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 Poker
Player Jailed
A professional poker
player who owes more
than $100,000 in
back child support
payments has turned
himself in to
authorities and been
placed in jail.
A felony arrest
warrant had been
issued for the
so-called “Bad Beat
Deadbeat,” Scott A.
Obst of Las Vegas,
Nevada, USA, by
authorities in the
State of Wisconsin,
after the
39-year-old poker
pro failed to appear
in court in
Wisconsin to face
charges he owes
$160,000 in back
child support
payments for a
teen-aged boy he
fathered.
The boy, Andrew,
lives with his
mother, Connie, in
Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, USA.
According to media
reports, Obst waived
extradition from
Nevada and
voluntarily turned
himself in to
Wisconsin
authorities last
week.
The surrender came
not long after a
Milwaukee television
reporter confronted
Obst last month
about the payments
in a “60
Minutes”-style
ambush interview
outside Obst’s Las
Vegas condo.
In that interview,
Obst denied
knowledge of the
arrest warrant
before running away
from the reporter.
After returning to
Wisconsin, Obst was
jailed after failing
to come up with
$160,000 bail, the
same amount he owes
in back child
support payments,
media reports said.
“Here we have a mom
and son just getting
by, while the dad’s
out in Vegas living
the high life,” said
Peter M. Wolff, the
attorney for the
boy’s mother. “It
tells you what kind
of deadbeat he is.”
=A0 Obst was charged
last August with
four felony counts
of failure to
support a child, but
failed to appear in
Waukesha County
Circuit Court in
Wisconsin to face
the charges.
The case goes back
to 1991, when Obst
was ordered to pay
child support in a
paternity case for
the illegitimate son
he fathered with a
woman 17 years ago.
In 2003, Obst went
to the Wisconsin
Court of Appeals to
challenge a lower
court’s ruling that
increased his child
support from $1,500
a month to $4,000 a
month, but the
appeals court
refused to overturn
the lower court’s
decision.
The appeals court
ruled that Obst, who
makes $400,000 a
year distributing
adult films and
playing poker
professionally,
tried to hide his
true income from the
court, the boy and
the boy’s mother.
Last week, in
ordering Obst to
jail, a judge said
that Obst not only
owes $160,000 in
back child support
payments, but also
owes an additional
$12,000 to the State
of Wisconsin.
The $12,000 is the
total amount in
welfare payments
made to the boy and
his mother by the
state–money that
wouldn’t have had to
been paid had Obst
fulfilled his
financial
obligations.
Obst lives in Las
Vegas with his wife
and two small
children.
Filed under:
Poker News
---
Tom Somach,
www.pokerhelper.com
Originally published
March 9, 2008 11:33
pm EST
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