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"Judge to fraudster: Play poker or go to prison"

By Douglas A. Berman

The title of this post is the evocative (and a bit inaccurate) headline for this report of a novel term of a state sentence of a white-collar criminal who is also a professional poker player.  Here are the details: As criminal punishments go, this one's a royal flush. A convicted scam artist in Albuquerque has been given a novel order by the judge sentencing him: Go play poker. Samuel McMaster, Jr., a former insurance agent and poker player, pleaded guilty to 26 felony charges, including securities fraud, in a New Mexico courtroom last week, reported KOB TV. He was accused of bilking investors of their money, and using at least some of the proceeds to fund his poker playing. "The financial records showed a lot of withdrawals from ATM machines at different casinos and we have lots of evidence to show he likes to play poker,? prosecutor Phyllis H...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on August 09, 2010 (boomark / email).