was the only company that pulled all stops to pay their players.

 

Absolute Poker and UltimateBet Superuser scandal

Another scandal that shook the poker community is the Superuser scandal in 2007. After an insane amount of bad beats, players started accusing the poker rooms of having superuser accounts.

A superuser account could see hole cards of other players.

It didn’t take long before Absolute Poker came out clean and acknowledged the existence of superuser accounts on its platform. The site was compelled to pay a hefty fine and reimbursed players to a tune of $1.6 million.

 

Lock Poker Smash and Grab

Lock Poker pulled off the traditional smash and grab routine on poker players. 1 year prior to the demise of the online poker room, processing of withdrawals was stopped. However, deposits could be processed seamlessly.

The online poker room later closed shop with over $15 million players’ money. It is believed that Larsen, the owner of the poker room, had used players’ money to fund her expensive lifestyle. The allegations were later confirmed by Shane Bridges – Lock Poker’s former spokesman.

 

Isildur1 huge loss to Brian Hastings

Well, losing money is not a scandal but events leading up to the loss may be scandalous. To Isildur1, December 8, 2009, maybe forever etched in his memory after losing 44.2 million to Hastings, albeit in a suspicious manner.

After a brief investigation, it was discovered that Hastings in cohort with other players data mined over 30,000 Isildur1’s hands and devised a strategy that led to the huge loss. Even after the discovery, Isildur1 was not able to get his $4.2 million back. Additionally, Hastings only got a 30-day suspension from PokerStars.

Our list for top 4 poker scandals that you need to know has come to an end. If you know of a scandal that you believe should have made our list, let us know in the comments section.

 

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