Originally Posted by
Dan Druff
Also, this is NOT a defense at all of Jasep, but I don't think he is a sociopathic scammer. That's more what peterdc is. After the full story came out, I could tell Peter's scamming was a lifestyle choice that gave him some sick enjoyment. Recall that Peter could have easily married his phone-sex-company-owning girlfriend and been set for life with a woman who was worth well over 10 million dollars. Instead, he resorted to scamming other people and even stealing from her.
I equate Jasep with Erick Lindgren, just on a much smaller scale (and with much less poker talent than Erick).
Both would pay the money they owed if they had it. Both delude themselves into thinking that scamming is just a temporary means to getting whole financially, and they'll eventually make it right without anyone being the wiser. Both have major gambling problems and will step on anyone to keep themselves in action.
In Jasep's case, I think he has a fantasy of being a winning poker pro. He is probably both a losing player and someone with -EV pit gambling problem, as well. Every time he takes a loan from a friend, every time he runs a stake that is actually paying off previous stakes or life expenses, every time he lies, every time he steals, he probably talks himself into believing that he will pay everyone back when he inevitably "stops running bad" and becomes the winning player he thinks he already is.
This is why he was still communicating with people as recently as yesterday afternoon. He is still deluding himself that he can (dishonestly) scratch up the 5k, bail himself out of this BAP mess, and somehow keep enough supporters to where they will give him another shot in the future. He hasn't quite accepted the fact that this is really the end of his gambling-by-borrowing career.
In Jasep's mind, the victims here are just temporary, provided he can still keep playing poker and "make things right" eventually. I'm sure he believes that he would have righted the ship had this not been outed by the "assholes" of this forum, much like Howard Lederer and Ray Bitar believed that Full Tilt would have restored everyone's money had that pesky DOJ not busted them shortly after they stole it all.
I believe there are two types of scammers out there -- sociopathic scammers, and opportunistic scammers.
Sociopathic scammers are people like Justin Smith and Peterdc. They actually scam because they enjoy it. It's a lifestyle to them.
Opportunistic scammers are people who don't enjoy scamming, but see it as a means of a way out of their financial messes. These people wouldn't scam if they were financially sound, but see scamming as a reasonable option to bail themselves out of bad money situations. That's where I put Jasep.
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