Even after convicted of defrauding investors Samuel McMaster must now do well playing poker or face jail time.
The unusual arrangement, thanks to a plan laid out by Samuel McMaster’s lawyer, will allow the 59 year-old poker player six months to pay back his victims and will use poker to do so. While the restitution plan agreed to by the judge does not force him to play poker to make money, it is the only form of income he has now that he has been banned from working in the securities industry.
The irony of the plan is that McMaster stole money from clients in part to fund his poker games. Now he must do well at the game he loves in order to come up with the $7,500 a month in restitution he needs to achieve to say out of prison.
Essentially the actual sentencing is delayed for six months, during which time McMaster has to prove he can earn the funds to repay the more than $440,000 that he took from his victims. Should he fall behind by two payments within that six-month period, he'll face an immediate sentence of up to twelve years in prison.
This story came to our attention by way of Bodog Poker where new players can get up to $1,100.