Watch: Judge Rips Into Sports Bettor, Poker Player Steve 'Stevesbets' Jacobs: Allegedly Posed as 'Whale'

A heated courtroom exchange, with nearly a million dollars at stake, features defendant/respondent Steven Jacobs and plaintiff/appellant Oscar Jones’ attorney with a judge ripping into the defendant. 

As a poker player, Jacobs has long been known as one of the better heads-up no-limit hold'em players in the world.  Reading the TwoPlusTwo posting forum, some in there have questioned his character.

"You're not a stockbroker, you're not a licensed stock broker," the judge informs Jacobs who attempted to clear his name and convince the appellate court to rubber stamp the decision of the lower court, which upheld the release.

Pro sports bettor Gadoon “Spanky” Kyrollos explained the case last year.

"As background, my buddy Oscar Jones met Steve through a personal connection and was under the impression that Steve was a 'whale' that we believed we could flip to get down.

"In layman's terms, a 'whale' is a losing player that can bet big on all of our behalf because the sportsbook, seeing his history of losing bets, has given him increased betting limits, hoping he will lose even more.

"We would send Oscar the plays, Oscar would send them to Steve Jacobs and Steve Jacobs would then punch them in his account. (For those unaware of the betting landscape, I rely on guys like Steve Jacobs to bet, given DraftKings (DK) doesn’t allow me to bet at their establishment because I win). Oscar even gave Steve $82,375 of his own money to get the partnership started.

"After a few months, and with the benefit of our consultation (via Oscar), naturally Steve won a substantial amount of money.

"Fast forward 2 months to when it's time to settle up the proceeds of our partnership. Slight problem – Steve claimed DK was holding up the payout. He claimed that DK was asking him to sign an “affidavit of eligibility”. Oscar and I each advised him to file a complaint with the New York Gaming Board. Initially he refused, but we were insistent that he take up the matter with the regulatory authorities, and eventually he agreed to do that."

DraftKings issued its own comment on the matter, noting that Jacobs name was not disclosed in the complaint against them.

“The complaint filed against DraftKings in March 2024 by an unnamed plaintiff is full of inaccuracies and baseless allegations. In the complaint, the plaintiff does not identify any DraftKings employee, but rather alleges on ‘information and belief’ that an unknown and unidentified DraftKings employee provided private account information to ‘Spanky’ and to additional unnamed third parties. DraftKings has found no evidence of anyone at DraftKings providing plaintiff’s information to a third-party, and DraftKings denies acknowledging any such ‘security breach’. Nor has DraftKings uncovered any improper activity by a DraftKings employee, or any activity on plaintiff’s account, relating to the allegedly unauthorized change of the email address associated with plaintiff’s DraftKings account. DraftKings is moving to dismiss the complaint by June 28.”

Spanky offered his take on last week's court appearance.

"Seems Steve is weaponizing the justice system to defend his fraud. I honestly can’t believe Steve represented himself."

Watch the hearing below.