more complicated than if it were a movie

this is nuts

obv dont use that laptop again

why can't i see police involved anywhere in the first post?

just rename the title of this one

Knowing what room someone is staying in is hardly classified information. It's pretty easy for someone who is not a hotel employee to figure it out.

all completely ridiculous-- i hate situations like this, feel so powerless vs everyone trying to cover up for themselves/their brand.

any chance when you get the police involved you can just say the hotel is the culprit? "hey, the hotel stole my ****, i know it was them, let's see who was on staff at the time ad figure out who to arrest" (obv not this easy, but seems like letting police know the hotel is doing illegal things is a good start)

maybe you get lucky and find out there's a detective with a grudge or just one that takes to your story. but yea it seems like unfortunately basically nothing would happen and the language barrier would infuriate me, sounds like you've dealt with it a lot better than i would have.

also im sure they'll eventually do something but jesus ****ing christ poker stars.

We have had multiple calls where no one says anything and the line just hangs up as well, as well as asking for when to clean the room but surely that is very standard. Just called the reception and asked for key logs but they told me they can't give them to me...? Did you only get it because it was a special case?

I would look into lawyering up

mastr,

How hard did you push for an investigation?

Jeans,

Has anyone else asked/obtained copies of their logs? Pretty scary if the same key was used in the other break ins.

Don't bring anything valuable to hotels, or if you do keep it on you in a backpack with you at all times.
You are unlikely to get a lot of success out of pursuing this with the police. That said I would still file a report so that they know about it.

Should try going through PokerStars security.

If you think the hotel staff have been turning a blind eye then good luck with the Spanish authorities! Unfortunately you are more likely to hit quads 5 hands in a row than you have of finding out who the guilty party is let alone prosecuting them. As much as it sucks the scumbags will get away with this.

The only way I see any justice being done is to spin this story up so much that it tarnishes the hotel's reputation. This way the hotels owners might then take notice and decide to find out who the culprits really were (if not them) as they surely have the ability to do so. Although they might just find a scapegoat to throw under the bus in this case i.e. a single security guard working alone which clearly is not the case.

There's no lawyers in small claims court

It sounds like he only got it because he was insistent and the pokerstars security team helped out. Now that everyone starts requesting them they will probably start stonewalling, esp. if it actually does involve inside job. Unfortunately sounds like theres only one PS security rep there so good luck when everyone in the hotel asks for his help to get keylogs. Damn this is f*****d up.

So this "MAY" have happened on 3 seperate EPT stops?
Wouldn't that make it slightly more likely that someone from Pokerstars could be involved?

+1 to destroying them on Trip Advisor and similar travel reviews sites; even top hotels really care about this stuff, and given how many of you there are it'll hurt their business significantly if 20 people complain about a likely insider job and the hotel doing absolutely nothing to help.

Good luck with the police, though...Spain is pretty much a 3rd world country, especially nowadays with the economy the way it is. The cops most likely want to go back to their siesta and not make any waves with one of the biggest hotels in the region.

Even if they're "only" incompetent, they are so to an extreme and you're very unlikely to get any help out of them.

Best plan at this point (after burning your laptops) is really to tear them a new ******* on reviews sites with big titles like "Room broken into, hotel did nothing!", or w/e...

Very weird, scary but an interesting story

I've seen enough episodes of "Banged up abroad" to know that going to the police in this situation would have been a bad idea.

My experience may help provide some insight. Perhaps this is a systemic lack of hotel security procedures in the area? I stayed at Icaria as well, when I needed to rekey one late evening the front desk person did not even ask my name, did not want to see ID - he just asked the room number and gave me a new key no questions asked. I had only seen this person once before as I was walking in, could not have been more than 30 seconds of visual contact as I walked from the front door to the elevator.

On the bright side on the last day of the trip I found the safe open when I returned to my room, the staff had certainly been in the room to clean - but I was relieved to find all of my money and personal belongings there, nothing was missing.

wow, gl op

if poker had a Sherlock Holmes/Robocop/Judge Dredd hybrid anti-hacker/scammer/thief squad, funded with a small % of rake, these criminals might think twice... maybe NoahSD would volunteer to be outfitted with cybernetic enhancements to lead the team?

reading this makes me so angry. after many years of seeing this kind of threat evolve, it's clear to me that while we have to put trust in the sites and the businesses they deal with to take care of our security on a large scale, the only people we can really count on to protect us are ourselves. if you are an online poker pro reading this, take computer security very, very seriously from here on out.

really hope you guys get some justice here. rooting for you!

this!
Maybe also use your friendship/connection to Ville Wahlbeck as a Stars pro to make sure the importance of this whole story gets the attention of the right people at stars.

I agree with the trip advisor and other review site posting. Just post that your room got broken into and your laptop was stolen. The hotel refused to review the tapes and just brushed your situation aside. I wouldn't mention the laptop was returned, because most people won't understand why someone would do that.

Done. Also added link to original thread in OP.

Assuming that the scumbags who are behind this will never be brought to justice then Stars will be letting the poker community down as a whole if they choose to use this hotel again.

Imo just check out, leave the hotel, go back to Finland, let the story unfold. Going through police won't help and staying there is a physical risk. Even if you will be compensated it will probably not be worth the risk or the psychological suffering that is staying there and you will likely get it even if you don't stay there.

The story is viral, that is good enough. Eventually someone will get in a lot of trouble for this...