Young Poker Player Jailed for Assault and Theft of $70,000

A young man from Singapore has been sentenced to around 17 weeks in jail for hosting an illegal poker game that ended in a violent manner. The man assaulted one of his fellow players, took his phone, and used it to transfer around $70,000 to his own bank account.

26-year-old, Emmanuel Santhakumar Kesigan, hosted a poker session at a friend’s residence which had at least 18 players across two tables to begin with. From the outset, this was illegal, as it breached the government’s COVID-19 guidelines which banned gatherings of more than 5 people at a time.

One of the games continued well into the early hours of the morning- and at some point along the way, Kesigan became convinced one of the players was cheating. Either that, or he was just so angry that he was losing that he decided to accuse him out of pure spite. We don’t know for sure which was the case.

After accusing his friend of cheating, Kesigan assaulted him, possibly breaking his nose and causing some tissue damage. He then took the victim’s phone, where he accessed his online banking. After using the app to increase his transfer limit, he transferred himself around $70,000- which was the equivalent of roughly 15 buy-ins to the games they had been playing.

Bizarrely- Kesigan then forced the victim to sign a hand-written document that claimed the victim had cleared a “debt” that he owed Kesigan. This part of the ordeal was filmed by the perpetrator in an attempt to create proof that the transaction was legitimate.

Just a tip- a document that you have hastily scrawled down whilst you carry out an assault on the individual singing it, probably won’t hold up very well in court. Luckily, the court did not acknowledge the assault contract as being a legally binding agreement amongst gentlemen.

If they had, it would’ve been an interesting update to the confines of contract law- simply beat people into signing whatever mad document you like, you could have their house signed over in minutes!

Kesigan could face around $15,000 in fines and up to 6 years in jail for these charges.