School ass’t principal helped run multi-million $ Central IN club
A three-year investigation sparked by a complaint to the Indiana Gaming Commission from someone who claimed to have lost $50,000 in an online poker club culminates in multiple felony charges in Morgan County Superior Court 3 against four Indiana men for allegedly running a multi-million-dollar illegal online gambling operation since at least 2020, according to probable cause affidavits.
The IGC Gaming Control Division opened an investigation in June 2021 into what they discovered was the “DDDare Poker Club” on the Pokerrrr2 internet-based platform. The Pokerrrr2 application can be downloaded from the Apple Store or Google Play.
IGC Agents learned that two men from Camby, Robert A. Vincent and Timothy R. Vanwanzeele, ran the operation, seemingly as “50/50” business partners. Vanwanzeele had been an assistant principal at Paul Hadley Middle School in Mooresville until shortly after felony charges were lodged against him in late May. Vincent was alleged to be the site’s owner and Tyler J. Smith of Seymour was identified as the “front man” and percentage “owner” of the DDDare Poker Club, as well as a manager of the poker club’s poker hosts, while Darren Drew of Connersville was also revealed as a host and percentage owner of the DDDare Poker Club by the original source who had lost the $50,000 and “who had hosted poker games for the DDDare Poker Club under the agreement to be credited $25/hour in poker credits to his poker club account.”
In May or June 2021, Vincent also offered to sell the DDDare Poker Club to the original informant for $180,000 because “Vincent was to receive a large medical malpractice judgement and discussed moving to Florida.” On November 27, 2023, a confidential source reported that Vincent had sold the DDDare Poker Club.
The confidential source also “believed club owners netted approximately $1,500-$2,000 in profit per day, per poker table dependent on game attendance and activity, and Vincent and Vanwanzeele’s “respective Google accounts were used to store and access club related documents via shared access to Google Drive and Google Docs and used to communicate with poker hosts over Google Chat.”
Video surveillance at Horseshoe Indianapolis also captured Drew playing poker online and conducting DDDare business while playing legal poker in Shelbyville.
Search warrants for online cash apps used by the men, and Google and Facebook accounts used for promoting the site and maintaining records served up further evidence of financial transactions were to facilitate the poker games on the DDDare Poker Club platform as well as a potential four-figure number of participants.
Cash transfer app records revealed hundreds of thousands of dollars in transfers on assorted apps for Vincent alone, and a five-figure number of transactions. Cash App profile records found “over 600 individuals that engaged in transactions with either Vincent or Vanwanzeele. [IGC agents] identified 542 individuals residing in 44 different states and territories of the United States to include 66 individuals who resided in Indiana.” Pay Pal records were even more prolific. “In summary, the financial records revealed that Vincent, between July 1, 2020 and November 20, 2023, received approximately $1,724,757.00 in transfers to the referenced money transfer platforms. Vincent expended funds from the accounts to facilitate the daily operations of the DDDare Poker Club to include member access to the DDDare Poker Club on the Pokerrrr2 App, burner telephone numbers, advertising and promotional expenses.” “In summary, Vanwanzeele, during the reporting period, received over $201,342.00 in transfers to the referenced money transfer accounts …. made to facilitate the poker games on the DDDare Poker Club platform.” “In Summary, Smith, between July 1, 2020 and September 29, 2023, received approximately $946,237.00 in transfers to his referenced money transfer portals,” with “most of the financial transactions … made to facilitate the poker games conducted when Smith was working as a poker host on behalf of the DDDare Poker Club.”
Morgan County Prosecutor Stephen Sonnega (R) levies the following charges:
State v. Vanwanzeele, No. 55D03-2405-F5-000714
Level 5 Felony Corrupt Business Influence
Level 5 Felony Money Laundering
Level 6 Felony Promoting Professional Gambling
Level 6 Felony Professional Gambling Over the Internet
– July 15 Pretrial Conference
– August 26 Final Pretrial Hearing
– September 11 Jury Trial
State v. Vincent, No. 55D03-2405-F5-000725
Level 5 Felony Corrupt Business Influence
Level 5 Felony Money Laundering
Level 6 Felony Promoting Professional Gambling
Level 6 Felony Professional Gambling Over the Internet
– June 14 Initial Hearing
State v. Smith, No. 55D03-2405-F5-000717
Level 5 Felony Corrupt Business Influence
Level 5 Felony Money Laundering
Level 5 Felony Promoting Professional Gambling
Level 6 Felony Professional Gambling Over the Internet
– August 5 Pretrial Conference
– September 23 Final Pretrial Hearing
– October 16 Jury Trial
State v. Drew, No. 55D03-2405-F5-000718
Level 5 Felony Corrupt Business Influence
Level 5 Felony Money Laundering
Level 6 Felony Professional Gambling Over the Internet
– August 5 Pretrial Conference
– September 23 Final Pretrial Hearing
– October 16 Jury Trial
Vanwanzeele retains Indianapolis attorney Eric Krupp, Vincent hires Martinsville attorney Glen Koch, Smith will be represented by attorney George Lidy of Mooresville, and Drew has not yet chosen an attorney.
This is the second major Central Indiana online poker operation broken up in the past year.