The Nanak family from Chandigarh knew their son had a gift after Aashish Nanak started showing a keen interest in computers aged just three. Apparently he was introduced to the internet by his mother, who would would sit him in front of a cartoon playing on a computer screen to keep him quiet while she went about her cleaning duties at a local hotel.
Form
OnlinePoker.net states that according to his mother, Nanak has been
using the internet since he was 3. He started to build web pages by
the age of 4. Nanak started playing internet poker when he was just
six. As Aashish’s mother Mrs Nanak explained: “Aash has always
loved the internet and computers he started his own web pages when he
was only four years old, he is a very clever boy.” However,
what has really caused a storm is that Aashish apparently started
getting interested in online poker aged six, and had clocked up some
smaller winnings before hitting gold and taking down a $500,000
online poker tournament.
But
the online poker site,
which at this moment is unknown, where Nanak won the big amount is
refusing to payout the money as it states that the boy was not
legally entitled to play poker. Apparently Nanak won the huge sum on
his uncle’s account. But the poker site’s terms and conditions do
not specifically say that a child can not play under an uncle’s
account.
The
case for the poker room
seems solid at this
point, but the Nanak family has also put forth some strong arguments
as well. According to them, it was well known by the mysterious poker site that Aashish had been playing at their room. They claim that
a staff member from the site had even given him a nickname – the
Little Poker Wizard.
The
family of the 8 year old are arguing “that at no time was
it stated that Aashish could not play in the games”. Also the staff
at the poker site nicknamed him “littlepokerwizard”.
Clearly they were well aware of his age. As a result of this the
lawyer of the family is fighting the poker room decision not to pay
the child.
The
family claims there was never any problem as the child played and
employees of the poker site knew how old he was. The family also
claims that at no time were they told or read about the age
restrictions while playing online poker.
There
is no doubt the money would make a tremendous difference to Nanak and
his family of twelve, who would then be able to move out of their
present slum location and start a new life for themselves. As their
lawyer explained: “Considering that the average wage in
India is around 79,735.50 a year that is $1,740, the Nanak’s would
be very well off indeed.”
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