A high-stakes Danish poker pro was found guilty of cheating at online poker by a Copenhagen City Court last week.
Peter Jepsen, a well-known high-stakes online player with success pre-dating Black Friday, received more than two years behind bars and a €3.5 million fine for a six-year cheating spree that involved Jepsen installing malware on other players’ computers, according to local media.
Jan 12, 2005 Software cheats. The marketers of “Cheat On Poker v.1.2” promised “special tracking software that helps you to track the hand of every opponent at your e-poker table!”. Online poker.
From 2008 to 2014, Jepsen would run the scam against other high-stakes regulars, usually at high-profile European Poker Tour stops. He would gain access to their laptops and install the software. Once installed, he would have access to their hole cards.
Online Poker Cheating Scandal
After complaints from several players, the Danish authorities launched a five-year investigation and trial. During the trial, there were three witnesses that testified that they were involved in the scam. The two men and a woman that testified admitted that they were involved in installing the software that Jepsen used.
Along with the jail time and a seven-figure fine, the government confiscated $3.9 million from Jepsen, roughly the amount that he won from his opponents using an unfair advantage. Originally, the court felt that a three-year jail sentence was suitable, but six months was taken off the initial sentence because has been long overdue, according to the prosecutor in the case.
Poker Cheat Software
Jepsen was formerly sponsored by Betfair and played under the screen name “Zupp.” His live resume, on the other hand, is somewhat sparse. He has four career live tournament cashes for a total of $604,458. He won EPT Warsaw in 2007 for $415,679.
Jepsen has already filed for an appeal.
Darren Woods, a World Series of Poker bracelet winner in 2011, has been sentenced to 15 months in jail over in the United Kingdom and ordered to repay a hefty sum of £1 million after he cheated for years at online poker.
Woods engaged in fraudulent misconduct on 888.com and several other sites by setting up an elaborate scheme to play multiple hands at once at the same online poker table, according to the Grimsby Telegraph.
The report added that he will receive six more years in jail if he doesn’t pay back £1 million.
Some of the money he has already forfeited will go to online poker operators to help compensate victims of his cheating schemes. The 29-year-old originally denied 13 of the fraud charges, but later changed his plea to guilty for nine of the charges.
The cheating occurred between 2007 and 2012.
Woods’ father admitted to helping him launder £230,000 won from the scams.
The poker pro set up fake identities and used private online networks to help him hide the scams from the online poker firms, even cheating on 888 which once employed him as a sponsored player and trusted him with representing the brand. Altogether, he admitted to creating 50 different accounts to help gain huge edges over opponents.
The judge said to Woods:
“You are an intelligent, able and even gifted young man but you turned your talents towards defrauding online gambling companies and cheating other players of online poker. In individual games, other people playing against you stood to lose money because the odds had been rigged in your favour by the creation of multiple identities which were undisclosed to other players.”
According to HighstakesDB, Woods’ cheating was uncovered by diligent members of the poker community who determined that his win-rate was too high to be legitimate. Woods came out to defend himself online, but mounting evidence reportedly lead to his conviction in the minds of the poker community well before a court of law sentenced him to prison.
Bovada Poker Cheating
Woods actually claimed he was a victim, reportedly justifying his actions by alleging that other players have cheated in the past too, without getting into trouble.