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To say that listeners of the popular Quadjacks radio podcast show were in shock during Wednesday night’s interview with a registered sex offender dismissed from the Epic Poker League would be an understatement.
For those thinking that Michael Divita would come onto the show trying to gain sympathy, he was doing anything but.
Divita served a prison sentence nearly 20 years ago for lewd behavior on a minor, for whom the poker player claimed he was having a relationship with the girl’s mother.
“I did poke her, but not the minor,” Divita said at one point, in an attempt to use a poker anology. “Oh that was sooo bad,” he then confessed immediately.
Divita was also seemingly mocking the Latino population by responding to a listener with a last name of Spanish origin. “
For a good two minutes, he responded to the individual’s question, speaking in a very bad Spanish accent in an obvious attempt to mock.
“HE'S A FUCKING RACIST PSYCHO”, a listener lashed out.
"He did himself no favors with that interview," noted Ace King.
Divita also claimed at one point to have served a three-year prison sentence for violating his probation. He said it was all due to his reporting to the wrong hospital for a checkup.
At one point during the interview Divita suggested prosecutors attempted to show that he had engaged in lewd behavior with the original minor in the court house itself.
Divita denies all the allegations against him.
(Listen to the interview here) – This interview alone is well worth the price of yearly membership to gain access to all Quadjacks archived podcasts.
Divita joined QuadJacks Poker Radio to give his side on the controversy of his Epic Poker League exclusion. He denies having chosen to voluntary with draw from the main event, claiming he was pressured into it by the Epic Poker League.
“Who walks away from a $20,000 seat?” He asked on the program. “It’s just not done. It’s not even a little bit true.”
Steve Martin, head of the Ethics Committee for Epic Poker and a former US Prosecutor, did suggest he was given limited options during an interview that immediately followed Divita’s.
“Divita is accused of committing what might possibly be the worst possible crime that a person could commit,” Martin said, implying there could be no correlations between the Chino Rheem matter and Michael Divita situation.
“I simply gave Mr. Divita the choice and potentially the outcome for him if he chose to move forward. I gave him the option of taking the money or that he could file for an eligibility review and in all likelihood action would have been taken against him.”
Martin noted that Divita has had ongoing criminal conduct that needed to be addressed.
Divita was in fact arrested for lewd behavior with another minor in 2008, this time a boy age 15. Divita set he was set up.
“It was a money grab,” he said.
The hosts at some point during the interview appeared to be disguising their discomfort but were especially fair and balanced, allowing Divita every option to give his side of the story.
Listeners were less sympathetic, however. Gambling911.com counted the word “Pervert” or some variation of that word including “Sicko” used a few dozen times.
The interview lasted well over an hour.
- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com
