Vegas Dave
David Nakama Oancea, also known as Vegas Dave, boasts of winning record-setting bets, including a futures wager on the Kansas City Royals to win the World Series in 2015 for $2.5 million.
Friday, May 24, 2019 | 2 a.m.
Vegas Dave’s legal troubles appear to be a thing of the past, but so are his sports-betting privileges in Nevada.
David Nakama Oancea, as he is known to the U.S. District Court of Nevada, says that’s just fine with him.
“I became a sports consultant, where I provide people information on what to bet on,” Oancea said. “They don’t want me betting at all, which is fine with me because I’m making more money now as a consultant.”
In 2017, Oancea, 42, was indicted on 19 counts related to placing illegal bets at Las Vegas sportsbooks while using false information, including Social Security numbers that weren’t his.
On Monday, after agreeing to a plea deal earlier this year, Oancea was ordered to pay a $1,000 fine, according to online court records. He said he was also ordered to stay out of Nevada sportsbooks for three years.
Oancea originally faced 19 counts for bets he placed totaling more than $1.3 million between Feb. 6, 2015, and Feb. 2, 2016, according to the Department of Justice. Nine counts were for Social Security misuse, and the other 10 were for causing false reports.
“I knew from the beginning that I would be fine,” Oancea said. “Las Vegas was built on losers, not winners. You can’t truly beat Vegas. When you lose, they take your money and when you win millions like I did, they ban you and try to take away your freedom.”
Oancea has previously boasted of winning large bets, including a futures bet on the Kansas City Royals to win the World Series in 2015 for $2.5 million and a futures bet on the Denver Broncos to win the Super Bowl in 2016 for $2.3 million.
“They offered me plea bargains every five or eight months and I kept saying no,” Oancea said. “How the government works, they shoot first and ask questions later. They investigated me from every angle for three years and didn’t find anything, so they let me walk with probation.”
Despite the three-year saga, Oancea said it was ultimately one of the best things that’s ever happened to him because he developed better relationships with his parents and became more spiritual.
On Twitter, Oancea has more than 66,000 followers. In a video posted to his YouTube page on Wednesday, clips of Oancea and his lawyers were shown with Tupac Shakur’s 1996 song “Only God Can Judge Me” playing in the background.
He has no plans of returning to place bets. “I would have to be a complete moron,” Oancea said.
