Video poker is a popular game played all over the world. The game is popular because it is a version of poker that is easy to play. The game can be played with just one player, so players can get their poker fix without having to play with other players. The game can be found at many casinos across the world and for the past few decades the game has become increasingly popular with illegal gambling operators.

Illegal gambling operators can purchase the gaming machines and then hide them in a facility and then charge players to enter the facility as well as to play the games. Just recently, a man was sentenced to forty months in prison for his role in a video poker operation.

Casey Szaflarski, who is known as the Video Poker King, was given the jail sentence for his part in the video poker scheme involving the mob in Chicago. Szaflarski was found guilty of association with the mobsters however he stated at trial that he did not know the video poker machines were being used for illegal gambling means.

Amar Bhachu was the federal prosecutor in the case and he stated that the argument that Szaflarski was not very smart in using this defense. Bhachu stated that the defense was ‘one of the stupidest defenses I have ever heard in my life.’

Despite his arguments, Szaflarski was found guilty and will now spend over three years in prison for his decision to oversee the video poker machines for the mob in the area. Judge Ronald Guzman decided on the forty month sentence and stated that his character was no better than the thugs he associated with.


- 2012-02-08