If You Bring Fake Poker Chips To A Tournament, Don’t Flush Them Down The Toilet To Hide The Evidence

Let’s make it clear that we in no way endorse or condone cheating. But if you’re the kind of jerk who brings counterfeit poker chips to a tournament, don’t act even jerkier by flushing them down the toilet: a judge sentenced a New Jersey man to five years in prison for bringing millions of dollars worth of fake markers to a tournament and then breaking the plumbing when he tried to hide the evidence.

He’ll also have to pay $463,540 in restitution to the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa for the revenue it lost when it had to cancel the three-week 2014 tournament in Atlantic City, reports the Associated Press, along with an extra $9,455 to Harrah’s Casino Hotel to cover the plumbing he broke when he tried to cover his tracks.

He was staying at the hotel at the time, and the guests one floor below complained about water dripping from the ceiling into their rooms. Busted.

He scattered his chips in the bathroom at the Borgata as well, as another $5,000 in plastic pieces was recovered from a clogged toilet there the next day. All told, $3.6 million worth of fake chips were found. Another $800,000 in bogus markers was put into play during the first two days of the tournament, investigators determined.

The man said he’d bought the chips online from China and put a Borgata logo on them. Since then, the casino has started using chips with more colors and an authentication mark that shows up under ultraviolet light.

Man who brought fake chips to poker tournament gets prison [Associated Press]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist