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Danish poker case investigated by foreign authorities

Pia Marsh
May 22nd, 2015


This article is more than 9 years old.

Multi-million-kroner poker case under international question for cheating

Main suspect is a “friend” of the victims, and also a bit of a knave (photo: History Channel)

Imagine you’re playing online poker – nobody can see your hand, right? Well in the case of one elite Danish poker player, he could see the hands of eight of his Danish peers thanks to his use of spyware, which came in handy when he was playing high-stakes poker with them.

The case came to public attention on 9 December 2014, after the eight players reported their rival to the authorities, claiming they had been cheated out of tens of millions of kroner.

READ MORE: Police abandon nine out of ten burglary cases

Lengthy investigation
And now it has emerged that the Division of Economic Crime in Copenhagen has reached out to authorities in other countries, presumably with a view to assessing the number of overseas players affected by the cheating.

“We have made contact with foreign police authorities and asked them for help in the matter, and we are eagerly awaiting the outcome of the investigation,” Torben Koldborg Frederiksen, a police commissioner with the division, told Metroxpress.

Frederiksen believes it may take some time to move the prosecution forward.

“It is likely it will be a while until we have a real answer from them, and until then, we can not really move forward,” said Frederiksen.

Prime suspect a “friend”
The main suspect in the case is a 32-year-old man, who is as yet unnamed and described as a close friend of the eight poker players.

Copenhagen Police informed Metroxpress it was likely that the main suspect – whose name has not been disclosed – had installed a Trojan horse on the players’ computers.

“By doing this, he has been able to see the other players’ cards when they played poker against each other,” said Frederiksen back in March.

Besides the prime suspect, two more people have also been questioned in relation to the case. Police will not go into the details of who they are or what role they have played, but have informed Metroxpress that the suspects are also Danes.


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”