She was dealt her best hand yet!
“Poker princess” Molly Bloom avoided jail time when he was sentenced Friday to a year probation after admitting to being a key player in an illegal $100 million high-stakes gambling ring that catered to A-list celebs like Leonardo DiCaprio and deep-pocketed Wall Street financiers.
Dressed in a stunning white skirt-suit that showed plenty of leg, the sexy, well-manicured sister of Olympic skier Jeremy Bloom told Manhattan federal Judge Jesse Furman that she “made mistakes” and claimed the humiliating experience of being arrested has made her a better person.
“It’s been a great opportunity for growth, and I’ve learned many valuable lessons,” Bloom, 36, told Furman shortly before he handed down a probation sentence that requires to perform 200 hours of community service.
The judge, however, warned Bloom about her tell-all memoir “Molly’s Game” that’s supposed hit bookshelves this June, saying he hoped she “really learned” her “lesson” and that the book wouldn’t take a flip attitude towards her crimes.
Her lawyer, James Walden, claimed the book is just a “cautionary tale” about a “small-town girl” from Colorado who was thrown into the “strange and bizarre world” of high-stakes poker. He claimed Bloom is in severe debt – which includes having to forfeit $125,000 in poker proceeds to the feds – and hopes the book will help pay it off.
Bloom was well-known for hosting under-the–radar games for celebs including DiCaprio, Alex Rodriquez and Tobey Maguire, as well as the filthy rich.
Walden told the judge that one celeb she threw games for was a horrible boss, saying — without naming names — that he was “pampered … with a lust for money.”
Bloom declined comment afterward, throwing on a pair of sunglasses after leaving the courthouse. Surrounded by an entourage of dozens of family members and friends, she then walked briskly into a black Cadillac Escalade parked outside that whisked her away.
She admits moving the poker games from Los Angeles to Manhattan in 2009 and helping run them out of two swanky hotels.
“Huge sums of money were wagered at these games,” prosecutors said in recent legal papers. “For a time, her games were likely the biggest games in New York.”
The fed say she was initially paid “large tips” by her wealthy clientele and that her role in the gambling operation included hiring cocktail waitresses and dealers and catering to players’ whims.
But after poker pro Edwin Ting joined her as a partner in 2010, she was pressured by him into taking a “rake” — or percentage — from pots that routinely grew as high as tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars a pop, the feds added.
Ting — who was sentenced to five months in January after copping a plea in the case — insisted Bloom take the “rake” and ultimately forced her out of the business only months after becoming her partner, prosecutors said. The games continued without her for years.
Bloom was indicted in April along with 33 others, including reputed Russian mobsters and notorious art-scion playboy Hillel “Helly” Nahmad, as being part of the international gambling enterprise.
However, Assistant US Attorney Joshua Naftalis told the judge the government believes Bloom played a “minor role” in the operation compared to many of the others busted. He recommended a sentence that included no jail time – even though a plea deal she agreed to in December called for her getting up to six months behind bars.
Nahmad on Wednesday was sentenced to a year behind bars for running a high-stakes illegal sports betting ring as part of the enterprise.