World Series Of Poker Winner Steals $25 Million In Sports Gambling Scheme (2022)

That's A Crime
Episode 38: World Series Of Poker Winner Steals $25 Million In Sports Gambling Scheme (2022)

Jason Connell and Sal Rodriguez break down the true crime story of the World Series Of Poker Winner Steals $25 Million In Sports Gambling Scheme in 2022. On May 25, 2022, World Series of Poker winner, Cory Zeidman, was arrested on charges of fraud and money laundering related to a sports betting scheme that brought in more than $25 million. From 2004 to 2020, Zeidman placed misleading radio ads claiming to have insider information that made betting on sporting events a no-risk proposition. When listeners contacted the service, they were charged an undisclosed fee for the bogus information.

Original Episode: S01E38

Recorded: 06-06-22
Studio: Just Curious Media
https://www.JustCuriousMedia.com/

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Transcript

Jason Connell: 4:11:55

Whoa, just curious. Welcome to Just curious media. This is that's a crime. I'm Jason Connell.

Sal Rodriguez: 4:12:03

And I'm Sal Rodriguez.

Jason Connell: 4:12:05

All right south. We are back for another crime.

Sal Rodriguez: 4:12:09

Yeah. And Does this qualify as a heist? I only like heist. Is this a high

Jason Connell: 4:12:13

Oh, it's not a high vibe to like. This is not a heist. But today we are breaking down the True Crime Story of the World Series of Poker winner steals $25 million in sports gambling scheme in 2022. Another new one. Brand new every time I try to go back to the archives sell new crimes popping up. Yeah. And this one caught my eye because I do know some things about the World Series of Poker. I thought, well hang on a second. Do I know this winner? But before we get into that sounds a word from our sponsor? Yes. If you don't mind,

Sal Rodriguez: 4:12:54

I do not mind at all. Because I'm a big fan of this company.

Jason Connell: 4:12:58

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Sal Rodriguez: 4:13:18

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Jason Connell: 4:13:23

Perfect. All right. So back to the World Series of Poker which has an acronym Sal, which is a W

Sal Rodriguez: 4:13:32

S O P Jason Are you are you watch WSOP you play poker?

Jason Connell: 4:13:37

Let me clarify. Yeah, I say I know about it. Because back in like early 2000s I started to see this trend happening on ESPN. I was like, Whoa, what's going on here? It was popping up on television people were watching tournaments. My friends were partaking in lots of Texas Hold'em, which is the game of choice for this. So no, I was outside looking in just like, Oh, I see a trend here. I didn't take to it. But I caught myself watching a little bit of it learning I played in one little mini tournament with my friends. I happen to win. But this is 20 plus years ago. And so I just saw this thing and I started to see different players here and there because it became characters on ESPN all sudden covering poker was a thing and you are the shades and then you want to you know, it's like everybody wants to outdo each other. So therefore, it caught my eye a little bit and I'll get into some pop culture references too, which also put it on my radar. So sad to be clear, the World Series of Poker WSOP is the oldest, largest, most prestigious and most media hype gaming competition in the world. That's according to the W S O P. That's a pretty big endorsement. There's, I gotta say it is

Sal Rodriguez: 4:14:54

but I wonder if it's like the UFC where the UFC is not the only fight promotion in town. They're not the only MMA game in town. That's true, but they are the biggest and most widely known.

Jason Connell: 4:15:05

Right? There probably are more but they got their first and they had ESPN. I mean, that's some serious coverage. Well, because

Sal Rodriguez: 4:15:12

one may argue you know what, why don't you have poker on ESPN, which is supposed to be for sports, when really poker was never known as a sport, right? Yeah. Now

Jason Connell: 4:15:22

they have darts. And they have cornhole and they have all sorts of things. So

Sal Rodriguez: 4:15:28

as a fan of cornhole, I would, I wouldn't call that a sport either. It's like,

Jason Connell: 4:15:31

exact, it's a hobby, drinking game. Tailgating game was a skills game, but now people want to watch it. Okay, well,

Sal Rodriguez: 4:15:39

I like it. I like darts. I like cornhole, I like bowling, I like to do.

