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Posted by on Dec 28, 2015 in Blog, General Poker | 53 comments

Who’s the Greater Financial Risk — Daniel Negreanu or Bank of America?

 

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Bank of America, one of the world’s largest financial institutions, has terminated all of Daniel Negreanu’s personal accounts.

What would cause a gigantic bank to refuse the business of someone who’s proven to be immensely successful in his chosen profession and poses virtually no financial risk?

Because — Negreanu plays too much poker.

Seriously.

As reported last week by PocketFives.com (Bank of America Closes All of Daniel Negreanu’s Bank Accounts), Negreanu is one of a significantly larger number of full-time poker players and industry professionals who have experienced similar snubs from banks.  Because Negreanu just so happens to be one of the wealthiest, and most publicly visible media personalities, his indignity is the most baffling.

Other poker pros too, including Doug Polk, not only had their bank accounts frozen recently.  Their funds were inexplicably tied up for extended periods of time while their financial institutions (in Polk’s case — Chase Bank) piddled around and played the poker is “too risky” card as an excuse to cut off established ties.

Banks — what a bunch of hypocrites.

Mind you, Bank of America and other huge financial cabals within “Too Big to Fail” monopoly are the same swindlers squeezing college students and graduates by the millions, leveraging hundreds of billions in crushing student debt.  They’re the street corner loan sharks who rip-off consumers with whopping 29 percent interest rates on credit cards and impose hidden banking fees that no one can keep straight.  They’re the racketeers who have essentially bribed members of Congress and de-fanged federal regulatory agencies.  Yet, these are the same banks that once cupped their hands together and begged for tens of billions in bailouts from American taxpayers between 2008-2011, due purely to their own greed and mismanagement, which nearly triggered a worldwide depression.  Now, with bloodstains on its balance sheets, BofA has cut off one of the most successful (not to mention famous) poker players in the history of the game.

Oh, the irony.

Just when I didn’t think it was possible to have more disgust towards the American banking industry, they’ve sunk to even lower lows.  Indeed, for poker players, this has now become personal.  Here’s why Negreanu’s situation matters and why you should care.  It’s time to fight back.

If you’ve been involved in poker for any length of time, you’ve probably been screwed over by a bank, perhaps numerous times (like I have).  Perhaps the teller or the banking official looked at you like you’re a drug dealer when you’ve tried to conduct your normal business.  Maybe the bank flagged your accounts and placed extended holds on checks deposited from casinos.  Or, your bank delayed critical financial transactions inhibiting your ability to wire money somewhere or enter a tournament.  Then, maybe its the subtlety of being treated like a second-class citizen based on what you do for a living.  Fact is — these are the all-too-common hazards of the poker trade almost every player faces.  It’s a level of scrutiny that most certainly never gets applied to other occupations.  Even here in Las Vegas, which should be well accustomed to the unique culture of gambling (there are most certainly hundreds if not a few thousand professional gamblers living in this city), I’ve encountered numerous awkward situations which caused me considerable hardship, entirely because the transactions were poker (or gambling) related.  I could tell you stories that you wouldn’t believe.

READ:  “Bank of America:  Too Crooked to Fail”

When big banks start screwing over the Daniel Negreanu’s of the world, what does that mean for the rest of us — including the many hundreds, or perhaps thousands of other poker players out there who don’t get publicity?  We never hear those stories.  Like Negreanu, many among us have had our credit and debit cards canceled.  We’ve been turned down for mortgages and car loans, despite demonstrating consistent earning power for years and paying taxes.  We’ve had sizable check deposits put on hold unnecessarily for ridiculously long periods of time.  However, since they’re not famous like Negreanu, no one pays much attention.

