PokerStars Founder Pleads Guilty to Illegal Online Gambling

Competitors sit at a table during a PokerStars  tournament. — Competitors sit at a table during a PokerStars tournament.
Photographer: Niall Carson/PA Images via Getty Images

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By Chris Dolmetsch

March 25, 2020 at 5:58 PM UTC

Updated on

March 26, 2020 at 12:01 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

The founder of PokerStars admitted Wednesday to running an illegal online gambling business, nine years after he and other online poker executives were indicted by prosecutors in New York.

Isai Scheinberg and 10 other principals at three online gambling companies were charged by federal prosecutors in New York in March 2011 with bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling. The other executives have all pleaded guilty and been sentenced. PokerStars agreed in 2012 to pay $731 million to settle the charges with the Justice Department, without admitting wrongdoing.