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PokerStars Accuses Gordon Vayo of Forgery – Vayo Drops Suit Against PokerStars

If you’ve been following the story of Gordon Vayo vs. PokerStars, the story took an unusual twist recently. According to reports, Vayo has now dropped his lawsuit against PokerStars’ parent company and it now appears that Vayo may have forged the documents that he’s been using this whole time as his defense in his suit.

Vayo Drops Lawsuit Against PokerStars

Some of you may be aware of the legal battle between 2016 WSOP Main Event runner-up Gordon Vayo and PokerStars. PokerStars withheld $692,000 from Vayo after they alleged that he played in 2017 SCOOP #1-H over a VPN connection.

Vayo has been asserting this whole time that he was not playing in the US as PokerStars claims but rather that he was in Canada. When PokerStars asked for proof, Vayo submitted documents that supposedly showed he was in Canada.

Well, now it appears that those documents that Vayo sent PokerStars were forged documents. Upon confronting Vayo about the forged documents, Vayo immediately dropped his lawsuit against PokerStars’ parent company and his legal counsel also quit the case.

PokerStars Files Notion to Recover Legal Expenses

On November 12, Rational Entertainment Enterprises Limited (REEL) filed a notion to try and recoup approximately $280,000 in court costs and legal expenses from Vayo. The notion stated that REEL received a tip from a third party that the documents that Vayo submitted were forged.

Vayo submitted a copy of his internet service bill that was supposedly from Bell Canada and a copy of a bank statement that was from First Republic Bank showing transactions from Canada. However, REEL got in contact with the person that forged these documents and he admitted that he helped Vayo setup a VPN connection and forget documents.

The forger sent PokerStars the original bank statement that showed transactions from California on the dates in dispute rather than them being from Canada as shown on the documents sent to them. According to the notion, the forger “swapped out those transactions for a list of transactions from a Canada-based bank statement, and then adjusted a few other digits throughout the statements.”

Vayo was confronted by PokerStars on October 14th about the forgery and then he voluntarily dropped his lawsuit against the company. A couple of weeks later, his lawyer resigned and now he is being represented by the law office of William A. Bowen from California.

These Revelations Change Everything Regarding the Perceptions of Case

Until these recent revelations, there were many people trying to use this as the latest example of how PokerStars is shortchanging their customers. Dating back to changes in their rewards program a couple of years ago, players and poker fans used this as a way to fan the “anti-PokerStars” sentiment.

These latest charges flip the script in PokerStars favor. They have long held a policy against connecting to their servers via VPN and this appears to be a true case where a player was trying to circumvent these policies.

However, this is not just a matter of a player trying to get by a VPN ban. It appears that Vayo may have intentionally tried to defraud the World’s Largest Poker Site in order to get the prize that he won at the tables. Unfortunately, he won it in a way that violated the terms of service.

What’s worst about this is that it severely tarnishes the reputation of Vayo. If he had simply played on a VPN that would be one thing, but it appears he took the additional steps to try and cover those tracks illegally. Forgery by itself is a crime and something that does not look good for the game as a whole. Poker already has a suspect reputation and the last thing it needs is people that are committing criminal acts to try and win money.

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