We all like to think poker’s come such a long way since the bad old days of smoky backrooms and disreputable characters.  But let’s wake up to stark reality, perhaps most glaring in the way we’re often treated by financial service companies.  Have we really escaped our undeserved reputation?  Not really.  BofA’s decision to openly insult one of the game’s verifiable superstars speaks volumes about how much further we all have to go until we’re afforded the same rights and courtesy as professionals which frankly, do not merit an equal level of reverence.  Let’s look at some other professions, for comparison sake.

Here and now, I could give you a lengthy list of professional athletes who have declared bankruptcy — leaving banks holding the bag (passed on to consumers, no doubt).  These are clear cases where banks, among other financial institutions, failed miserably.  And so, I will:

Kenny Anderson, Wally Backman, Charlie Batch, Bruse Berenyi, Riddick Bowe, Randy Brown, Mark Brunell, Bill Bucker, Jason Caffey, Dale Carter, Jack Clark, Raymond Clayborn, Derrick Coleman, Dermontti Dawson, Jim Dooley, Lenny Dykstra, Luther Elliss, Eddie Edwards, Chris Eubank, Rollie Fingers, Archie Griffin, Ray Guy, Tony Gwynn, Dorothy Hamill, Scott Harrison, Steve Howe, Harmon Killebrew, Bernie Kosar, Terry Long, Rick Mahorn, Harvey Martin, Deuce McAllister, Darren McCarthy, Denny McLain, Craig Morton, Greg Nettles, Jonny Neumann, Gaylord Perry, John Arne Riise, Andre Rison, Rumeal Robinson, Manny Sanguillen, Warren Sapp, Billy Sims, Leon Spinks, Sheryl Swoopes, Roscoe Tanner, Lawrence Taylor, Duane Thomas, Bryan Trottier, Mike Tyson, Johnny Unitas, Michael Vick, Antoine Walker, Danny White, Ray Williams, and Rick Wise.  [Note:  This list is incomplete — there are many more]

I could also give you a list of well-known celebrities who have declared personal bankruptcy — leaving banks holding much of the debt (losses also passed on to consumers).  Check out this link for 33 names that you’ll probably recognize:  “Celebrities Who Have Declared Bankruptcy

There’s even at least one major presidential candidate running who has defaulted on his loans and screwed his creditors, including banks, not once, not twice, not three times, but FOUR TIMES, not counting his other foolish investments that all went bust.  His name is Donald Trump, and he’s leading the Republican field of candidates in the polls right now.  Something tells me the brain trust at BofA won’t be pulling the plug on Trump’s bank accounts anytime soon.  They won’t be closing down the accounts of star athletes or celebrities, either.  Nope — it’s gamblers they’re worried about.

What a crock of shit.

Come to think of it, relatively few poker players I know have declared bankruptcy (and I know a great many).  Oh, I’m sure there are some who have taken that route.  But unlike the pro athletes and famous celebrities, no significant poker pro has been scrutinized widely for his or her financial failings.  Deadbeats are one thing.  Defaulting on mortgages and declaring bankruptcy is quite another.  In fact, I’m even willing to bet the level of bankruptcies (defaults, foreclosures, etc.) for professional poker players is lower than the national average.  It’s certainly lower than other high-profile professions (with guaranteed contracts), including athletes and celebrities.  The reason for this is simple.  Poker players have to manage their money and expenses responsibly.  Otherwise, they’re out of business.  Sure, some poker players struggle financially, and quite a few even end up broke.  But they pose considerably less risk than most other professions to financial institutions, maybe even less risk than the banks themselves.

Here, take a look at Negreanu’s declared net income (after entry fees and expenses) over the past three years, and last year.  Here are two tweets from Negreanu which were posted yesterday:

 

 

Hmm, I wonder if the CEO of BofA made “$6,426.74 an hour” over the past three years, as Negreanu has managed to achieve?  Perhaps he has, with Wall Street’s shameless bonuses and scandalous compensation packages.  That said, the figures quoted by Negreanu above apply only to his tournament earnings.  We can presume he enjoys a significantly higher income with his lucrative sponsorship and endorsement deals.  Put another way, I’d rather have Negreanu’s income over the next decade than many overpaid CEO’s who are one stock plunge and board vote away from being kicked in the ass right out the door.

