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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."
And they'll be filling his 'slot' in prison. At least there'll be plenty of tables to play. If he plays his cards right, he'll probably get a shortened sentence. Maybe he can roll the dice and get in with a gang that will protect him.
Hopefully he'll be well behaved and won't end up in the pit.
I literally laughed out loud when I read the bit about "Zynga" and "worth 12 million".
Just because they are trying to sell them for 12 million doesn't make them worth that.
I dream of a nation where a man is not judged by his skin color but by an number assigned by a credit rating agency.
Throw him in the worst virtual jail there is !! :\
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.
Football Odds
As if they would not notice. This is a "currency" they
control. While the guy seems to have been at least somewhat capable for
being able to hack, I can see the risk analysis on the other side: "We can
track those in detail anyways, so if so somebody steals them, we will easily
identify the thief. No need to secure this better." I mean, how stupid can
you get? Obviously a person that cannot generalize or apply his intellect to
something not in his narrow vision.
In addition, he has a previous (suspended) sentence of 30 weeks for hacking.
Obviously also unable to learn.
When a former school-mate that is now a
police detective told me that they do not catch the really smart perpetrators, but
that there were plenty of dumb ones around of any level of intelligence, I
first did not believe him. By now I do. This is just one more data point.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
you and 1337 others like this
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.
What, are those zynga chips worth actual money? As far as I remember you got them for free all the time, removing the point of the whole game.
...the CFO of Parker Brothers was convicted of felony embezzlement when he tried to make off with 12 million pink Monopoly dollars.
Funny how my story sounds ridiculous yet 21st-Century funny money is a "crime".
By getting a business license, then he could steal like paypal and get away with it.
I am reminded of how the fractional reserve system works:
A and B have balances of $0.
A deposits $10.
A has a balance of $10; B has a balance of $0.
B asks for a loan of $5; bank "uses" A's money.
A has a balance of $10; B has a balance of $5.
The house always wins.
if you steal cash from a bank, the cash you have stolen is anonymous (well, it usually is): that is, there's no way to tell later if it is the same cash you stole from the bank
but this guy just moved around bits on someone's server. hey frank, the ton of chips with id #445566, where'd they go? hey jack, maybe its this guy here, with a ton of chips with id #445566?
i mean seriously: you're smart enough to hack a server, but not smart enough to play that scenario out?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I would have just stolen a lot less.
That's one of the problems with greed ... when you're greedy you can never be greedy enough.
Who is the creditor for the bank's debt of $5?
Thief gets caught, goes to jail. There - fixed that for you.
Wow, I mean, wow. Trying to fit this into "news", "matters", "nerds", ......, nope, sorry, can't do it.
Just wait a while. Florian Mueller will spin it into a story about how Open Source == evil.
Good call. I guess it would be ummm.... Wait for it... The Bank??
A loop, by its nature, continues. If that didn't make sense, start reading this sentence again.
Didn't you ever wonder why the bank pays interest on savings accounts and CDs and such? It's because they're paying you to use your money for loans.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
Savings are only "used" in the sense that your money is duplicated, so what could be taken out by one person can now be taken out by two. Regulation stops an infinite amount of credit being created.
That seems to be a constant with stories we hear about people trying to cheat the system.
There was a great series on TV called "breaking vegas" (not the documentary on the MIT blackjack team, but a series based off it) and this was a constant element. You may have a fool proof system, but even atop a pile of gold, if you steal millions, someone is going to notice.
Kind of makes you wonder how many (if any) smart criminals there are out there, stealing enough to live happily, but not enough to get noticed. When we look at a lot of these systems people come up with, if they just took it easy they'd probably go un-noticed for years. I like to think there are a few out there with the cleverness and greed to come up with something, but the rationality to restrain themselves.
The house always wins...
Many people try to earn quickly and easily, and preferably 5 minutes to become a millionaire. Here and there were no exceptions. Unfortunately the offense has been solved. But on the other hand, it gives a thoughtful, not all so easy. Need to work hard and honestly to earn. Even in this case, it will bring much more fun than lost years in prison.