Jason Connell: 4:15:45

So some previous Main Event champions, I would say, because if you win the World Series of Poker, we're gonna get into how this ties to the story and the person but just giving some backstory on the World Series of Poker. So if you win the whole thing of the year, it's like winning the Super Bowl. You're the main event champ. And I remember like a guy named Chris moneymaker. I mean, what a great name he wanted. His name was fantastic. Yeah. And then there was like a two time winner Johnny Chan. He was fantastic as well. He also popped up in the movie Rounders, 1998. Matt Damon, Ed Norton, Martin Landau, John Turturro, John Malkovich, and amazing movie Gretchen mol. I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it. It's a type of movie sound that you visit again and again

Sal Rodriguez: 4:16:29

and again. What is its fantasy about poker? It's

Jason Connell: 4:16:32

about poker, but it's more than that. Old friends. One's going down one way in life. The other one's gone a better road but he's got to help his buddy out and risk everything. It is fantastic. I tell you, and Johnny chan plays himself in this little bit part. And then lucky you came out in 2007, Eric banner, Robert Duvall, Drew Barrymore and he was a Texas Hold'em player replayer wasn't a good movie but the director Curtis Hanson did LA Confidential and some other great movies. But it just didn't live up to the hype. But you could see that I was seeing a trend through like, oh my gosh, you're seeing late 90s Rounders comes out probably also help people get into World Series of Poker. And then like you and then anyway, the training was kind of over, but it's still popular. And until 2005 The World Series of Poker was always held at the Binion's Horseshoe in Vegas, which I've been there a few times, loved Binion's. It was amazing. Sal, they used to have a million dollars on display. You could pop in and see the million Have you seen it?

Sal Rodriguez: 4:17:32

Yeah, no, all I know, I've been at least by Binion's. But look, I don't know if I've ever been inside.

Jason Connell: 4:17:37

Well, they shut down in 2009, unfortunately, and then the whole tournament moved to the Rio all Suite Hotel and Casino. It could still be there. Maybe it's move on from there. So that was like I had a little tie to that thought the history of Binion's is really cool. But now let's get caught up with this cry. Right? So that sets the stage if you're a World Series of Poker winner, in some regard, you have some prestige. Sure, you know that there's like you're well known, you have some names, some clout, and then you get caught up in some sort of gambling scheme, not a heist. So on May 25 2022 61 year old professional poker player, Corey Zeidman of Boca Raton, Florida, was arrested on charges of fraud and money laundering related to a sports betting scheme that brought in more than $25 million from alleged victims. And so this game has nothing to do with poker, what you may have expected, it just

Sal Rodriguez: 4:18:40

brings to mind how do you ask somebody? How do you get that much money from any one person? Let's say, I want to ask you for half a million dollars. Like how do I ask you for a half a million dollars?

Jason Connell: 4:18:51

So you want some of my crypto? Yeah, I want

Sal Rodriguez: 4:18:53

half a million in crypto. Wow, I have hardly any crypto. Well, you know, because when I first started working at the gym, I was actually in sales and they taught us a lot of sales, tactics and approaches and we read the books and seminars, everything the Ask hand me $500,000. And people are like, okay, they trust you. They believe you. I got ahead of this guy. Cory is a fantastic salesman.

Jason Connell: 4:19:18

Very true self. But unlike a previous episode, the Hollywood actor runs a $650 million Ponzi scheme. In that instance, he is going out like hey, Sal Rodriguez, I'm making this movie would you like to invest? Give me a big chunk of money. We're about to get into this. This is about smaller amounts of money. People paying for something that they don't get, or they believe is real. It's a whole other thing. This is a different scheme. Entire

Sal Rodriguez: 4:19:46

Yeah, this is not referred to as a Ponzi scheme.

