The SCOTUS Lawyer Who Won $50m Playing Poker—And Got Indicted
Table Of Contents
Video credit: Elliott Johnson (production & editing), Milko van Winden (production), Brad Whitehouse (production), Keith Becker (narration) & Connor Richards (script)
For two decades, Tom Goldstein was at the top of the legal world. He argued more cases before the United States Supreme Court than almost any private attorney and founded SCOTUSblog, a legal blog that quickly became the go-to source for Supreme Court analysis. He lectured at Stanford University and Harvard University and regularly appeared on national news programs.
But Goldstein had another life. When he wasn’t arguing before Supreme Court justices, Goldstein was flying to Hollywood or Hong Kong and winning or losing millions in ultra-high-stakes poker matches. He played heads-up against California businessmen and foreign gamblers, at one point allegedly winning over $50 million in just a few sessions.
Goldstein’s luck turned in January 2025 when the US Department of Justice a federal grand jury initiated a 22-count indictment accusing the attorney of failing to report millions in poker winnings and diverting law firm funds to pay his personal poker debts.
The allegations in the indictment were stunning and quickly garnered national media attention. In addition to failing to report poker winnings, the federal government accused Goldstein of lying on mortgage applications and putting several women he had personal relationships on the company payroll.
In a new PokerNews video essay, we take a look at the life of Tom Goldstein and the high-stakes poker game that led to his federal indictment.
Who Is Tom Goldstein?
Goldstein, one of the most prominent attorneys in the country, began playing poker during the Poker Boom and in 2008 traveled to Las Vegas to play the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. It was also around this time that Goldstein began playing in high-stakes cash games at the Bellagio, where he quickly developed a reputation as a reckless bluffer and unpredictable opponent.
At the Bellagio, Goldstein met and became friends with social media playboy Dan Bilzerian, who wrote in his 2021 autobiography that he has “never met anyone with less respect for money proportionate to their net worth than Tom.”
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Goldstein represented Bilzerian in a 2014 lawsuit against an adult film actress who was injured by the social media playboy during a film shoot and testified on behalf of the Poker Players Alliance in the fight for legal online poker.
Goldstein also represented Malaysian gambling mogul and high-stakes poker player Paul Phua in an illegal sports betting case stemming from a 2014 FBI raid at Caesars Palace.
The Indictment
Note: An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
According to January’s indictment, Goldstein allegedly began playing in high-stakes poker matches in 2014 at stakes “totaling millions, and even tens of millions of dollars.” Prosecutors say he financed these games by taking out millions of dollars in private loans.
Fast forward two years, and Goldstein was playing in a series of heads-up matches against “three ultra wealthy individuals” referred to in the indictment only as “Foreign Gambler-1”, “Foreign Gambler-2”, and “California Businessman-2”.
Goldstein went on a run that will go down as one of the biggest wins in poker history. He first won $13.8 million in his match against “Foreign Gambler-1” in Asia before flying to Beverly Hills and winning $26.4 million from “California Businessman-2.” He then rounded out the heads-up matches by flying back to Asia and beating “Foreign Gambler-1” out of $8.8 million.
In total, Goldstein banked $50.8 million in profit over 77 hours for an average win rate of $660,000, a calculation that he texted to two unnamed professional poker players whom he enlisted as coaches and backers.
According to federal prosecutors, Goldstein failed to report these massive winnings on his 2016 tax form.
The same year, Goldstein was allegedly “involved in other heads-up and ring poker matches ... in which he lost millions of dollars." To pay off these debts, Goldstein is said to have used funds from his law firm, Goldstein & Russell.
All told, prosecutors say Goldstein “allegedly did not report, or falsely understated, millions of dollars of gambling winnings on his tax returns.” Between 2016 and 2021, with the exception of 2018, they say Goldstein “allegedly did not pay the taxes he self-reported were due on his returns, while simultaneously spending millions of dollars on personal expenses such as gambling debts, travel, vacation rentals, and luxury goods."
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Fighting the Case
While a jury trial isn’t scheduled to start until 2026, the high-profile case has hardly slowed down since January’s indictment.
In February, Goldstein was arrested and detained as a “serious risk of flight” after prosecutors claimed to have found hidden crypto wallets that they alleged Goldstein used to conduct seven-figure transfers, a violation of his bail terms.
Goldstein denied ownership of the wallets and said the government had made a mistake. A federal judge later ordered Goldstein’s release from custody, noting that "Given the information that Mr. Goldstein has now presented ... the Court is no longer convinced, by clear and convincing evidence, that Mr. Goldstein violated his conditions of release.”
The judge added, however, that he was still “highly suspicious that Mr. Goldstein has used cryptocurrency while on conditions of release,” noting that "He has used cryptocurrency … to pay for everything from gambling losses to luxury watches for multiple women."
And, as PokerNews also learned and was the first to report, Goldstein was the mystery player in the 2024 Hustler Casino Live Million Dollar Game, he lost $2.7 million over two sessions and mucked this winning hand in a half-million-dollar pot. PokerNews spoke with the player who was on the winning end of that hand.
Note: Steve played with Goldstein in the HCL Casino Million Dollar game. Though they are both attorneys, they are otherwise not affiliated.
In addition to pleading not guilty to all charges, Goldstein has accused the government of intentionally misleading the court and otherwise acting in bad faith.
Goldstein later asked Judge Griggsby to dismiss the criminal charges against him, filing an array of motions and accusing the government of withholding information beneficial to the defense.
Goldstein retired from legal practice in 2023 and is no longer associated with the legal blog he founded, SCOTUSblog, which was acquired by The Dispatch in April 2025.
In January 2025, John Lauro of Lauro & Singer and Christopher Kise of Continental, trial counsel for Goldstein, provided PokerNews with the following statement:
"Mr. Goldstein is a prominent attorney with an impeccable reputation. We are deeply disappointed that the government brought these charges in a rush to judgment without understanding all of the important facts. Our client intends to vigorously contest these charges and we expect he will be exonerated at trial."
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