Sometime poker pro Michael Borovetz, 43, has been arrested after scamming travellers using Newark Airport by ‘borrowing’ money from them to pay for a hotel room after claiming his flight had been cancelled.
Borovetz’s latest victim was a 55-year-old New Jersey man who was temporarily taken in by Borovetz’s tale of woe last Tuesday (3rd April) and gave him $200 after being approached by the con-man at baggage claim.
Soon after handing over the cash the victim started to regret his decision and reported the incident to Port Authority who were able to confirm that this was not the first time Michael Borowetz had been found pulling this stunt, having targeted a San Jose man there last June. After having determined Borovetz was at the Newark Airport Marriott the authorities went to his hotel room last Thursday and placed him under arrest.
This is not the first time Borovetz, who has won a WSOPC Gold Ring and has almost $600k in live tournament winnings, has been in hot water with the authorities over his airport scams, and he has a criminal record dating back to the early 2000’s for various misdemeanours.
The Sad Story of a Degenerate Gambler
Some of you reading this might recognize the name Michael Borovetz, as back in 2014 he was the subject of an epic 163 page thread on 2+2 where he was outed for a similar aiport scam in Las Vegas.
The OP described Borovetz’s elaborate back story about having been in town for a few weeks looking for an apartment after coming to Vegas for an interview with DuPont but was now stuck as his flight had been cancelled and he needed money, which he promised to pay back with 100% interest. During their exchange Borovetz took one of the OP’s business cards for his contact details (this was another ploy of Borovetz’s – he would take a victim’s business card and present it to a future mark, telling them that he had just been for an interview with the person who’s card he had taken).
As the thread unfolded and Borovetz was identified, the man himself took to the forum (his 2+2 name is PSUMike1999) to admit his guilt. He followed this up by making several lengthy posts detail his decade and half of total gambling degeneracy.
Apparently Borovetz fell into gambling after graduating from Penn State in Chemical Engineering in 1999. After graduation he really did get a job with DuPont in Iowa but found himself hating it and so started to spend more and more time at the nearby riverboat casinos where he became chronically addicted to Pai Gow. Cue a series of disasterous life choices, lost jobs, sleeping in casino lobbies or under bridges, arrests, rehab, skipping bail, and general degeneracy. One a couple of occasions he was able to turn a few hundred into a six-figure sum, but always lost it within 24 hours. He did find, however, that he had something of a talent for poker – but once again every and any penny he won was lost at the pits.
The last post Borovetz made on 2+2 was a thread he started in late December 2014 titled “It is time for a permanent change to my life, it has to be done”
Unfortunately it woudl appear that Michael Borovetz has yet to conquer his gambling demons and is due back in Essex County Municipal Court on April 17th.
Source : www.highstakesdb.com
