PokerStars Founder Admits To Illegal Operation, Awaits Sentencing Date

• The Department of Justice announced that Isai Scheinberg, founder of PokerStars, pled guilty to all chargers.
• Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker were also poker sites named in the case.
• Scheinberg was arrested in Switzerland and extradited to the US in January.

NEW YORK — The infamous Black Friday case that completely reshaped online poker in the United States nearly a decade ago is finally close to reaching its end as the last executive to be put on trial has pled guilty.

Former executive and founder of PokerStars Isai Scheinberg pled guilty to one count of operating an outlawed gambling business, which violated law 18 U.S.C. § 1955 and faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

The counts were of running a multimillion-dollar unlawful internet gambling business in New York per a Department of Justice press release on Wednesday.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “Ten years ago, this Office charged 11 defendants who operated, or provided fraudulent payment processing services to, three of the largest online poker companies then operating in the United States – PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker – with operating illegal gambling businesses and other crimes. As Isai Scheinberg’s guilty plea today shows, the passage of time will not undermine this Office’s commitment to holding accountable individuals who violate U.S. law.”

Scheinberg was first arrested in Switzerland in June 2019 based on his charges in the US where he was then extradited to the United States and surrendered to the US federal agents after withdrawing his appeal per the release.

“In pleading guilty today, Scheinberg admitted that he knew operating a business that offered internet poker to New Yorkers violated state law, and that it was the clear position of the U.S. government that offering online poker in the United States violated federal law. Nonetheless, Scheinberg decided to continue running his multimillion-dollar online poker business in the United States,” said Berman.

The law that was violated was the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) which made it a federal crime for gambling operators to accept forms of payment “in connection with the participation of another person in unlawful Internet gambling.”

Scheinberg is scheduled to be sentenced at a to be determined date and will be the last of 11 defendants named in the case to be sentenced where he faces a max sentence of five years.