Hope Dan Bilzerian isn’t getting too comfortable celebrating his $600,000 betting win with Bill Perkins after completing a bike ride from Las Vegas to L.A. in under 48 hours. Now that it’s time to collect his stakes, there’s drama stewing with the $250,000 side bet Dan cut a week before with poker player Rick Salomon, the guy who banged Paris Hilton in her infamous sex tape.
According to the New York Post, Perkins is cool with paying out. Salomon, meanwhile, is refusing thanks to Dan’s technique of drafting behind a van for a lot of the route:
Bilzerian will receive his money from Perkins. But where another party is concerned, things are more tenuous. Rick Salomon, best known for having appeared in a sex tape opposite Paris Hilton, made a particularly macabre bet with Bilzerian: If he were to die or suffer brain damage on the ride, Salomon would win Bilzerian’s Gulfstream IV jet; if Bilzerian were to complete the ride without becoming addled or dying, Salomon would pay him $250,000. via the New York Post:
Reportedly, Salomon does not think he should pay up in light of Bilzerian’s drafting behind the van. Considering that he bet against Bilzerian with a number of professional gamblers, most likely adding six figures to what he already owes Bilzerian, the situation promises to get sticky. The most likely scenario — as is the case when disagreements arise in bets among the high-stakes crowd — is that a resolution will be arbitrated by three impartial gamblers whom Bilzerian and Salomon choose.
Oh, SNAP! But Salomon should have made those terms clear before challenging the Instagram playboy to said bet. Meanwhile, Perkins is basically calling Salomon a little bitch for not paying. Via the same NY Post article:
Though Perkins understands Salomon’s point of view, others in the gambling world think that Salomon should have done more due diligence — and that he should pay up. “Rick made a stupid bet,” says Jay Farber, a friend of Bilzerian’s who wagered a few thousand dollars on him. Farber, who won $5.17 million by finishing second in the 2013 World Series of Poker (from which Bilzerian netted nearly $1 million by partially backing him in the tournament), adds, “I wouldn’t have bet that kind of money without having every detail ironed out.”
…
Perkins’ willingness to pay Bilzerian regardless of the arbitration’s outcome may stem from the fact that he was along for the ride. Trailing in an RV, he witnessed what Bilzerian endured. “Dan risked death a couple of times,” Perkins says with some grimness. “I saw a car almost drive right into him. His bike coach, who is a complete badass, watched Dan riding up a hill, in the pitch-black night, heading into Barstow, and said that he wouldn’t do it. It was too dangerous. Dan was getting sucked in and out of the road. The odds of getting killed were higher than he thought. He was an idiot for taking the bet.”
Live by the sword, die by the sword, Rick. Pony up the cash or find another semi-attractive billionaire heiress to make a sex tape with. I’m sure Pornhub’s Amateur Of the Month royalties will help you chisel away at those foolish gambling debts one month at a time.
In other news related to the 48 hour bet, Dan apparently stopped for four massage breaks to stay limber in the desert.
And Perkins is already planning what’s next:
Show of hands if you want to see Dan swim uncaged with great white sharks.