Community Corner
Vallejo Man Lied About Having Cancer To Raise Money For Poker Event
Rob Mercer received a Bellagio suite and other donations estimated to total as much as $50,000, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
VALLEJO, CA — A Vallejo man admitted to lying about having terminal colon cancer to raise money so he could participate in the World Series of Poker Main Event, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Rob Mercer told the newspaper that he had not been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer when he created a GoFundMe in June to raise money for the $10,000 buy-in championship. Mercer received a Bellagio suite and other donations estimated to total as much as $50,000, according to the Review-Journal.
“I shouldn’t have told people I have colon cancer,” he said to the newspaper. “I did that just as a spur-of-the-moment thing when someone asked me what kind of cancer I had.”
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Mercer, 37, told the Review-Journal he does not intend to give back the money because he believes he suffers from undiagnosed breast cancer.
GoFundMe has notified Mercer’s donors that it will refund them, contacted Mercer, removed his fundaiser and banned him from the platform, the newspaper reported.
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