Well, well, another poker player caught up in a fraud scandal, this time involving staking for betting propositions on football matches. A fairly well known UK poker player has defrauded the poker community again.

Sigh…I don’t know about you, but I am truly fed up with poker scandals. I know it is the bread and butter for any article writer; however I am getting depressed by the amount of corrupt individuals taking advantage of the decent majority. Over the past year, a UK poker player Neil Blatchly had been offering stakes in football betting markets on Premiership matches. The original staking thread popped up in blonde poker forum back in 2009, offering stakes to the poker community in what was believed to be a highly successful football trading market.

Blatchly, a successful poker player in the UK (GBPT winner) and well respected forum contributor to the Blonde forum posted many articles about his success as a football trader on Betfair. The poker community

bought into the model, why wouldn’t they? We all look to make money and it seemed a sure thing, with boasts of huge winnings on regular basis. All started well, with big wins listed and posted on the forum to attract further investment, which allegedly reached £70,000. Then, in one foul swoop all went sour; Blatchly states that on a Premiership game between Stoke and Liverpool in Jan 2010, he overslept after trading huge amounts on the game. Waking up with 15 mins of the game remaining and he was unable to recover losses.

Trying to recover the loss, he ploughed on regardless accepting new funds on the back of his denial of the disastrous result. Chasing losses is a well known road to ruin for many a gambler, and doing it, whilst also denying anything is wrong is the sign of a gambling addiction. No crumbs of comfort there, for the defrauded members of the funding plan. And it has now emerged, that all the claims, results were mostly fabricated and a look at the trading spreadsheets proves this.

It has since emerged, that Blatchly had been ‘living it up’ taking holidays in Miami, playing the UK poker circuit and it all is alleged to been paid for by the funding of his staking plan. A lot of the people involved are, or were; close friends of Blatchly and he has since written an account in his own words on the forum. It does not make for good reading, for his followers, as all seems to have been lost. The last post in his own words, warning it includes swearing and quoted including spelling errors:

“Hey,

Ive been dreading sending this message for months now but sadly in a nut shell the money has been lost.  In the last few days with everything that has gone on ive been beside myself and almost did something very stupid yesterday.  Not that it matters but I want to explain how it happened.

Going back a few months everything was fine and going great.  Everything I had posted was spot on and then one day I had made a trade on a midday kick off between Liverpool and Stoke and I simply didnt wake up in time.  I must have not set my alarm right but basically I woke up with around 15 mins to go.  At this point I could only rescue about 15% of the bank.  I threw up at the time realising what had happened but for some stupid reason I decided that I could get the money back by the end of the season.  Basically since then I have been trading the games still but without actually putting the amounts on.  I was hoping that I would be able to raise the money by the end of the season and therefore the results would still be ok.

I dont know what I was thinking as I should have told everyone at the time but Im not sure how I could tell people that me sleeping in had cost in total around 50k.  I really hate myself for what ive done and im basically absolute busto now.  Im not going to Vegas this year despite what some think and im moving back home with my parents as I cant afford to pay my rent.  I have been into town and looks like I may have a temping job lined up but money coming in will be very slow.  Every penny I have spare will go towards paying you all back but I know that isnt any help right now.

The worst thing for me is alot of the people involved in this are close friend and im going to lose them all.  They all trusted me with something and ive screwed it up in every way.  As Ive said I shoudl have told everyone at the start what had happened and dealt with the aftermath then but for some stupid reason I couldnt handle people knowing I had fucked up by over sleeping.

I dont really know what else to say, except for how sorry I am.  Im trying to get some help and turn things round a bit.  To save me waffling on im noit gonna say any more except for how sorry I am.

I will try my best to answer any questions anyone has but im guessing everything is going to kick off all over the place.

Ive sent this via PM as I though you should know before the rest of the forum but I will post on there later or tomorrow.

Again im so so sorry its come to this and hopefully if time you can find some way to forgive me.”

It would appear as near a confession to wrong doing as you could get, whether it was intentional or not, no one other than Blatchly will know that. He has serious questions to answer the Police, Sportsbook fraud department have the relevant information and no doubt a lengthy investigation will need to be carried out. Watch this space for further updates…

Read the full scandal here: Neil Blatchly Scandal with thanks to blonde poker forum.