U.C.A.R.E Scandal

[NaturalBornHustler]

Cliffs...

Guy runs "charity poker tour".

Gets exposed as not charity.

Find out he is a degen pit loser.

No beneficiaries. Zero can be found. Tons of money collected.

2 plus 2 dogs go on the hunt.

At this point it seems no reporter, or anyone with power wants to do anything about it despite all the work being done for them. Disgusting.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...fs-op-1132960/

[Jasep]

Just gonna leave this here for anyone interested in learning more about this scandal

http://blogtalk.vo.llnwd.net/o23/sho...ow_2624477.mp3

[Dan Druff]

This actually brings up an interesting point:

Charity tournaments.

Obviously this UCARE crap has been proven to be a scam, but what about other charity tournaments?

In reality, a lot of them are bullshit, and in general these should be avoided.

Poker players are particularly susceptible to charity scams for two reasons:

1) They feel guilty that they really aren't contributing anything to society, so playing in a charity tournament allows them to feel good about giving to the needy, while still satisfying their degenerative desire to gamble.

2) They're used to constantly throwing around cash, anyway, and it's particularly easy to do so if it's going to a good cause.


Unfortunately, even the most noble-sounding "charity" tournaments might be primarily giving charity to the organizer's pocketbook.

Charity tournament scams can exist in a variety of forms:

Skimming: There is a real donation to charity, but not as much as the amount removed from the prize pool. The remainder goes into the tournament organizer's pocket.

Overpayment of "employees": Tournament organizers and management pay themselves a hefty salary, far beyond the norm, and then donate the rest to charity. Sadly, this isn't even illegal.

Fake Charities: While the expected proceeds from the tournament ARE donated to a charity, it turns out that the receiving "charity" is a front, and is often owned by the tournament organizer or a friend/relative.

Money is never donated: The amount taken out of the prize pool is kept by the organizers and never donated. This was actually done by Absolute Poker involving their $10,000 "popcorn for charity" sales at the WSOP in 2006. They just kept the money.


If you do play in a charity tournament, do a little research into the charity itself. If it isn't a well-established, legitimate charity, don't play. If it IS a well-established charity, give them a call and ask if they're actually involved with that tournament. Don't automatically trust that a charity tournament is legitimate just because it takes place in a big casino.

I don't know if he still does it, but Jerry Buss ran a series of charity tournaments at the Bike for a number of years. You knew those were safe, because Buss has like $700 million to his name, and has a reputation to protect, and would never be running charity scams.

[circuitp]

Just bumping this with an update as this happened to me.

July - Mark Hackett of NPTN claims that Jack Walls walked away from the February Richmond event with the entire prize pool fund. (I assume the February-July delay in realizing he left with the money was that WSOP seats were awarded at the event, and it wasn't until July that the winners weren't able to claim the prizes)

[Dan Druff]

Just bumping this with an update as this happened to me.

July - Mark Hackett of NPTN claims that Jack Walls walked away from the February Richmond event with the entire prize pool fund. (I assume the February-July delay in realizing he left with the money was that WSOP seats were awarded at the event, and it wasn't until July that the winners weren't able to claim the prizes)

So what ended up happening?

Jack Walls got away clean on this? No criminal charges?

[circuitp]

Just bumping this with an update as this happened to me.

July - Mark Hackett of NPTN claims that Jack Walls walked away from the February Richmond event with the entire prize pool fund. (I assume the February-July delay in realizing he left with the money was that WSOP seats were awarded at the event, and it wasn't until July that the winners weren't able to claim the prizes)

So what ended up happening?

Jack Walls got away clean on this? No criminal charges?

AfaIk he is living in Orange beach Alabama and is managing a frozen yogurt shop...Multiple organizations got info about him but I dont know if any action is pending...I know hes out as a scammer now and wont be victimizing our community anymore!