The Brazilian poker world is being rocked by allegations that one of the country's most well-known players, Leonardo Mattos, has been accused of stealing approximately 1.5 million Brazilian reais (over USD $280,000) from fellow players and members of the Emirates Poker Club, a registered business in which numerous Brazilian players participate.
Mundo Poker, one of the country's largest poker news portals, first reported the story overnight after a couple of Emirates Poker Club members went public with the allegations against Mattos earlier in the week. Emirates team owner Lucas Baliza was among those airing the matter, sending a detailed message to Brazilian poker player and online influencer Pedro Rigo, who published Baliza's accusations on Instagram.
'He had been robbing us for six months'
Translated to English from Mundo Poker's feature, Baliza's accusations read as follows: "He planned it all. He had been robbing us for six months and worst of all, he burned practically everything in CASINO and BETS. In these last six months of robbing us, he even had the nerve to spend 30 days at the house of the other two partners in Uberlândia (a city in central Brazil) and stealing from inside the house in the meantime. He manipulated to the point of removing two guys I trusted who were doing the closings and we started using a so-called 'backerstats' system.
"In this system, he was able to manually manipulate the data and would ask for $200, $300 every night from some players, manually adjusting the system. We have already collected more than 300 fake receipts, which I believe 99% of the players who sent had no idea what he was doing...."
Rigo also published an audio recording in which he spoke directly to Mattos about the allegations and asserted that Mattos admitted to the thefts. PokerOrg cannot immediately confirm the veracity of all elements of the Portuguese-language conversation, such as whether the secondary voice is indeed that of Mattos. However, according to Mundo Poker, Mattos immediately deleted his own social media accounts upon publication of the recording.
Mattos's mother acknowledges son's sports betting 'pathology'
The allegations regarding Mattos's loss of the stolen funds via other forms of gambling appear to have been confirmed by Mattos's mother, Sandra Maria, who disclosed to Mundo Poker that her son has been in Brazilian 'judicial interdiction' since 2021, in relation to previously-owed sports-betting debts.
“My son has been under judicial interdiction since 2021," Mattos's mother messaged Mundo Poker. "He suffers from a pathology and is addicted to sports betting. In 2021, I paid off more than R$300,000 in gambling debts. The poker community knows this." Sandra Maria cited sports-betting sites such as Sportingbet and Bet365 for being responsible for causing the "damage" to her son.
However, Mattos's mother denied the Emirates Club embezzlement claims, and she declared that she would sue her son's accusers. “They are committing a criminal act. They are taking advantage of his vulnerability and lack of accountability to make money, as provided for in the Penal Code.” In his Instagram post containing the audio recording, Rigo declared that Mattos's mother has already filed the suit, but advised that she might want to reconsider after hearing the two-minute recording.
One bright moment in poker
In 2020, Mattos emerged from relative obscurity to win Event #59 in the international half of that year's two-part WSOP Online bracelet series, $2,500 Double Stack No Limit Hold'em. Mattos took down just under $400,000 for the win, which was the tenth bracelet triumph in Brazil's history.
That win and a nice Brazilian Series of Poker (BSOP) score in 2019 landed Mattos several deals with poker-related entities, including with Emirates Poker Club, where he eventually served as head coach. However, the big win in the GGPoker-hosted bracelet event has to date been his biggest moment in the game. Since then, according to Hendon Mob results, he has recorded no live cash of more than $15,000, and he has no recorded tournament results at all since November of 2023.
Images courtesy of Mundo Poker