Jason Connell: 4:19:49

This is not Yeah, this is like, Hey, I have some information you might want to help you and your bedding needs, and you buy this information, and it's bogus. What we don't know is the denominations that people are paying. But I do know something about this. And we're about to get into that part of the crime. And I've had some experience of hearing this type of thing, but I didn't partake in it. And we'll go down that rabbit hole in just a second. But before getting into that, here's more about Zeidman because we need to qualify this guy he is a World Series of Poker winner, quote unquote. So in 2012, he won a bracelet. So they call it sell at the World Series of Poker. Now that doesn't mean he won the main event. He wasn't a big champ like the two guys I mentioned earlier moneymaker or Johnny Chan. He won a tournament in that year in that calendar year of 2012. There were actually 61 bracelet events. So it's kind of like golf tournaments. You know there's four major well golf is probably a bad example. But there's four majors in golf but there's tournaments every weekend, you could go win a tournament and be a tournament winner right PGA qualifier you're, you're doing great but you may not win the Masters right. So this guy's I had been one one of the 61 events in 2012. And he earned $201,000 a sizable amount. They were playing $1,500.07 Card Stud High, Low eight or better. So you start getting in the weeds there on the particulars, but it is Texas Hold'em. And it was 622 entries. So hey, he had a good run. That was a great tournament.

Sal Rodriguez: 4:21:26

That way, hang on 622 people, contestant entries in that

Jason Connell: 4:21:30

tournament that he wants. So he comes out a big winner wins a bracelet, get some prestige, probably helps him at the next event.

Sal Rodriguez: 4:21:39

He beat 621 other people,

Jason Connell: 4:21:42

correct. Wow. That's the data points that I saw up pretty good. So pretty impressive. What I don't know is in particular is like hey, now you can get in this tournament for free. I don't know but he wants a bracelet and so he's kind of on the map. He's got some cash in his pocket?

Sal Rodriguez: 4:21:56

Sure. Photo up surprised some interviews. Yeah,

Jason Connell: 4:22:00

maybe he was a favorite or one of the better odds to win the main event that year. We don't even know if he competed. This is the data that I have. Yeah. So as for the scheme, Zeidman placed misleading radio ads in various US markets, claiming to have insider information that made betting on sporting events, a no risk proposition. So when listeners contacted the service, which use names like Gordon, Howard global or Ray Palmer group, they were told the privileged information about fixed games came from physicians at colleges, and TV executives. So So before we go further, to break that down, you're driving down the street, you got XM Radio on or local radio. And you've probably heard this before skipping channels, I don't know. But you'll hear two guys talking about maybe football, they have insider information, and they can help you out their record in the past is blah, blah, blah, like we won five out of six games last week. And if you want that Intel, you just call our number. And these are those types of ads.

Sal Rodriguez: 4:23:07

Well, you gotta rely as a better as a victim, as they're called here. You have to rely on the knowledge or the belief that a lot of the sports events are indeed fixed.

Jason Connell: 4:23:17

You have to believe that why but betters and if you know anything about gambling, especially sports, gambling, it's wide open, you could bet football this day and be down and you're looking to offset your losses and all sudden you quit trusting anything you know, and you're looking for anything that sounds like a winner, right? And hear these guys and they're good at it. So a lot of times they have a thick Brooklyn or New York or some sort of accent. For some reason. I've heard that more often than not, they're like, Hey, yo, Sal, we went five and o last week and you want to win. They're really great at selling

Sal Rodriguez: 4:23:52

they got a pencil behind their ear. Well, you

Jason Connell: 4:23:54

don't want to see them. I mean, this is the radio, right? Probably do right? You can hear the pencil. Yeah. And they're selling you on it and tell you what if you're vulnerable and down, you may call that number and just be like how much for Notre Dame's play in Illinois, this spreads five. So you might ask, you know, pay for the spread, you might pay the over under you might and then you might parlay the two, they don't do the bet for you. They're just selling you their information. And their information could be great Intel, most likely it's them just given their opinion. Well, also,

