8 Year Old Computer Whizz Wins $500,000 Playing Online Poker
March 12, 2010 8:50 amAllegedly, an 8 year old boy from India won half a million dollars (22,912,500.38 Indian Rupees) playing online poker, but now finds his case in front of a New Delhi court after the undisclosed gambling site refused to pay-out the underage gambling whizz.
The Nanak family from Chandigarh knew their son had a gift after Aashish Nanak started showing a keen interest in computers aged just three. Apparently he was introduced to the internet by his mother, who would would sit him in front of a cartoon playing on a computer screen to keep him quiet while she went about her cleaning duties at a local hotel.
Aashish’s then started accessing the internet and before long the hotel owners had spotted his unique computer talent and approached him for advice on how to advertise their hotel online. As Aashish’s mother Mrs Nanak explained: “Aash has always loved the internet and computers he started his own web pages when he was only four years old, he is a very clever boy.”
As the case continues, the court has been hearing accounts from hotel guests claiming ‘the youngster was making enough money through a series of affiliate programs to pay his families rent.’
However, what has really caused a storm is that Aashish apparently started getting interested in online poker aged six, and had clocked up some smaller winnings before hitting gold and taking down a $500,000 online poker tournament.
It would seem Aashish Nanak’s uncle may have had some involvement in facilitating his nephew’s interest in the game, and aside from the huge sum being won on his uncle’s account, Aashish apparently had a number of smaller winnings paid into a legitimate online paypal account set-up for him by his uncle.
As the case continues, the family of the 8 year old are arguing ‘that at no time was it stated that Aashish could not play in the games’ and that he had in fact been nicknamed ‘littlepokerwizard’ by staff at the Poker website, who were well aware of his age.
There is no doubt the money would make a huge difference to Nanak and his family of twelve, who would then be able to move out of their present slum location and start a new life for themselves. As their lawyer explained: “Considering that the average wage in India is around 79,735.50 a year that is $1,740, the Nanak’s would be very well off indeed.”
As the case continues, we will endeavour to bring you an update to this as of yet unconfirmed story.