Speaking of risks, BofA may be the riskiest investment of all given how poorly they’ve managed their affairs during the last decade.  Here, check out just a few of the misdeeds:

“Bank of America:  Too Big to Follow the Law”

“NY AG Cuomo Hits Ken Lewis, Bank of America with Fraud Charges”

“BofA Bonuses:  Bank Pays Millions, Despite Bailout”

“Bank of America to Get Millions More in Bailout Funds from Treasury”

“Bank of America Needs More Money:  Analyst”

“The Greatest Swindle Ever Sold”

At least Bank of America managed to win one prize that’s noteworthy.  They were ranked DEAD LAST in customer service in a recent study.  The scored near the bottom of the “worst customer service” rankings for the seventh consecutive year.  See:  “Customer Service Hall of Shame.”  At least they’re consistently awful.

I could go on and on about this blatant hypocrisy by the banks.  Fact is, Bank of America has demonstrated a long pattern of disgraceful deeds.  Financial institutions have exhibited a lengthy habit of unfair treatment towards poker players and other forms of gambling.  They’ve also insulted not just Daniel Negreanu, but all poker players by cutting off one of gambling’s biggest successes.  Bank of America doesn’t merit our business.  They deserve our disdain.

Bailout Scoreboard:

Bank of America — 1

Daniel Negreanu — 0

If and when, the time eventually comes when Bank of America asks for another big bailout (and it will probably happen), I have a few choice words not only for them, but for all the banks.

Fuck off.  Given your past dirty deeds, you’re not worth the credit risk.  

 

Credit:  Photo of Daniel Negreanu courtesy of NorwayGamingHill.com

Postscript:  My position is that the big banks should be broken up as trusts and should not be permitted to engage in riskier forms of financial speculation.  At the very least, previous Glass-Steagall regulations should be reinstated which would return banks to the constructive role they once played in the economy. 

 

53 Comments

  1. There are many poker players that report thousands of dollars in income and pay taxes on that income to the government yearly. When that same player tries to get a mortgage on a home that same income is usually ineligible by most banks. Poker players are discriminated against by the banks because of there chosen profession. The sad part is the government lets the banks get away with it. I say Bullshit!

  2. I entirely agree with the substance of your article I do wish you had chosen another term rather than “shylocked”—which is a pretty stereotypical greedy-Jew-banker term.

    • Nolan Replies: I certainly would not want to perpetuate that stereotype. Based on my recollection, the term is used without reference to any specific ethnic group, but more as a pejorative reference to avarice. If I get more pushback on this, I’ll make an edit. Thanks for the comment.

      — ND

  3. One thing we can agree on. The banks should have been allowed to fail. And go busted. Our ever expanding government had to have its tentacles in it to “save the day”. All we did was delay the inevitable. At some point, the entire financial house of cards will collapse around us. We have a borrowing and spending problem. At some point, we need to come to that realization, and stop doing it.

    • Really, the banks should have been allowed to fail? Really? You can stop talking right now because anything else you have to say will not be taken seriously because apparently you have a brain the size of a pea, and know nothing about what you speak.

      • Please elaborate, douchebag. We await your glorious wealth of knowledge. Otherwise, o inadequate one, YOU STFU.

        Fucking troll.

  4. We need more articles like these, but with one addition – names. If you keep calling out banks and the BoA by their corporate brand, the powers that be will continue laughing. But if you start naming names – Who is spearheading this witch-hunt? Who is the CEO of each bank? Who are the key lobbyists? Drag their names through the mud a little. Make them think twice before pulling stunts that help line their pockets.

  5. Of course the bank should have gone BK. But don’t blame them for acting in a greedy money making way b/c that is what they are. The govt officials who are to blame but that is a longer and different story.