Sal Rodriguez: 4:24:26

I think it doesn't. It's not good for these radio stations who are just running unvetted advertising. They don't know who the hell is buying these ads. They don't know if they're legit or not. Obviously, they weren't in this instance. And they just run the commercials take the check run the commercial, not even concerning themselves with whether or not it's legitimate. Yeah, well,

Jason Connell: 4:24:44

it's true. Now I'm not saying that all handicappers are what you would call someone who really knows how to do this and can handicap a game and give their educated guess right and go off some data pointer. But at the end of the day, it's still you don't know it is amazing. If you watch the lines at all, I'm not a better but I do study NFL in particular. And I do keep an eye on spreads but I'm just more as a thing to gauge but I'm a lot more into who won the game and lost the game and whatever but so you don't try to forecast too much. While I try to forecast who's gonna win but I'm not too caught up on the spread. I more care about the actual winner, but they give you an idea barometer are just another thing to say. Oh, yeah, well, okay, Cincinnati is favored by three, there's got to be good reason. Because the handicappers and Vegas make the line. They are educated. And it's crazy how close they are most of the time. Well, that's what they call it over under, over unders, whatever, like 46, you get over 46, you're a winner under 46. You're a loser winner, depending on which way you bet. So they'll say we have this team favored by this much. And we think the over under is this. But they'll set those numbers. It's crazy how good they are. But they're not selling their information. They're setting the market the line, right? So you're a batter and you're just like, oh my god, do I like Cincinnati dry like, you know, the culture who do I like here. And then here comes his radio ad, right. And I'm not saying they're bad. These guys can be really good at what they do. But some people could just be whatever, by the data. In fact, this reminds me of another movie with Matthew McConaughey and Al Pacino to for the money. And they were doing exactly this by our intel. We know exactly who's gonna win. And you can go on a hot streak, and maybe your customers love you and they're loyal. But then you could just go cold and dark and everyone loses money. But we don't get into that here. But this is the type of stuff they created. Now, what we don't know is if they had any real passion for it, any real skill for it, we don't know. But as we unfold more, it sounds like they were just given away whatever information and making lots of money and People are getting broke buying their privileged

Sal Rodriguez: 4:26:59

information. Well, if the whole thing was fake, it wasn't just like, these guys, like you said they think these will be the winners and they're selling you who they think will be the winners. Right? Right. These guys are going into the old some games are fixed. And we talked to physicians and we have inside scoop we have inside information. That's a whole different thing, then it becomes a whole nother thing once you started invoking those sorts of things, right? Otherwise can't like you said two people could just go, Hey, here's who we think will win by our advice,

Jason Connell: 4:27:27

essentially. Yeah, true. True. And these guys lasted long enough that maybe they tried, but at the same time, too many people coming forward saying, Hey, what is this now? Buyer Beware, right? I'm not saying that, hey, no one made you go by sales information, or are these guys information? But obviously, they were arrested. They're being investigated, because it doesn't sound like they were very diligent about gathering information. Or maybe they had no handicappers on their team. They're, they're selling something that they have no maybe skill set in. There's more to come out of this. But I've heard these ads forever sell before the games early in the morning. So say it's football Sunday, and you're going somewhere at six in the morning way before they're talking about the coverage of the games. You'll hear these types of shows popping on Yeah, and people are probably like, oh, yeah, okay. They want to hear it. They want to be pushed one way or the other. I'm talking about like, hardcore gamblers. Yeah. Right. Like you flip a coin all day. Who's gonna win? Let me flip this coin. Okay, I'll go with it. And that's how fragile those types of people can be. And desperate might be a better word.

Sal Rodriguez: 4:28:38

Do you remember the one 900 scandal with Miss Cleo? And then I think they also had a scandal with Ken Warwick and friends psychic friends network, right.

