Should PokerStars Founder Be Inducted Into Poker Hall of Fame?

On August 15th, the Poker Hall of Fame (HOF) will stop taking nominations for this year’s prestigious club, after which the HOF Governing Council will chose a shortlist of 10 nominees that will subsequently be voted upon and reduced to just one or two candidates for enshrinement in 2015.
This year, however, there is growing controversy as to whether one of the poker world’s most controversial characters should be included on the list, namely PokerStars founder Isai Scheinberg. On the one hand, none would argue the monumental importance Scheinberg has had in shaping the industry since launching PokerStars in 2001. On the other hand, the manner in which the poker room initially managed to attain its number one position by operating stateside post-UIGEA has cast a long shadow over its reputation.
Despite selling his majority stake to Amaya Gaming last year, even now Scheinberg remains a fugitive from US justice, and has yet to answer charges relating to the Black Friday fiasco. As a result, the 69 year-old Israeli-Canadian has got supporters and detractors on both sides of the Poker Hall of Fame debate.
One high profile character throwing his support behind Isai Scheinberg is Terrence Chan, a poker pro who has traded in his chips to pursue a career as a MMA fighter. Chan even started a thread on the TwoPlusTwo forum called “Campaign for Isai Scheinberg for the Poker HOF”, and on his twitter account posted the following message:
“In my opinion, if the man who has done more to grow poker than any other individual in the world in the past 20 years is not in the Poker HOF, it is illegitimate. PokerStars expanded into, and created, brand new markets where there were very few poker players. We have all benefited from the company that this man built. Some made careers out of the poker industry in various ways. But millions of others simply found a way to play a game they found enjoyable.”
Nevertheless, the prospect of Scheinberg being accepted this year as a candidate, or winning a place in the HOF seems a long shot at best, given his unresolved controversial background. If somehow he is inducted, it is even less likely he will accept the honor in person, as Scheinberg would most certainly have a delegation of FBI agents waiting for him in Las Vegas.