    BofA does not owe you a loan or a checking account and can and should be able to refuse your business. Getting into your personal business though is mandated to them by the govt (see patriot act among others). They have to have reasonable standards that you are not a criminal or the bank will be liable. So it is reasonable to pick on poker players…ehh maybe maybe not. But it is a easy low hanging fruit that doesn’t cost them all that much on their scale. I am sure losing a Negreanu account is not something they want to do but if it is a cost of doing business with every other American so be it.

    Also – $6k/hr is $12m/year at 2000hr. I am willing to be moynihan makes more than that. Quick google search : BofA Board Cuts CEO Moynihan’s Pay 7.1% to $13 Million

    • Nolan Replies: The figures cited by Negreanu does not include his very lucrative endorsement deals. One presumes the agreement with PokerStars alone exceeds seven figures. At the very least this puts him close to the CEO of BofA, or at least in the financial vicinity. Moreover, I’ll take Negreanu’s vast earning power over the next few decades over some interchangeable corporate piston rod, likely to be replaced and then forgotten whenever the next crash happens.

      — ND

      • I’m not trying to compare salaries because that is pointless? how much did Pablo Escobar make or El Chapo. And btw I will take the top banker salary/comp over the top poker player ainec.

        The point is banks have to have a reasonable test as mandated by the govt and it’s a lot easier and costs a lot less to just create a set of parameters and follow them then to investigate each individual as to whether or not they’re engaged in criminal activity or money laundering. Sometimes innocent people get caught up in those parameters. Poker players/gamblers represent a very small part of the pie so it easy for banks to draw a line there and show their regulator that they are doing something.

        It has nothing to do with who is morally superior.

  6. It is a dumbfounding that a bank would treat anyones’s deposits like it appears they treated Negreanu. I haven’t experienced the same issues, perhaps because I have a net worth beyond my bankroll, other income sources and run all my poker expenses and revenue through an LLC. I do not however blame banks for haircuting gambling income when qualifying for a loan. While a player may have a expected positive ROI and therefore income, variance can decimate you in the short term and it is always possible that variance rather then skill explains past positive results or that a player’s edge may evaporate as the average skill level improves and the game evolves. By keeping my bankroll in an LLC and reporting net income after expenses for that business it looks like any other investment just like my investment real estate.

  7. Well said!

  8. Just Google BOA and racism, or lawsuits, or judgements, or anything criminal, and you could spend days reading how horrible this institution behaves.
    In Charlotte, former CEO and head crime boss, Hugh McColl was responsible for having the transit center moved from the shadows of the BOA ivory tower due to too many minorities in the vincinity.
    Also he directed the destruction and displacement of public housing in the Charlotte’s 2nd ward. BOA took over the property and never built the replacement housing.
    If you really want to vomit, look at the donations to both the Dems and Repubs….our country has been sold down the river by our critters in CONgress.

  9. This one is surely in the top ten Dalla-rants. Most posters here are focusing on the poker player angle, on Daniel. That’s amusing but not what I think is Nolan’s main point.

    BTW, the banks could not have been allowed to go bust. As much as it pained me and lots of others to see them get bailed out it had to happen. Going belly-up wouldn’t have hurt the banksters themselves. It would have crushed all those with deposits, mortgages and loans.

    But after the dust settled the big ones should have been broken up. Glass-Steagall, or something with similar clout and coherent regulations instituted. Dodd-Frank, which the current crop of greedy bastards claim is too restrictive is damn near useless.

    Keep it up Nolan. Poker is a mirror of life and I love it when you use it a springboard to bitch slap the DRB’s who need it.

    • The banks most certainly could have gone bust, and it would have hurt the banksters when all their company stock became worthless.

      The Government/Federal Reserve could have wiped out all shareholder equity, put the banks in receivership, and insured all customer deposits. That is what should have happened.

      Hopefully we won’t bail them out again in the impending crash.

