An Australian poker player has successfully sued four other poker players after the quartet went to Facebook to call the victim a ‘thief’ over a series of poker related incidents in Las Vegas and Sydney.
I really hope that Sheldon Adelson never reads my Facebook page, whilst eating his caviar on toast, after a landmark case of defamation climaxed in Australia this week.
The world of poker had better watch out, after the Australian poker player, Nicholas Polias, successfully sued four people, and earned $340,000 in damages, after being called a ‘thief’ on Facebook.
With $82,983 in total live tournament earnings, this is his biggest win to date.
Polias’s troubles began during a trip to Las Vegas in 2012. According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Polias shared a room with fellow poker player Tobin Ryall, when the pair got embroiled in a dispute over $2k that went missing from the hotel room. The money was later found stuffed in a soft toy (I never knew money had legs), and despite Polias expressing his innocence; Ryall took to Facebook to accuse his roommate of being involved in the soft toy conspiracy.
If Polias thought that act of slander was going to hurt, things got worse. Andy Hun Wei Lee shared the post, and then poured more petrol onto the flames by accusing Polias of short-changing a player during a high stakes cash game at The Star Casino, Sydney. The allegations of cheating were also backed up, and spread by two more poker players: Sandy Jan and Rhys Gould.
Polias told the quartet to remove the Facebook posts, but they refused. Polias then sued them for aggravated damages and was awarded $340,000 by NSW Supreme Court Justice Stephen Rothman. Ryall was ordered to pay $125,000; Lee had to pony up $130,000; Jan lost $50, and Gould $35,000.
“In some respects, the confined nature of the readership made the hurt and distress (and the need for vindication) even greater than would be case if it were a publication at large and not to persons who knew and dealt with (Mr. Polias) on a regular basis,” Justice Rothman was quoted as saying in The Herald. ‘I am satisfied that the plaintiff suffered significant damage to his reputation and felt significantly distressed.’
Outside the courtroom, the victim told reporters that he was’ ecstatic’ with the verdict, before describing how the accusations led to a period of depression, and counseling.
“People should be very careful what they write on social media because it spreads like wildfire. On Facebook it’s always there. It always remains.” Said Polias. “I hope this sets a precedent to those wishing to harm an individual’s reputation through the tool of social media. Bullies should mind their words and be very careful whom they pick to bully. In this case they surely picked the wrong person.”
For what it’s worth, I just want it on record that I think Sheldon Adelson is a wonderful man, without whom the world would be a poorer place, and I am regularly fraped on Facebook (whatever that means).