Jason Connell: 4:28:45

Exactly. Very similar. You

Sal Rodriguez: 4:28:48

call up and you think you're talking to a legitimate psychic. Now the phrase legitimate psychic, you know, you can argue that's a whole other Yeah, but you know, okay, look, just to be a little more transparent here. About 25 years ago, I was studying tarot cards, and I was practicing. I was getting okay. And I took it seriously. So I went to go apply for the I forgot to feel a psychic friends or the Miss Cleo line. I was hired. They sat me down a little cubicle. Wait a second. And I was going to start taking calls as a tarot card reader for one of these psychic lines. And by the way, I want to be clear, I took it seriously. And I'm and this is legit. In my head anyway, you would take it serious call and I'm gonna do my thing. I look around. I start to listen, I start to look and I realize so things fake. Nobody here takes it seriously. None of these people are just even practicing psychics. You're just talking to some guys. Oh, Jason. Oh, yeah. Oh, no. You know what, Jason, you're gonna get that dream job. You're gonna get I see it. I see it. Yeah, you got all these fakers is what you got. Anyway, I quit that very day. I said, I'm out of here. This is terrible. This place I said to the manager, you shouldn't even work here and I left. So this just reminds me that it's just all just all bullshit is what it is. And that's

Jason Connell: 4:29:59

what this is kind of sounding to be right? I don't remember this particular ad. It might be a different network. And I never heard it. But I've heard similar. And even the guys I'm hearing all I ever say sound of myself is if your information is so good, and you're five or six in a row, just bet yourself. Yeah. How about take the common man out of it. Just keep going on yourself.

Sal Rodriguez: 4:30:20

Right? The fact that you're trying to get me involved in your thing is suspect right? If you're doing that

Jason Connell: 4:30:24

good. I just kind of Mum's the word, right. There was a guy when I was a kid watching NFL when I was just getting into it, like 1011 years old. His name was Jimmy the Greek Snyder

Sal Rodriguez: 4:30:34

OH, YEAH. Jimmy the Greek he was under scrutiny. There was a scandal. Oh, yeah. He was

Jason Connell: 4:30:38

drunk one time and crossed all sorts of lines and got in some racial discussions and he got fired the next day. But in his heyday, he was the guy who brought the Vegas to, you know, the main stage and they'd say, Jimmy, what do you got on this game? He's like, Well, you know, I think the Cowboys are gonna win by five and cover the spread, but he really made his bones back in the day by picking a bunch of winners. So he was just a really good handicapper. Right. And he became a celebrity and then he had a fall from grace. Yeah, but didn't sound like they have that guy on this team. This sounds like it appears that our guy Zeidman got with some people maybe he bought some of his street cred you know, you know, World Series poker winner, got some cash to build up the team and then just started running ads. It's not easy. Easy shouldn't be the word cheap to run ads on national radio. And then money was coming in. So to be clear, they're asking callers they wouldn't say how much on there. They just say Hey, call us you want to know the game. You want to get the parlay. You want this? You want that? Call us. So when you call them it's like a sales job. Sure. Hey, I got yourself. So what am I doing here? Maybe they win you over right? And they kind of feel Yeah, maybe it's a sliding scale. Hey, this scale pie pace went up. One kg for this parley bad or this, these two pickups are. So we don't know what they were taken from these guys, but they're asked to pay and I'm assuming now it's probably easier. But back in the day was probably like Western Union hell, it could still be Western Union or ACH or something, you know, you're getting cash boom out to these guys. And that's what's happening with these callers. But wait to hear how long it went on. I mean 25 million takes a while to accumulate. Sure. So according to a two count indictment from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, Zeidman faces federal charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and mail fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering as part of the scheme that spanned from 2004 to 2020 16. yourself. That is hard to believe

Sal Rodriguez: 4:32:53

that's the longest ongoing crime that we've ever covered. Absolutely. 16 years, he practically can take a pension from his own scheme.

