Gal Yifrach charged with illegal slot machine operation, and money laundering at Bicycle Casino

[Dan Druff]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/poker-...ker-chips-feds

He is a WSOP bracelet winner from 2018, and also has played on some high stakes streamed LA games recently, such as Hustler Casino Live and Live At the Bike.



Yifrach is accused of both running an illegal slot machine operation in California, as well as money laundering via the Bicycle Casino. Feds allege that he would trade cash with players for high denomination chips, and then have the Bike cut him checks in exchange for the chips.

Phil Hellmuth gave him a shout out in December 2021:

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/phil_hellmuth/status/1469760862621601795


Here is the indictment: https://www.documentcloud.org/docume...404838-yifrach

[Cerveza Fria]

I read the indictment. He's fucked. Also, it appears that someone sold him out. An illegal gambling business can get busted by someone that loses too much and wants their money back going to authorities. In this case, however, it was probably another gambling operation, legitimate or otherwise, getting rid of the competition. However they got to this point - he's fucked.

[Jersey grinding]

I’ve watch when he was on the hustler stream. How he acted toward the other players he came of like he was kind of a dick. Obviously I didn’t know this but just the impression I got from him.It doesn’t surprise me that he was shady. Did any one else get that kind of impression from this guy?

[Cerveza Fria]

I’ve watch when he was on the hustler stream. How he acted toward the other players he came of like he was kind of a dick. Obviously I didn’t know this but just the impression I got from him.It doesn’t surprise me that he was shady. Did any one else get that kind of impression from this guy?

No, I usually get my impressions from Frank Caliendo.

[JeffDime]

I have seen a similar indictment and I believe it’s up to 5 years on the gambling operation & then up to 20 on the laundering. You never know, but I would say he will probably end up doing about 3 years. I can’t believe people put money into slot machines that literally don’t have to pay out .00000001%.

Gal seems like a nice guy whenever I saw him play. Money was never an issue for him even in the biggest game. I don’t remember him ever really busting out of the game. He always had more chips to add on. I guess this explains it.

This day was always going to come. I don’t play in LA and I wonder if pretty much everyone knew where his money was coming from for some time. Even though California doesn’t have sports betting yet, it is pretty clear the government is coming down hard on any unlicensed gambling operations.

Even with that being said, when I was young playing poker in the underground clubs in NYC, there was a reason you never saw blackjack & slot machines. You heard about those places and they typically were said to be run by an actual mob (Chinese, Italian, Russian etc).

So he had to know that running this place was a huge risk. Hopefully he’s able to do his time and turn his life around. He is young enough.

[PositiveVariance]

I think Gal is screwed. I think they are going to go hard on him.

About 2 years ago I met a guy who was playing a slot machine on his phone through an app. Anyway, long story short this account he had was created at the corner liquor store. All money that was won or lost was paid at the liquor store. Anyway, I have realized here in California it is more common for a liquor store to offer these games than to not offer these games. They are most commonly offered at small mom and pop style liquor stores and smoke shops. How does it work? A third party that has the software sets the liquor store up, then the liquor store assigns a user name and password to the customers that want to play. The liquor store collects and pays out. They break off a percentage to the software provider who will collect weekly or monthly. The guy that introduced me to these games told me the store owner makes more money on these games than he does with the store. He has almost 200 regular players. This has become a massive “problem” here. I’m sure this is going on in all states but it’s ramped here. In some situations the guy that sets the store up to offer these games may also bankroll the operation. Here is the thing, not very much money is needed. The edge on these games is over 20%. It’s extremely rare to have a losing day offering these games, almost unheard of to have a losing week. Most players come in a deposit $100 or so. They burn through that in no time.

For the most part the indictment was very vague. At the top of page 7 it touched on details. This is what Gal was doing. He offered these games to these liquor stores and smoke shops and received a % of the profit made. The profit potential for this is endless. I think ultimately these stores are finding they can outright buy the software for cheaper without paying someone like Gal half their profit. So yeah, I think Gal is fucked. Since this is such a massive problem here, I think Gal is going to take a good hit. I think they probably got some of these stores to flip on Gal and will testify to avoid prosecution themselves. I see the government is seizing his assets as well.