By Miguel Rapetti
Sep 24, 2023, 11:40 PM EDT
Professional poker player Rob Mercer, in the public eye for having lied about having a terminal illness and accumulating funds on GoFundme, appears to be punished by the platform by having his funds withdrawn and returned to all those who made the donations.
Mercer had managed to accumulate between $30,000 and $50,000 for a supposedly terminal colon cancer illness, but an investigation by a Las Vegas newspaper added to vague responses from the press and fellow players forced him to confess that his illness was a lie.
In fact, he originally ended up using the money to go to the Main Stage of the World Series of Poker, which had a total entry fee of $10,000 and the rest would have been spent in the casinos in Las Vegas.
Now, according to a GoFundMe spokesperson for TMZ, after the scam was discovered, clients received their money back and will prohibit Mercer from raising new money in similar campaigns.
“On GoFundMe there is zero tolerance for those who exploit the generosity of our community,” said the source, adding that they regularly collaborate with the competent authorities in order to prevent their public from being affected by irregularities similar to this one.
The subsequent interview where Rencer apologized for having lied earned him public rejection and it did not matter that he now stated that in reality he does suffer from breast cancer, and that he had not revealed it previously because he was ashamed of suffering from a disease that is common in women.
If the news of her breast cancer is true, she will have to find another means of collecting to deal with the disease, now that she will no longer be able to access the GoFundMe platform.