Online Poker Chip Thief Gets Two Years In Jail

jhernik writes "A 29-year-old gambler from Paignton, Devon, has been sentenced to two years in jail after hacking into an online gambling site and stealing billions of poker chips. Ashley Mitchell admitted to hacking into the servers of American gaming company Zynga Corporation in 2009 and making off with $12 million (£7.5 million) worth of gambling chips."

Comments

Punishment should match the crime....

[ckeo]

Throw him in the worst virtual jail there is !! :\

Regulate both sides please

[bjourne]

That's great that he is getting punished for the theft. Poker chips have a real value on the sites that are employing them. But what about those poker sites that ban accounts and refuse to pay their owner for vague or no reasons at all? Lots of people have had their money stolen for suspected collusion or for playing in a pattern similar to a poker bot.

He dumped the chips on his desktop into a folder..

[ArundelCastle]

I keep dreaming of a day when things like this will not be described at a grade 6 reading level. (Full blame on TFA in this case.)
- Chips were not stolen. A number in a database was forged.
- He did not "make off" with anything. Probably didn't leave his chair.

I like Tron and Ocean's Eleven too, but using these metaphors for real crime is just as goofy.

Re:Very misleading title

[Nikker]

He did deprive Zenga of about 60k of dollars/pounds by selling their 'currency' to their clients without them making that money. It's like stealing amusement park tokens and selling them to people before they enter the gate, sure the amusement park can just get more paper coupons and sell them off but now that their patronage has been saturated fewer people will buy once inside the park.