Molly Bloom (36) the New York poker hostess dubbed by the media “Poker Princess” for her role in a sensational illegal poker ring bust in New York last year, escaped a jail term Friday when she appeared before Judge Jesse M. Furman for sentencing.
The court was told that she played only a small role in the $100 million gambling ring in which 34 defendants were indicted, and that she has since settled to a more normal salaried life very different to her activities last year, when she rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous, along with super-wealthy international criminals.
Bloom entered a guilty plea deal with prosecutors last December, agreeing to forfeit $25,000 and appear for sentencing. Judge Furman accepted her plea, fined her $1,000 and sentenced her to a year of probation and 200 hours of community service.
During the hearing the judge questioned Bloom about a book she has written titled Molly”s Game, due for publication in June this year.
Judge Furman said he wanted to be sure that what she had written would not conflict with the contrition she expressed. He asked if there was anything in Molly”s Game that would be likely to subsequently trouble him.
Bloom assured him there was not.
Bloom’s attorney said Bloom had conducted games legally by only accepting tips until a co-host insisted that they begin taking a cut of the pot or a fee known as a “rake,” which lasted only a few months before she was forced from the games.
He said she had lost all of the $1 million that the government said she made through the games, and she now earns $19 an hour working at a friend’s business.
A promotion for the book on the HarperCollins website boasted it would reveal how a “petite brunette from Loveland, Colorado, ran the highest stakes, most exclusive poker game Hollywood had ever seen – she was its mistress, its lion tamer, its agent, and its oxygen. Everyone wanted in, few were invited to play.”
The publisher’s blurb promised to take readers inside the poker games Bloom ran in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Las Vegas “…until it all came crashing down around her.”
Bloom’s sentencing follows heavy jail sentences imposed on the principals of the gambling ring on Wednesday and Thursday last week (see previous reports).