Poker Personality Nolan Dalla Conned Out of $37k by ‘Notorious’ Peter Falcone
Nolan Dalla has come forward to declare he was conned out of $37,000 by one time best friend Peter Falcone.
Dalla writes on his blog in a three-part series admitting his vulnerability.
Peter Falcone.
That’s a name I’ll never forget. And it’s a name you should commit to memory. I suspect this slime might be planning his next con out there somewhere — and his next victim could be you.
Dalla, who has written over 200 columns for Card Player magazine, says he befriended Falcone back in 2006.
I was the perfect target.
Trusting? Check. Distracted? Check. Cash on hand? Check. Stupid? Check-mate.
The poker columnist also bets heavily on sports and discusses the introduction to what he claims was ultimately a $37,000 scheme.
“I’ve got a big thing I’m working on right now,” Falcone said. “There’s a guy I know back in New York’s diamond district. He owns several of the jewelry shops. He’s an action junkie.”
So, what does this have to do with me, I wondered.
“He’s an old Jewish guy. Orthodox. Thing is, he doesn’t trust the New York bookies. He’s been burned by them a few times. So, he gets down through me. I make a lot of bets for him here in Las Vegas. That’s why I see you a lot around sportsbooks.”
“You bet on sports,” said Falcone stating the obvious. “How much can you get down on a single game?”
At the time, I had three or perhaps four offshore accounts plus access to the betting windows in Las Vegas, so “getting down” a high figure wasn’t a problem.
“Probably $3,000 a game,” I answered. Since I’d bet that round figure many times before, this was a number I was comfortable with.
“Tell you what. How about if I give you a few of his plays and you bet them,” Falcone suggested. “That way I don’t have to run all over town every morning. Besides, I’m in Los Angeles half the time. You can just take all the action yourself when I’m not around.”
“So, what’s my end,” I asked.
“He pays me $1,000 a week in cash — win or lose,” Falcone said. “Then, when he has a winning week, I get ten percent of the take.”
“Does the guy always pay up when he loses?” I asked.
“Of course, he does. The man owns half of 47th Street.”
But how in the hell can the guy hope to ever make a profit doing that?” I asked. “There’s no way this guy can win in the long run.”
“He doesn’t care,” Falcone said. “The man just wants to be in action. He probably loses a quarter million a year.”
The “New York jeweler” got himself into a deep hole eventually and Falcone feared he would not be getting paid. Worse, Dalla began to question whether this “jeweler” really existed.
Dalla’s worst fears were eventually realized after contacting his friend Betsy who had initially introduced him to Falcone. She confessed to also being owed a significant amount of money from Falcone.
A few days later, Betsy and I met in Las Vegas and I finally learned the frightening truth about Peter Falcone. Originally from New York, he had conned his way through life, running one scam after another. He’d even served time in prison. Falcone’s methods were so dubious, he even screwed his parents out of their savings. He even skipped bail once and the family lost all equity in their home.
This guy wasn’t a snake. He was a fucking dragon.
Falcone, it appears, has been a regular on various sports betting forums over the years, doing onto others as he has done to Dalla.
Falcone was outed on the SBR Forum back in 2011.
One member of that popular forum wrote:
Peter Falcone hails from NYC and currently lives in malibu/ vegas he has scammed every sports forum he has posted on totaling somewhere near the reins of 1million dollars... i know for a facr he has scammed 425k any info leading to the capture od this fa\*\*ot , and I can promise you i will pay close to 4 figures... thank you
Poker player Dan Druff revealed even more on the PokerFraudAlert.com forum last year:
For those of you that don't know, Peter Falcone -- aka peterdc, actionjunkie (2+2), and apparently recently limpcallcallfold on 2+2, is a big-time sportsbetting scammer. He has nailed victims in both the poker community and outside the poker community for 4, 5, and 6-figure sums.
Peter's victims are extremely diverse. He has scammed people in poker -- both big names and small. He committed a "romance scam" against a really rich woman who basically invented the 900/976 phone sex industry. He even is rumored to have scammed comedian Louie Anderson.
Falcone was arrested a few months after Dan Druff's post with a bond of $400,000. Those charges were serious, Dallas points out, but not serious enough to keep the guy off the streets apparently.
Dalla notes:
Peter Falcone is out there. Watching. Waiting. Lurking. Preparing to pull off a new con.
- Allejando Botticelli, Gambling911.com
