Rob Mercer has been publicly accused of scamming the poker community and fans of the popular game are still in shock about it.
Mercer received thousands of dollars in donations after sharing with the world that he had terminal cancer. It turns out he lied through his teeth for a sinister reason.
Mercer made it all up for the sole reason of getting donations so he could compete in the 2023 World Series of Poker Main Event.
The Review-Journal reports several in the poker community became suspicious of Mercer over the way he had acted at the event. Mercer had reportedly provided vague responses to questions about his illness and failed to share concrete proof of his alleged terminal colon cancer diagnosis as well.
The possible scam came to light after an X user tweeted a reply to an old message from another person.
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Mercer still told the local news he believes he does have undiagnosed breast cancer but made up the colon cancer story because he was embarrassed to say he was dealing with a disease not as commonly found in men.
“I did lie about having colon cancer. I don’t have colon cancer. I used that to cover my situation,” Mercer told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “What I did was wrong. I shouldn’t have told people I have colon cancer. I did that just as a spur-of-the-moment thing when someone asked me what kind of cancer I had.”
To make matters worse, Mercer said due to his belief that he does have breast cancer, he has no intentions of returning the money he obtained through his GoFundMe.
He informed the Review-Journal that he has quit playing poker due to “his deteriorating health.” He told the news organization that he now spends around 18 hours a day in bed.
“At the end of the day I lied to a lot of people because I was scared to tell the truth,” Mercer said. “And I guess I’ll have to pay for that.”
In the end, he is likely lying about that as well.
