Frat Bros Create Absolute Poker, Become Absolute Millionaires, Then Absolutely Broke

What brewed from the backroom of a bar in Missoula other than counterfeit liquor created an online craze that was worth millions… and then cost its creators everything in the end. Six fraternity brothers from the University of Montana created the Absolute Poker site which was seized by the US Department of Justice along with all their assets, liquor and cocaine. Yes, there’s cocaine in this story. We’ll get there soon.

The six bros, well they’re not actual bros just frat bros which actually makes things ten times worse, started Absolute Poker in Costa Rica. They traded up boring and cold Montana for the beaches of Costa Rica. Makes total sense! The bros themselves, Garin Gustafson, Gary Thompson, Phil Tom, Shane Blackford and Scott Tom, found investors on bro-cation to Costa Rica. Other bros from the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity such as Pete Barovich – Absolute Poker’s Chief Marketing Officer, Brent Beckley and Oscar Hilt Tatum IV (sounds like royalty!) got into the sausage-fest party.

Their aim was to bypass an Interstate Wire Act of 1961 which prohibited sports betting and games of chance but it was argued poker was a game of skill—a skill in being a better bullshitter than the next guy! And the concept of skimming around the act worked! They raised $750,000 in start up capital from sources all around the world and then this is where the cocaine comes in! Within a few short years, their site was worth 30 million dollars and was bringing in roughly $800,000 a day. This success meant fast cars, hot girls, hard parties and yes cocaine! Finally, we got to the cocaine.

But it didn’t stop there! No sir! You can’t stop a bro when a bro wants to party and these bros loved parties! So they planned the next step to take their company public for some seriously bigger money. An office was set up in Vancouver with some established shareholders on the board and the site was growing 100 percent in value reaching $100 million. You know what that means, right? More cocaine!

But it was not too long before Canada’s FBI (wait, they have an FBI? I thought they only had those red guys that ride moose… hmm, go figure) launched an investigation as new laws regarding the internet were coming into place and that’s when things started going to shit for the bros. However, it wasn’t until the real FBI, the American ones, busted the bros on an attempt to circumvent the law. Ouch. The bros ended up paying $731 million in fines to the US government (wait… what about the Canandians?!).

But the bros however have one final ace up the sleeve, since the Department of Justice concluded that the original Wire Act only applied to sports bets… which was what the bros had originally based their site and business around.

Nice one Department of Justice. Great bait and switch! And you got all the money, too!