Hustler Casino Live (HCL) Co-Owner Accused of Sexual Harassment, Intimidation
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A former regular on Hustler Casino Live, who spoke with PokerNews over the phone, accused co-owner Nick Vertucci of sexual harassment and said she was banned from the popular stream for rejecting his unwanted advances.
Julia McBride, a southern California lawyer known on HCL as "Julia from Palmdale," posted screenshots on X from a text exchange with Vertucci that appear to show the co-owner and co-founder making unsolicited advances.
"Time to break the silence over (Vertucci) using his control over (HCL) to harass women and keep witnesses from speaking up," she wrote.
When contacted independently by PokerNews, both Vertucci and Hustler Casino Live (HCL) declined comment.
"Creepy" Text Exchange
In a September 2023 text message that McBride shared on X, Vertucci asked if she would be playing on the stream that evening. She said she would be.
"You're brin(g)ing the cleavage huh?" Vertucci asked before alluding to McBride's breasts with orange emojis and asking if she still had "that damn BF."
She laughed off Vertucci's advance and told him she did have a boyfriend.
"That stinks," Vertucci wrote in the text exchange. "We could have had so much fun."
Vetucci then asked if he could "get a pregame preview so I could work it out of my system."
"Um no," replied McBride, at which point Vertucci clarified that he "did mean with a shirt on" and that he "didn't want to offend."
Putting Up With Harassment
McBride, whose first appearance on HCL was in July 2022, told PokerNews these weren't the first messages from the show's co-founder "asking for me to go out with him or whatever."
"But those were the most creepy ones," she said, adding that Vertucci "made verbal requests too."
"Basically he just started asking me out and whatever immediately, and then I would say no and then he would just keep asking," she said.
McBride tried to ignore the incident and continued to play on poker's most popular stream over the next year.
"I didn't come out with it a year ago," she said. "I wanted to just laugh it off and keep being able to play on the stream."
McBride said she and others put up with harassment "because the Hustler Casino is a great stream and everybody wants to be on it."
"And I wanted to be on it. So I didn't say 'Leave me alone,' I said 'Haha I have a boyfriend.'"
Banned From Hustler Casino Live
McBride's last HCL appearance was on June 17. That month, she learned she had been banned from the stream.
"I can't think of any reason other than Nick being angry at me, and I can't think of any reason he'd be angry at me other than the sexual advances that I declined," said McBride. "But I don't know ... nobody's told me why."
After she went public with her allegations, McBride said Vertucci reached out to players who knew her and "was asking for dirt on me" and for the location of a home game she played in.
"I don't know what he wanted to do with that information, but I assume it has to do with intimidation."
"Nobody Was Willing to Speak Out"
McBride said she does not believe she is the only woman who has been harassed on the Hustler stream. She decided to go public about the harassment to encourage other potential victims to come forward.
"Nobody was willing to speak out. So I'm hoping that by posting that, people will start speaking out ... We have to say something. We have to say what we know."
"I understand people want to keep their job, they want to keep their ability to play on the stream, they want to keep a good relationship with the Hustler stream. And so those people, they witnessed things. Many of them have had similar experiences and I understand them not wanting to come forward. But I really hope people will start coming forward. And then once a couple do, then we can see change and we can see a positive Hustler stream going forward."
Poker pro Kitty Kuo later confirmed a story from 2019 where Vertucci apparently showed her explicit pictures at the table during a cash game stream.
Adelstein, Poker Players React
After McBride's text release, the poker community criticized Vertucci for being inappropriate and "incredibly creepy."
"Despicable," one player wrote. "Someone who is supposed to be involved in growing the game leveraging his position of power to make perverted advancements on an already fragile game to get more women involved."
One of the loudest critics was banned Hustler Casino Live legend Garrett Adelstein, who said he hoped Vertucci wouldn't "dedicate years of his life in a weak attempt at discrediting you as well."
"Color me shocked," wrote Adelstein, a Southern California high-stakes livestream legend who infamously accused Robbi Jade Lew of cheating him out of a six-figure pot during a Sept. 2022 Hustler Casino Live game.
Matt Berkey, another player with a storied feud with Vertucci, voiced a similar sentiment and praised McBride for coming forward. He even dove into the matter in an episode of the Only Friends Podcast.
