Man playing poker to avoid prison....

Man playing poker to avoid prison....

abclocal.go.com

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (WABC) -- An Albuquerque stockbroker who confessed to stealing from clients to support a gambling habit is being dealt an unusual hand.

Prosecutors are letting him play poker for his freedom.

In exchange for the plea, authorities are letting Samuel McMaster, Jr. stay out of prison if he can earn enough money playing in poker tournaments to repay his victims.

(visit the link for the full news article)

how is this legal and how come i never got a judge like this when i was getting in trouble in my youth come on getting "sentenced" bascily to play poker to pay off your freedom this is what our countrys justice system has come too i just wanan cry and then cry some more at the lunacy of this this seriously hurts my brain and i cant belive this is a real story for a second i had to make sure i wasent on the onion this is dispicable how many of you who have been arrested would have taken an equivlent deal like this?

ie you smoke weed the judge sentences you to grow weed to pay off your court fees

ie you are a drunk and you get sentenced to drink beer until you can recycle enough cans to pay your fine

the only way this could be more outrageious is if they were paying for his buy in

this will be my last post for a few days as im going on a trip not that any one cares but i didnt want any one thinking i was murdered or some nonsense keep up the vigalance and take care ATS keep denying ignorance

abclocal.go.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Sounds like the majority in congress.

Roll those dice.

Now you bring up a good point though.

If you get a DUI the judge can sentence you to take mandatory AA meetings, even though AA is supposed to be a voluntary orginization in which the only rewuirement is to believe in a higher power.

The judge can also sentence you to therapy and jail time. When you go to jail you can be fined for every day you are there, and the education and therapy is usually about $20 a class which goes to a nonprofit that raises money because the judge orders you to attend and if you slip up you can go back to jail and start over.

If there was commission attached, and you bet there is. That judge is making an ass ton of money and so is the non-profit.

For a non-profit to launder it's money tax free it must be an educational or religious non profit and can donate it's laundered money to any other non-profit with little or no paer trail or further obligation to the IRS and burn the books every seven years.

From a short view of this...

Its a lesson to be learned thing, obviously he won't be able to raise the money, and while he gets locked up, he'll 'hopefully' learn the damage of gambling, closely associating it with punishment (prison).

Not off too easy, I'm sure noone wants to sit down on the same seat he's sat on.

For that matter, I wouldn't want to be near that anxiety ridden guy.

Originally posted by Republican08

Its a lesson to be learned thing, obviously he won't be able to raise the money, and while he gets locked up, he'll 'hopefully' learn the damage of gambling, closely associating it with punishment (prison).

It's not obvious to me. This guy might be good enough to make lots of money or he could just get lucky.

If he pulls this off this will go down in the history books as one of the strangest ways to beat the rap ever.. and possibly make gambling an o.k. act sanctioned by the courts.. others could use his victory to win their cases - how strange will that be.

It's the court itself that is gambling on this coming out in their favor. that court and Judge should be fined for gambling !!!!

Playing poker has nothing to do with Samuel McMaster Jr case.

He took a plea agreement and has 6 months delay of sentence, he could still face up to 12 years in prison for his 26 felony charges of fraud that he admitted to.

McMaster has to pay restitution payments of $7,500 a month, according to the arrangement. If he misses 2 payments he has to go see the judge and could be placed in jail. He currently has no job, the only way he can make money at the moment is playing poker.

Poker has nothing to do with getting out of jail, its McMaster's only source of income while we waits the 6 month period on his delay of sentence, since he is not a violent criminal there was no reason to lock him up until his sentencing. He could avoid jail or get a reduced sentence if he raises enough money to repay the $450,000 he took from clients.

I wonder if he worked at a car wash if the headline would say, Man avoids prison to wash cars? I don't know why all the media's headlines about this story say this man is getting out of jail to play poker.

Related Read
abcnews.go.com...

[edit on 12-8-2010 by InvisibleObserver]

reply to post by JohnPhoenix


I highly doubt he's a good gambler, and he'll be going to prison, life isn't a movie, I'd put money on his going to prison.