Jason Connell: 4:33:03

It's unbelievable. Yeah, the Hollywood actor Ponzi scheme. It took a few years, but 16. So then it begs the question, was the ever getting winners? Were any customers winning just enough, like once every so often, and they were repeat customers? Or were they just constantly replenishing the customer pipeline with these ads? Or there's so much I have questions about where they targeted certain areas. I mean, some people when they get knocked outside, they're done. They can't bet anymore. They're out. And then he moves on to the next ones. But I really want to hear some of the ads. And I don't want to know some more of the data, but I can't believe it. And like you always said, you know, in previous episodes, greed takes over. It seems like you had a good run at five years, maybe get the heck out of there.

Sal Rodriguez: 4:33:49

You know, what's your 10 year mark, you're like, Well, it's been 10 years, we've had a good run. This can't possibly go on forever. Right? But no, you let's do six more years, guys.

Jason Connell: 4:33:58

Six, we'll just go. Seidman is one $200,000 In one event, but now he's making lots of millions 10s of millions. So why is it gonna go back to that? I mean, I don't even know maybe he kept competing as well to keep his celebrity status live, I don't know. But this guy got wrapped up in this. And, you know, we don't have anything from Zeidman. He was arrested recently. But we do have some quotes from some prominent people, actually. And we're gonna give those quotes out because they said it best I would say their quotes are phenomenal and hard hitting and they shed light on just the damage that was done to the victims, really, because some people might not feel sorry for the victims. And others as I've tried to paint, these are like, really, people on the fringe. They're in a bad place. A lot of times when you're desperate, you're trying to dig yourself out of a hole. It's like a Hail Mary. You're not trying to get information when life's good. And you're picking all the winners yourself. These are desperate people desperate measures and it can ruin families.

Sal Rodriguez: 4:35:02

You know, Jason the first time I went to Vegas, the first time I ever went, I guess I was in my early 20s only had heard Vegas seen, you know, Viva Las Vegas, we will and I go to Vegas, and I was you know, seventh eighth floor of my hotel. I looked down at the strip, I see everybody I see all the cars and I'm thinking all these people shouldn't be here. All these people should be home. Look at these people. They get this family they should be at home saving their money. Why are they here in Las Vegas? And yeah, so when I think when people think of the Las Vegas gambler, there may be some image of some hotshot right. But yeah, regular folk. Absolutely regular folks spending their paychecks is what?

Jason Connell: 4:35:39

After I finished my first documentary, one of the projects I kind of was developing was called rush. Not that's the group of course, but it was just gonna be a documentary focused on like a gamblers gambler. Like yes, like you said, Yeah, gambling is great. It's sensationalized, and we're all winning money. But I really wanted to follow different people from different stages of gambling from a sports gambler to someone who's always playing the tables, because it's not that glamorous. It's probably pretty seedy. And I met some of these people. And I really wanted to tell that story. It's almost that rush that kind of I forget the tagline I had, but it was going to be called rush. And it was about chasing that because I've even read them. People win at slot machines. Sometimes they're annoyed by winning because they just get caught up in the noises in the field. They want to dump in money. It's like, oh, yeah, okay, I want a little bit but it wasn't enough. And I just want to keep going. And they just get dialed into something else. Now that's just slots but I mean, in anything I know how the sports gambler mindset works, just by observing it from friends and over the years and just studying it. It's fascinating to me, it would have been a very dark documentary mind. Yeah, you know, not a lot of upside and a lot of great stories come from a lifelong game. onboard, not everyone can be disciplined.

Sal Rodriguez: 4:36:57

No, I know I can recall, three or four people I personally have met whose lives were severely impacted by Yeah, totally. I don't use the word addiction too often, but their interest in gambling had a negative impact in their overall life, including their marriage. Absolutely.

