Bad bet
A hacker has admitted to thieving over 400bn virtual poker chips to feed his gambling habit from online gaming firm Zynga.
According to the BBC, Ashley Mitchell pleaded guilty to hacking into Zynga's systems and laundering his haul of ill-gotten virtual goods via a number of Facebook accounts. The stolen poker chips reportedly had a value of £7.4m but Mitchell cashed in £53,000 before he was caught.
It is thought that Mitchell posed as an administrator on Zynga's Poker game on Facebook between June and September 2009 to steal the chips. He apparently sold around a third of his chip haul, charging £430 for every billion chips.
The Beeb reported that he had resorted to hacking after he became ‘addicted' to online gambling sites, particularly Zynga Poker.
It was reportedly the sheer amount of chips that went missing that led Zynga to suspect someone was stealing them and a trap was laid that trapped the thief.
Mitchell reportedly pleaded guilty to five charges under the Computer Misuse Act and the Proceeds from Crime Act at Exeter crown court and has been held until a date is arranged for sentencing.
According to Auntie, the Judge, Philip Wassal said that Mitchell would probably face a long spell inside for the crime, which he reportedly carried out while he was under a suspended sentence for another hacking attack on computers at the local council.
