Nobody said "Send us some players and you get 10%, risk free! Oh.. and before I forget.., a bunch of heavies in the Russian mob are directly behind all this."

You think the players are ethically obligated to protect those guys if they got conned into doing it?

but anyway, my point was if the mob knows what it's doing (and I think they do), it expects people to rat. So people are never allowed to know enough to hurt them with testimony.

Not that this is a major point, but it was mentioned several times that Molly was beaten up on the east coast by Russian mobsters. This isn't accurate. She opened up fine here, no one cared and ran successfully for a while. It was only after a regular player got into trouble with sports betting and ended up going to an unfamiliar Italian family for help that things got out of hand. The Italian mobsters saw what they figured were a few soft spots and tried to shake her down. She got roughed up and left NYC poker shortly after.

I guess we will get to read about it in her book?

If they don't say nothing then you're telling them to talk

Surprised that Shulman is not involved. I'm pretty sure he is friends w a lot of the people named. Sucks that a lot of poker players from NYC have been getting in trouble. First the Amnon Filippi thing and now this... I Hope they all get off... Damn that Preet Bharara...

can you elaborate on the Fillip thing or PM me details on that?

Well if you don't see one of the most powerful mobsters in the world retaliating on someone ratting him out I see no need for Boosted J to lose any sleep over ratting.

Da

Note to self- stay away from this guy bc he sounds like he's about as solid as baby poo.
Nobody is 'expected' to rat. People should be expected to take the rap for what they have done and not point the fingers upwards. And given the amounts, people involved, to ponder whether they got 'conned' into it is the dumbest thing ever. Hmm, let's see, big-time gambling operation in the City, OC involved or not? They knew what they were doing and should act accordingly. I wish the defendants the best, all of them, bc prosecutorial overreach is out of control. Jr. Guiliani should spend more time on what he does best, going after money men bilking billions from honest and hardworking people; not going after poker players so they will be tempted to rat on OC.

OUTSTANDING post!!

You wish all these defendants the best of luck because you have something in common with them.. you don't wanna pay taxes.

[QUOTE=joeschmoe;38100002]i don't see retaliation if someone rats. The bosses must expect all the little non-connected outsiders to sing to the cops...
QUOTE]

Yep, I'm sure that the Russian Mafia is pretty cool about people ratting on them.

and you guys think the mafia is the boy scouts. Too many movies.

It's a business. If it makes money, do it. If not, then don't do it.
If it causes unnecessary heat and makes no money and does you no good but you are angry .. well.. think about it. Then don't do it.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/richardb...ambling-sweep/

This story is enormous

truth is it's so publicized, they judge will heavily be on the side of the DA who will push for long sentences, etc..

really terrifying and informative. russians are insane.

Sorry, but I get a little tired of these "everybody does it" posts.

Everybody drives over the speed limit. Everyone understates their cash income on tax returns. Every poker player plays in illegal games. Every poker player bangs hookers (I got that one from a Greg Raymer thread.)

None of those statements are true. I know that it's considered cool on these threads to talk about poker players being "ballers" or "degens" or spending their winnings on "hookers and blow." But not everyone is like that, and not every poker player is like that. Some of us obey the law, just because it's the law.

there are plenty of good reasons for why tax evasion is illegal and why it should stay illegal. conversely, there are very few good reasons for why gambling is illegal and why it should stay illegal. people shouldn't go to jail for unrelated crimes just because they are members of organized crime.

iirc from boostedj twitter, he was hanging out with charmane star (famous porn star) and paris hilton...why would you throw that life in garbage can to play illegal game!?!

you have probably committed many felonies in your life and not even known it. laws are made so that almost anything can be interpreted to be illegal. its sad that you obey laws just because they exist. just think of all the laws in our past that ppl would be horrified to obey today.

Maybe he didn't have that until he was playing in the illegal game...chicken egg etc.

I was just saying Capone was very smart, and they couldn't connect him to much of anything, and had to resort to tax evasion.

One good reason gambling is illegal is because the citizens of this great nation keep reelecting incumbents. Anti-vice is the moral high-ground and politicians don't like to stick their necks out.
(Retired and soon-to-be-retire politicians are free to say what they like.)

that lifestyle requires manyez...perhaps this was the way he was able to afford the lifestyle, and not the actual playing of pokerz. Just like many others, his lifestyle seemed to be very delusional... but he is not alone...there are many others like hi in the so-called HS poker scene.

The games are way, way tougher now and guys like this might have been on a variance heater. Couple that with the slowness to the statistical mean of live play and you have a guy who could have tapped his money very quickly. 2 million or so is only a lot of money these days if you live a normal lifestyle. He clearly wasn't living that lifestyle.

Could be wrong, but thinking organized crime has long been involved in illegal gambling and uses the proceeds for other illegal purposes. I'm all in favor of a perp walk for members of organized crime for any violation of the law, no matter how unrelated to the other crimes.

what's the amnon filipi thing?