Illegal celebrity poker

Dave Ross Commentary – Listen: Illegal celebrity poker

It turns out that from 2006 until the recession hit in 2009, a high-stakes poker ring was operating at various homes and hotels around Los Angeles, and among the participants, according to TMZ — the star of Spiderman:

“Tobey Maguire is tangled in a web of scandal.”

TMZ is pretty excited about this story, because McGuire at one point was winning about a million dollars a month, and among the suckers who helped him was a hedge fund manager named Bradley Ruderman.

Except Ruderman didn’t make his money legally. He’s in prison for running a Ponzi scheme. And the investors who were Ponzi’d are now SUING to get their money back — including the $311,000 he lost to Spiderman.

But not just him — Ruderman also lost $73,000 to Nick Cassavettes, star of Hangover 2, and $62,000 to… Gabe Kaplan: Remember Gabe Kaplan?

Welcome Back Kotter! Now he’s an even COOLER school teacher.

It’s a lawsuit that provides a fascinating window into those years before the recession when the money was flowing.

And a reminder that when you hear people say — “don’t tax the rich” this is who we’re talking about. People who are completely out of ideas for what to do with their money, except to throw it on a card table in some magnificent mansion:

“Guess who hosts a lot of this games? Paris Hilton’s sex tape partner Rick Solomon,” said one report.

Also a reminder that once upon a time, all it took to buy a mansion was a decent sex tape.

Oh how I miss that economy.

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