Poker’s Tom Dwan Threatens to Sue Over Treatment at London Mental Hospital
Posted on: May 19, 2025, 08:25h.
Last updated on: May 19, 2025, 05:21h.
- Poker pro Tom Dwan alleges forced treatment during hospital psychiatric hold
- Tweets hinted at delusions, surveillance, and foreign conspiracies
- Dwan vows multiple lawsuits after returning to US
US high-stakes poker star Tom Dwan has vowed to file “a bunch of lawsuits” after he was detained for two weeks in a London psychiatric hospital following an apparent mental health crisis.
On April 29, Dwan began tweeting from the Park Royal Centre for Mental Health in West London, claiming that hospital staff were “trying to kill either me or most of my brain” through forced treatment.
The series of confusing and often opaque posts made references to foreign intelligence services and “US operational command.” They indicated that Dwan believed his water had been drugged and that his phone had been tampered with.
Some tweets tagged politicians, including US President Donald Trump, US Vice President J.D. Vance, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Home Secretary Yvette Cooper.
Persecutory Delusions?
The tweets suggested Dwan was experiencing persecutory delusions, which are consistent with conditions like acute psychosis or manic episodes with psychotic features.
Dwan also alleged that the UK police had broken his rib and his hand, and possibly punctured a lung. However, a UK-based PokerNews reporter, Will Shillibier, was able to visit Dwan at the Park Royal hospital and reported that he “looked well and appeared physically unharmed.”
On Saturday, 21 days after his ordeal began, a far more lucid Dwan tweeted that he was returning to the US, adding that he had a legal score to settle with the Park Royal Hospital.
“I’ll be filing many complaints and a buncha diff lawsuits, along with some various tweets and other PR… But only proper channels type stuff, cool imo,” he tweeted.
Dwan denied suggestions that the episode had been sparked by recreational drug use.
Does Dwan Have a Case?
In the UK, an individual can be detained under the Mental Health Act (MHA) 1983 (amended 2007) if they are deemed to be suffering from a mental disorder and detention is considered necessary for the person’s health or safety, or for the protection of others.
This assessment and recommendation must be made by two doctors and an approved mental health professional. Under Section 2 of the MHA, an individual can be detained for assessment and possibly treatment for up to 28 days. Section 3 permits detention for treatment for up to six months, renewable.
Under these sections, treatment can be administered without the patient’s consent if it’s deemed necessary for their health or safety, or for the protection of others.
Detainees have specific rights under MHA, including the right to legal representation, the right to appeal their detention to the Mental Health Tribunal, and the right to inform their nearest relative of their predicament.
If the healthcare professionals involved followed the MHA and acted within its legal boundaries, Dwan’s legal options would be limited. But he claims they didn’t.
“They took my phone n devices, didn’t give in to my repeated requests for medical care, or my legal rights (nearest relative, tribunal, imho), for ~2weeks, and did what they could to bar me from all contact,” Dwan tweeted on Monday. “There were a few [decent] ppl, but majority followed (illegal) orders.”
Dwan acknowledged that his phone was taken away after he tweeted a photo of an NHS staff member to his 200K-plus followers.
What Happened to Dwan?
It’s difficult to piece together the circumstances surrounding Dwan’s initial detention. In his earlier tweets, he mentioned “someone posing as a flight attendant” on the flight to London had “plugged in his phone to charge and had wiped its browser history and other info.”
Dwan appeared to believe that the flight attendant had been part of a conspiracy to “create fake charges” against him.
Daniel Negreanu, in the “Mania” podcast he hosts with his wife, Amanda Leatherman, had the following to add.
“He was flying to London to meet with a guy – I won’t name him, but I know who it is – and at the airport, apparently, he was acting crazy, talking crazy or whatever.”
While Negreanu showed concern for Dwan’s mental health, he mentioned noticing something was “a little ‘off’ with him” years ago. Negreanu recounted an incident at Aria Las Vegas, where Dwan approached him and told him he had something important to say.
But first, Dwan wanted Negreanu to give him his phone so their conversation wouldn’t be recorded. Eventually, Negreanu agreed to remove the battery from his phone. Then Dwan proceeded to “just shoot the shit,” according to Negreanu.
“He’s always had a little bit of a delusion of grandeur, if you will,” Negreanu added. “He sees something going on in the news and he’s like ‘Let me talk to Putin, I’ll handle it.’ He believes he can go and talk to Kim Jung Un and fix things. And he really believes that.”
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