Jason Connell: 4:37:13

Yeah, exactly. So here we go. I'll take one you take one and then we'll have some closing thoughts. United States Attorney Breon peace said in the statement that Zeidman defrauded his victims and persuaded them to drain their retirement accounts to invest in his bogus sports betting group. Also, he could spend it on international vacations, a multi million dollar residence and poker tournaments. So I guess he did continue to play. But that's pretty cutting that they have enough people sell to see the damage that was done people losing retirement accounts, investing in this bogus sports betting group. So there you go. They've investigated this enough so far to know that they weren't even probably doing the work, putting in the work,

Sal Rodriguez: 4:38:02

as alleged, Zeidman preyed on individuals who were led to believe he had inside information that would lead them to make easy money. In reality, he was selling nothing but lies and misinformation, bilking millions from victims along the way, leaving their lives in financial ruin and their bank accounts empty, said Homeland Security Investigations. HSI, New York Acting Special Agent in Charge Ricky J. Patel. And he continues, HSI will continue to work together with our partners to follow the money and tackle complex financial investigations to bring to justice fraudsters like Seidman, who financed their lavish lifestyles by concocting ways to bamboozle the innocent. When their only real goal is lining their pockets with ill gotten cash. A great quote. Great quote. I mean, jeez, I want to know some of these people who who is this New York Special Agent in Charge. That's a long title Security, Homeland Security, Investigational New York Acting Special Agent in Charge. Wow,

Jason Connell: 4:39:01

thank goodness, they're on the case, though, too. And I really was just mean this thing popped off because I saw worlds there's a poker winner. And then you realize him or anybody could be doing schemes like this. But thank goodness, we have these types of US attorney and HSI representative out finding these people and bringing them to justice. Because yes, how many people were impacted? What's it take to get to 25 million. I mean, they weren't taking 500,000 from people so they're private taken 1000s Here are some betters run deep, and it's like I can get you out of this give me 10 grand, well, a lot of people don't have 1000s laying around, they're probably taking it from something like retirement, put in another mortgage on the home, secretive from the spouse gotta get myself out of trouble. There's probably so many terrible tales, just from this alone. That would be devastating to read. I mean, I can't believe it, and I'm anxious to see when he is sentenced. If he's found guilty, I should say, I gotta slow my roll there. But if he's found guilty, what kind of sentencing we're looking at for something like this.

Sal Rodriguez: 4:40:10

We'll also he's the only one named right. No other. Yeah,

Jason Connell: 4:40:13

it did say his name, Korea, Zeidman. And all these aliases. So he's used other names along the way, not just his celebrity status. But yeah, I didn't mention any at this time.

Sal Rodriguez: 4:40:24

You know what, now that I think about it. We never heard about the CO conspirators, I think when it comes to like, for example, the most notorious one in recent history, the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme, right we only hear the Madoff name. Surely if you have this scam empire, there's gonna be other people involved. Are there? No. You know what all those people did all those people just turned, what is it called where you point the finger at made off? Or whoever? Whoever your boss is, you point the finger at them, you get a reduced sentence. They take all the punishment turn state's evidence. Yeah, well, you're like, I'm going to blame you. Even though I'm at fault, too. But I'm gonna put it all on you. So I get a left side. They do it in murder trials all

Jason Connell: 4:41:00

the time. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Oh, by the way, I happen to find this because I was anxious to see it. I will share this with you at some point in time. So I'll probably off the air. But this is my proposal was called rush. It's every gamblers handicap, a feature length documentary. Very nice. It would have been interesting had I made that but it's still an interesting topic. Well, wait

Sal Rodriguez: 4:41:21

a second, hang on. Where did that fit into the Holy Rollers, the documentary about the card counting Christians. We were

Jason Connell: 4:41:28

editing strictly background and Holy Rollers. The team was created and moving forward. We found out about the team. And my DP and CO editor joined the team. And we were just talking like, hey, wouldn't it be great if we follow the team, but that's not going to happen? And then a few years down the road, then we got on board sort of filming. So it was kind of like there but we didn't think we could even film them. So I was like, why what's going to be next? So that's kind of what happened. So it was just coincidence that it kind of dealt with gambling?

