Ethan “Rampage” Yau will “one day” learn who is trustworthy, but not this day, apparently. The popular poker vlogger tweeted out his “Scammer of 2024” award recipient, and the winner is a bookie who allegedly owes him thousands of dollars.
Neema Khazaie, an agent for Diamond Sportsbook, is supposedly refusing to pay out his winnings after willfully accepting deposits during a lengthy downswing.
Poker Vlogger Allegedly Scammed
Rampage, who went from low-stakes to playing in nosebleed games on shows such as Hustler Casino Live within months, claims Khazaie provided “great customer service” for 6-8 months while the vlogger lost “piles” of money. That all allegedly changed when the gambling luck shifted the other way.
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner claims he attempted to make a withdrawal from his sports betting account on Oct. 7. But he was “met with some excuses.”
Khazaie’s refusal to send him the requested money was shocking to Yau, who seemingly approved of how his agent had treated him up to that point. But he continued to place bets and went on an upswing of around $30,000. The sportsbook, he wrote, then began to limit his action and classified him as a “sharp,” someone who has an edge betting on sports.
Sportsbooks often ban or limit the action of sharps to prevent against losing too much money to one customer. But Rampage was, as he said, down $600,000, so he was confused why one upswing that didn’t come close to covering his losses would cause the sportsbook to classify him as a sharp.
He then bet $50,000 on Donald Trump to win the presidency at -220 odds, and Trump would go on to win the election over Kamala Harris in an Electoral College landslide. The high-stakes poker player claims his account balance with Diamond Sportsbook had jumped to approximately $138,000 with $80,000 of it being his deposit.
Rampage said he attempted to withdraw the funds but never received his money. He shared, and later deleted, text messages from Oct. 7 and 8 in which Khazaie acknowledges his client is owed about $134,000.
The money hadn’t been sent as of Monday, but the agent sent Yau a lengthy text message with some excuses, but did offer to send him $30,000-$40,000 “within a few days.” Rampage then vowed to one day learn from his mistakes.
Yau’s had his ups and downs in poker and dealing with alleged scammers. He went on a massive downswing prior to the Hustler Casino Live Million Dollar Game in May, which caused him to back out of playing. But he’s also had plenty of triumphs, including winning a WSOP bracelet, cashing for over $2.8 million in live tournaments over the past three years, and making the rare quick jump from low-stakes to high-stakes.
He even won a Charity Series of Poker (CSOP) tournament last week in Las Vegas. Perhaps his next accomplishment will be to cut the scammers out of his life.
