Author(s): James Leighton

General

In 2003, when an amateur online poker player managed to win the World Series of Poker, millions of people created accounts to try to emulate his success. Thus began online poker's transition from hobby to fully-fledged career for many players, eventually growing to become the multi-billion dollar industry it is today. Along with the amazing success stories, colourful personalities and corporate sponsors came scandal and corruption, as anti-gambling laws shut down many sites while enterprising young upstarts invented new ways to get around them. Among these was Daniel Tzvetkoff, a 26-year-old Australian who set up an online service to disguise gambling revenues as legal payments. His website made him one of the richest people in Australia almost overnight, but his playboy lifestyle was not to last. Faced with lawsuits from all sides, as well as criminal investigations, he struck up a deal with the FBI in order to save his skin, one which would shake the online poker industry to its core.