Sal Rodriguez: 4:41:57

Well, but I mean, you've been inside that world you

Jason Connell: 4:42:01

know, I have interest but this was not about Christians or anything like that. It was just following just different characters the team that was a whole other story. You're following this team? Yeah. This I could have picked anybody

Sal Rodriguez: 4:42:12

and card counting is for blackjack. Correct. Can you card counting in Texas Hold'em or any other form of poker is that does a different thing.

Jason Connell: 4:42:19

Different thing. Totally different thing. Yeah, you had to be a really good poker player read people bluff properly. You could cheat. You can't cheat these tournaments. You can't pull a card out of here. It says like saloon. Your buddy's dealing off the bottom, which happens in rounders. Now this is like next level, you've got to be a good poker player. But I also want to include this because I thought it was interesting, because it was a tag that I read on a couple of the articles. Anyone who believes they were defrauded by Zeidman is encouraged to call HSI which means

Sal Rodriguez: 4:42:54

that is Homeland Security Investigations.

Jason Connell: 4:42:58

Right. And you can call them at 1-866-347-2423 If you believe you're a victim in this crime, which could happen if you ever bought this information,

Sal Rodriguez: 4:43:12

you know, number you know what Jason I did? I

Jason Connell: 4:43:16

were the key. I

Sal Rodriguez: 4:43:18

wasn't much as 150,000. But you know what, I need it back. No, because I'm just reminded of I heard about a robbery with some sort of local robbery of some store and in you know, that's unfortunate. But they're like, the computer was stolen, and personal effects were stolen. And we had $50,000 in cash. And I'm like, really? You had 50,000 in cash that got stolen that night? Uh huh. I'm all skeptical. Hey,

Jason Connell: 4:43:42

Ben. 75.

Sal Rodriguez: 4:43:44

Yeah, actually add?

Jason Connell: 4:43:46

Yeah, well, people I open Pandora's box. So that really does cover it. The World Series of Poker winners steals $25 million in sports gambling scheme in 2022. I thought it was interesting. Yes, it's about one thing, and it pivots. It's about this other big sports gambling scheme has no relation to World Series of Poker, but it caught my eye. And I thought it was fascinating. And now you kind of know why this whole world I find fascinating.

Sal Rodriguez: 4:44:14

No, no, no, I'm glad you said that, though. Just to be absolutely clear. The World Series of Poker had nothing to do with this crime.

Jason Connell: 4:44:20

No, it's just the person, the perpetrator, the person that committed all this. He happens to have some sort of a name. And yeah, he's a gambler, right? It is a bit of a gambler and he put himself in something and so they went 16 years strong on it. Had he got in there for a year and was like and got some money and got out and then got caught. They probably slap his wrist. This is not good for him. $25 million is someone's going down and it looks like one, Corey Zeidman.

Sal Rodriguez: 4:44:50

This was probably gonna have a follow up. I'm sure we're gonna hear a sentencing at some point. That will

Jason Connell: 4:44:54

be good. But I also want to see if there's any victims that come out. anybody says anything, you know, sometimes they have them come to the trial. I want to see if there's anything that pops up at some point in time that we could potentially have an update.

Sal Rodriguez: 4:45:05

I'll be ready. And I'll be waiting. And you know what? I bet it'll be soon. Well,

Jason Connell: 4:45:13

so unlock your confidence and always use the right tools for the job with manscaped

Sal Rodriguez: 4:45:17

and get 20% off and free shipping with the code. That's a crime@manscaped.com. So thank

Jason Connell: 4:45:22

you so much for listening. And please be sure to subscribe to the that's a crime podcast as well as the that's a crime YouTube Live Channel. You can also really help us by giving the show a five star rating on Apple podcast,

Sal Rodriguez: 4:45:34

and for all your listeners and enjoy sharing your thoughts. You could leave us a review on Apple podcasts, send us a direct message or post a comment on any that's a crime social media platform.

Jason Connell: 4:45:43

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