One would have thought that fathers diverting child support money to the poker tables happened only in the movies.

But this reel life scenario happened in real life recently and it was not the first time.

Scott Obst is a Las Vegas professional poker player and he owns pornography distribution business as well. He deposited more than $440,000 in his bank account from both avenues put together in 2002. Yet he failed to pay more than $150,000 in child support.

Before his arrest, Obst was living it up in Vegas. He was making over $37,000 a month for the last two years but not paying any child support. When confronted by the authorities he went on the lam but was eventually arrested and taken to Wisconsin. He was in jail there for over a month. When the hearing came up this week Obst pleaded guilty to one count of felony of non-support and two counts of misdemeanor failure to pay child support. He then left the court with his new family.

The reason that Obst had to pay child support in the first place was equally slimy. In 1991 Connie Bassel claimed that Obst was the father of her child. A paternity suit followed and Obst was declared the father and made liable for child support. Hence Obst never had any love for the child. He was simply paying for one night that went wrong.

His son Andrew lives in Wisconsin. His mother went on public assistance at some point in time leaving him to be supported by the state on the taxpayer’s money. This is what Andrew had to say about his father, “I’m looking at the guy who hasn’t supported me forever and just seeing him run away, literally run away, it’s horrible. Outrageous.” Andrew is now 17 years old.

Obst has to pay almost $50,000 by the end of the year or be sent to prison. For now the judge has given Obst permission to return to Las Vegas. Connie is quite sure that Obst is not going to keep up to the payments that he has been told to. She is preparing herself for further courtroom drama.

Obst has won $41,456 in poker tournament winnings since 2005. But his lifestyle indicates that he is making much more money than that. Either he is making a killing at the cash tables, the figures of which do not get reported, or his adult film business is really doing well.

A similar thing happened in 2005 when Dayne Baverman was busted for not paying child support. Baverman had to pay child support to 6 of his 8 children. He owed a far smaller sum of $31,221 but though he was making good money in poker tournaments he was refusing to pay up. His wife tracked his earnings all over the Internet and with reports published by credible poker authorities she had him indicted by a grand jury. Then he was arrested in the middle of a game at the Gold Strike Casino in Tunica and thrown into prison.