Barcelona Hotel Thefts During PartyPoker Millions!

The Barcelona hotel which was at the centre of numerous high-profile theft and laptop hacking incidents during PokerStars annual EPT a few years back has once again been named in a theft from a poker player – this time at the partypoker MILLIONS stop in the city last month.

The claim was made on the 2+2 forum by Tapio ‘PikkuHUMPPA’ Vihakas who described how 2000 euros was stolen from his hotel room:

"I was at Barcelona playing partypoker Millions. I won the package from partypoker so I was staying in Hotel Arts. Last evening we went to eat with my wife. I was keeping my money in my laptop bag (hidden there)."

He explained further:

"At this time there was 4700 EUR. The housekeeping cleaned our room when we were at town. Next morning we had an early flight to home and I was going to transfer money from my laptop bag to my wallet. Then I noticed that 2000 EUR was missing."

The incident brought to mind the disgraceful 2013 incidents during PokerStars EPT stop, where the same hotel – a 44-storey, 5-star Ritz-Carlton property – was the scene of at least two laptop hacks involving highstakes poker pros, Finnish legend Jens ‘Jeans’ Kyllönen also taking to the 2+2 forum to warn others of “one of the most disturbing things I've gone through in my life”.

As he wrote back in 2013:

“…both for me and Ignat Liviu (0human0) the same thing happened… room key doesn’t work, go down to reception for a new key, come to the room to notice the laptop missing, go back down, in less than 10min go back up, and the laptop has reappeared”.

Kyllönen’s post, which included an lengthy and detailed description of what happened afterwards, spawned a 55-page, 1372-post thread – which included claims that PokerStars lied about contacting police on his behalf.

One poster summed up the general mood at the time, writing:

"A high-stakes player gets hacked. PokerStars does nothing, even tries to cover it up. How much do you think will they care about you when **** hits the fan?"

The thread contains similar stories throughout of thefts, many believed to be inside jobs involving security and housekeeping, with the poker stops seemingly an attractive proposition for those responsible - TripAdvisor reviews of the hotel containing very few negative comments and none seemingly theft-related.

The laptop hacks of 2013 were believed to be part of an attempt to upload trojans related to superuser-style scams against highstakes professional poker players such as Kyllönen, and therefore unlikely to be related directly to the many cash thefts which have occurred in the Hotel Arts over the years.

One other high-profile poster, Paul Newey, related how his girlfriend’s diamond ring disappeared from the Arts, writing:

"On Tuesday 3rd September I was playing poker & my girlfriend was at the beach. When she returned, her diamond ring had grown legs, walked off the table & disappeared out of the room… There certainly appears to be some security issues with this hotel."

Although such problems can happen anywhere, the fact that PokerStars, and now partypoker, are returning year after year to the same hotel needs to be seriously looked at – although players taking more care of their valuables would aid matters considerably!