  10. Some banks will drop you if they think that you might use them to violate the UIGEA. Is there a valid, legally recognized way to transfer money between the USA and other countries that is the product of legal gambling in the source country and will be used for legal gambling in the target country? I suspect the UIGEA’s tentacles are wrapped around this area, and if theirs are not, the U.S. Attorneys behind Black Friday are always looking for new publicity.

  11. Nolan:
    I think part of the issue that is not addressed is that the Department of Treasury is turning the screws on banks and insisting on completing paperwork on transactions over $10,000, and even less in some cases. (I paid a credit card bill with $500 from the same banks ATM, because I didn’t have a check; and they wrote that up). There main focus is on Money Laundering.
    I am not disputing anything you are saying. I appreciate all perspective in all of your articles.

  12. The only problem with your analysis is that I feel this action by Bank of America and the actions of Chase and other banks is not of the banks instigation. Instead, the evidence indicates this is another example of President Obama’s over-reaching Department of Justice taking further liberties with Operation Choke Point since the FDIC in July of 2014 added on-line gambling to the list of merchant categories as being associated with high-risk activity. Just as Chase shut down porn related bank accounts earlier. Though its intended target in 2013 was Payday Lenders charging high interest rates, it has been expanding its reach.

  13. While not related to this issue recently I had a big issue with Capital One in Dallas. It was the Saturday before the WPT event at the Bellagio earlier this month and I needed $8500 more for the buy-in. I had about 4k at home. Anyway, they would not give me the $8500 saying being a Saturday they don’t keep that much money and ended up giving me $4000. WTF I have over a million dollars in this fucker and I can’t get less than 1% of my money. I was able to go to another location later that morning (having to cancel a tennis match to do so which kind of pissed me off) to get the rest but give me a freaking break. Nonetheless, was able to get enough for trip but pain in the ass to do so.

  14. I wonder, could this have anything to do with Daniel’s recent (this past summer) interaction with the politician’s in California. I want to think not , but it sure is something to think about. We all know the bankers and the so called ethical government are in bed together. Let’s hope that this is just my opinion and not the truth.

  15. Only comment is that the banks did not ask for the money. They were, in fact, forced to by Hank – treasury secretary – or Ben – federal reserve chairman – or both.

  16. I have zero doubt this article was orchestrated by Negreanu. Nolan Dalla was merely a willing mouthpiece. I find it ironic how Negreanu has decided to become some “voice of righteousness” over the last half decade, pertaining to the ethics of banks and other poker website owners, when Daniel endorses arguably the most crooked of all. I’m close friends with a retired software developer who was one of many that helped design random number generators. He is also a poker player, and he has filled me in on the inherent flaws of the software, specifically its vulnerability to manipulation. Of course, Jokerstars loves to brag about bringing in some third party on random occasions to conduct statistical analysis to verify the randomness in the algorithms. Of course, they only oversee the hole cards that are dealt, the frequency in which players are dealt premium hole cards, and how often they end up being the winning hand at showdown, in comparison to stats for those hole cards in real life. I’m sure no payoffs are happening here. Sarcasm aside, I’m obviously a poker player as well, and I can see what goes on at jokerstars. At least Lederer and the other criminals at Full Tilt have been exposed. Jokerstars has become a “too big to fail” poker entity. They are robbing too much money from people around the world, to the point where other criminal governments and banks have decided to take a piece of their pie, and in return, allow them to continue their pyramid scheme. From the manipulated cards, to the jokerstars collusion, Daniel has the audacity to try to claim the moral high ground, as he gets paid to promote the repugnant atrocity to poker, that is jokerstars.

    • And I will add another little tidbit for those who are considering depositing any of your hard earned money on jokerstars: Did you know that Amaya (the online gaming company that now owns jokerstars) CEO David Baazov was investigated by Canadian authorities for publicly trading Amaya, before they announced their interest in buying out jokerstars?

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