Online Poker Player Jailed for Six Months for Murder Threat against Casino Staff
This was published 20-10-2011Subsequent to threats made by aUKonline poker player that he would murder staff of an online poker room for losses incurred by him, together with a little extra, the online poker player was jailed for six months.
The 35 year old unemployed online poker player, Michael Gallagher,l received the jail sentence after threatening to “blow the f***ing brains out of every single person who crosses my path at the online poker room company headquarters”.
Evidently Gallagher joined an online poker site in June 2010 and immediately lost between £15 000 and £20 000 ($30 000). After his loss Gallagher accused the (unnamed) poker site of dealing him week cards. The poker room tried their very best to console him and to provide him with explanations and answers but this did not satisfy Gallagher.
Approximately a year later, Gallagher, in a completely drunken state, emailed the poker site in the early hours of May 25, 2011, stating “I hope you take me seriously because I swear to God I’m going to do it. I will have my vengeance. I have planned this for six months. It’s what makes me sleep a night. Drifting off to sleep, thinking about what I am going to do, knowing full well that the butchering I do will get you exposed for what you are… I will gladly take a life sentence for that. Believe me, it will be my finest hour… $50,000 in my account, or believe me, you will all be dead”.
After sobering up the following morning, theUKonline poker player realized what he had done and immediately forwarded a new email to the poker site apologizing for his drunken tirade and requesting them to ignore his previous email.
However, in order to play it safe, the online poker company decided to report the extortion attempt and threats to the police and the apologetic poker player was promptly arrested.
Gallagher decided to plead guilty to a lesser charge and if he had pleaded guilty to blackmail he could have received the top sentence of 14 years in prison.
