Piecing together the full story of the illegal bookmaking case that has ensnared professional poker player Damien LeForbes poses a challenge.
Although he entered into a detailed, 38-page plea agreement with federal prosecutors on Aug. 26 admitting to illegal gambling and transactional money laundering charges, other information that might clarify LeForbes’ real place in the web of intrigue generated by IRS Criminal Investigation and U.S. Homeland Security agents hasn’t been made public.
His case grew more mysterious Monday after the prosecution, led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Mitchell, placed four documents under seal. For now, LeForbes is scheduled for sentencing Jan. 23 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
Why is this story important outside a poker room near you? To start, it offers a peek into a reality of the casino business, which has a long history of drawing players who gamble with money from illegal activity. Since knowingly catering to criminals is illegal, and in theory can cost a casino its license, it’s a pretty serious matter — one that many corporate gaming companies aren’t interested in seeing be made public.
So far, fallout from the federal investigation has already resulted in a combined $7.5 million in fines against MGM Grand and The Cosmopolitan for compliance failures and a Gaming Control Board complaint against Resorts World Las Vegas, which has undergone a sweeping management shakeup.
Major casinos spend millions on compliance. They have departments dedicated to following the antimoney-laundering rules associated with the Bank Secrecy Act and its “Know Your Customer” provision.
But the bookie scandal has illustrated an embarrassing truth. In the name of profit in a highly competitive business, some operators have chosen to substitute plausible deniability for genuine compliance when it comes to catering to high rollers with suspect bankrolls.
It’s not new, just in the spotlight. These days the light shines on the hazy world of professional poker, a casino subculture unto itself. That’s where investigators say LeForbes plied a very lucrative trade while also participating in big games and top tournaments. He hid in plain sight.
The door to a better understanding of the LeForbes case is only slightly ajar. It remains overshadowed by two more high-profile characters, admitted illegal bookies Wayne Nix and Mathew Bowyer.
Nix is the former minor-league pitcher whose illegal bookmaking foray tripped up not only himself, but also his occasional golf buddy and now-banished Las Vegas casino executive Scott Sibella. Nix, who once enjoyed the run of the house at MGM Grand, continues to cooperate in the federal investigation.
Bowyer, erstwhile real estate developer with ties to convicted international drug trafficker and illegal bookie Owen Hanson, is even bigger on the news marquee. Although he boasted of more than 700 clients, his most notorious customer was Ippei Mizuhara, the former translator for baseball star Shohei Ohtani. Bowyer, who pleaded guilty in September 2024 to money laundering charges in connection with $9 million he gambled at Resorts World Las Vegas, is scheduled to be sentenced later this year and is also cooperating with investigators.
Nix has maintained a low profile, but Bowyer isn’t shy about posting Instagram videos with himself and his felon bro Hanson playing golf. For his part, Hanson has a book on his criminal exploits and a movie deal in the works. In the name of cinema verite, I hope he includes his death threats and use of thuggery to collect debts.
LeForbes entered what appears to be a lockdown guilty plea, one which includes this paragraph:
“Defendant further agrees to cooperate fully with the USAO, the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, and, as directed by the USAO, any other federal, state, local, or foreign prosecuting, enforcement, administrative, or regulatory authority.”
That sounds pretty comprehensive, and the agreement also compels LeForbes to respond truthfully every step of the way. Now it appears prosecutors are looking for more information from LeForbes. Could they be looking for as yet unnamed partners?
LeForbes employed agents who received a piece of players’ losses for hustling business, but the betting pool flowed into a website “and a call center controlled by a third-party service in order to create accounts through which the LeForbes Gambling Business’s agents and customers could place and track wagers.” Losers used a variety of methods of paying up, including bank deposits into a shell company, cryptocurrency wallets, Zelle and Paypal, according to the plea agreement.
Does that make it sound like it was solely his business?
In fact, Nix, Bowyer and LeForbes all made use of Caribbean sports books, including the Sand Island book in the Dominican Republic.
LeForbes faces as many as 15 years in prison and a $500,000 fine, but until this past week it appeared he was headed for a very favorable outcome in the wake of a plea deal that placed him in the lower end of the federal sentencing guidelines.
Signs of potential trouble are brewing. On Jan. 2, LeForbes’ defense attorney Richard Schonfeld filed a strong objection to the government’s pre-sentence report and argued for probation and a fine of no more than $10,000 for his client, a 43-year-old married father with no prior criminal record. Back in his college days, LeForbes was even recruited to play baseball at UNLV.
Schonfeld also called on the government to rethink its decision to prohibit LeForbes from gambling legally, which would make it difficult for the 20-year professional poker player to earn a living.
Presuming all the money LeForbes spent was his, it was some high living while it lasted. From Oct. 1, 2021, to Dec. 22, 2023, he negotiated checks totaling $9.1 million at an unnamed Las Vegas casino. He managed to blow a lot of it across the tables. In total, he wagered more than $148 million during that stretch.
These days, he owes at least $6.5 million to a local casino for non-poker gambling losses. Maybe it’s time for LeForbes to find another line of work.
The latest documents are sealed, but it’s pretty clear the days of easy money are over.
John L. Smith is an author and longtime columnist. He was born in Henderson and his family’s Nevada roots go back to 1881. His stories have appeared in New Lines, Time, Readers Digest, Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, Reuters and Desert Companion, among others.
