Poker Cheating and Casino Cheating Blog: American Roulette

Ultimate Bet Poker Cheating Scandal Getting Bigger!

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:08:00 +0000

Months passed since UltimateBet acknowledged in March of 2008 that management became aware of cheating allegations in January of 2008. The initial, albeit late, statement indicated that at least one player account was deemed to have abnormally high winning statistics and an unfair advantage at the tables. UB was “determined to complete a full and thorough investigation,” but no one had any idea just how long that would take.

Players waited. And waited. And by the middle of May, patience had worn thin. Posters on forums like PocketFives and 2+2 began making noise and demanding a response from UltimateBet. It became a heated discussion, several members of the media kept the story in the public eye (though no major poker magazines, with the exception of Poker Player Newspaper, would touch it), and players wanted answers. Nat Arem, poker player and key rogue investigator in the Absolute Poker scandal months ago, took to PocketFives with the information he had. “I’ve spoken with the guy who is, basically, leading the investigation at UB. I guarantee that he is working on it … While I can’t tell you a lot of what he’s told me, I can tell you that UB is not ignoring it internally. In fact, the delay in resolution is not at UB itself. They’ve done a very thorough investigation and they’re committing some very significant resources to make sure that it never happens again at AP or UB.”

While Arem is a trusted member of the forum community, the secretive nature of the post did not sit well with players. Although Arem let it be known that new management and ownership of UB would prove trustworthy in the future, it was the many months of delays, lack of correspondence with the public, and lack of player reimbursement information that was unsettling.

Members of the poker community were also putting pressure on UB-sponsored players to take a stand. Annie Duke chose to respond on PocketFives in a long and seemingly heartfelt statement. It was her recent decision to renew a contract with UB and become even more involved with online tournament operations there that drew the most scrutiny, and she responded with openness.

After meeting with UB management in Costa Rica, Duke wrote, “I came away satisfied with both the intent of the management team to deal honestly with the allegations, as well as with the integrity of the management team itself. That is coming from someone who was as skeptical as could be … I know that the management team is eager to make its findings public with the month [May] … Until then, I will continue to promote the UB brand because it is a brand I believe in and love and am deeply emotionally invested in.” With two respected people—Arem and Duke— acknowledging the unresolved issue, players still found it odd that so much time had passed without any word from UB. Forum posters spread the word as loudly as computer keyboards can, and it seemed to work. With threats of more negative publicity, UB finally produced a statement to address the insider cheating scandal on May 29, just one day before the 2008 World Series was set to start.

In the next issue, look for details of the UltimateBet statement about the scandal. Though it was more of a comprehensive release than the statement that “closed” the Absolute Poker mess, it left some questions in the minds of some players. Even so, the management that released the statement clearly hoped to put players’ minds at ease and start the reimbursement process. To be continued…

France´s Online Gaming Commission Devises New Laws To Combat Online Poker Cheats

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:04:00 +0000

France has made a wise decision to allow controlled and regulated access to its market by online casino operators, and has come up with model standards to address concerns as the gambling sites slowly are permitted to reach French citizens.

The president of the French National Crime Commission, Alain Bauer, devised a list of important steps to observe as the market is gradually opened. The problems foreseen by opponents of online gambling are covered, with measures included to limit potential damage.

France will create a regulatory agency, responsible for monitoring and licensing applicants for legal online gambling. Servers will need to be accessible to this agency, so that software and records can be audited and monitored for fraud or cheating.

Only online casinos with a history of seven or more years will be allowed to apply.

Full disclosure and transparency will be required of all online gambling sites, including investors and shareholders as well as employees passing background checks.

Player registration would involve submission of a legal form of identification, including a French bank account, and issuing of a distinct PIN for activation and play.

Sharing of information, such as suspicious sports betting patterns, with the government is demanded, as well as regulation similar to that against insider trading to prevent wagering by sources with team or player connections.

A system to detect and block gamblers identified as problem gamblers must be in place.

The steps that France has carefully considered appear to do an excellent job of protecting their citizenry, far better than a ban leaving online gambling to uncontrolled entities. Maybe the United States could take a lesson.

Is 2008 World Series of Poker Gonna Be Cheat-Free?/Another Guilty Plea in International Baccarat Scam

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:41:00 +0000

I have not heard of any cheating allegations so far at this year`s WSOP, but don`t hold your breath too long thinking that the 2008 super poker tournament will finish up without any cheating scandals. If you do hold your breath, don`t forget that you will have to wait until mid-November to bear witness to a cheating-free WSOP--if it does indeed happen. For those of you who don`t realize it, there will be nearly a four-month interim between the determination of the final table of the 2008 WSOP championship event and the play of that final table, during which lots of time for conspiring, scheming and pre-cheating will be available for those directly and indirectly involved in the giant pot of prize money.

The WSOP in recent years has had its share of scandals. In 2005, counterfeit tournament chips were found in two different events. In 2006, the eventual champion Jamie Gold was accused of renegging on a prize-money percentage deal he`d made with a backer before the championship event began, and last year well-known and respected tournament player Bill Chen was accused of suspicious deal-making that supposedly led to chip-dumping and softplay incidents.

I will be very surprised if the 2008 WSOP championship event escapes scandals and scandalous activity, but we will have to wait and see. But with four months of "WSOP idleness," I can only imagine what schemes and scams are going to be concocted with all those millions at stake!

IN OTHER NEWS, another participant in the biggest casino scam in history pleaded guilty in court. You all remember the humongous international baccarat scam that hit dozens of casinos in the US and Canada last year and corrupted at least that many casino employees, most notably dealers and pit personnel. Well, now the major players in that scam are falling like dominoes with their guilty pleas in front of federal judges. The latest, Son Hong Johnson, 45, pleaded guilty today in San Diego to conspiring to participate in a racketeering enterprise, the "Tran Organization," in a scheme to cheat casinos across the country out of millions of dollars, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Matthew Friedrich, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California Karen P. Hewitt and U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington Jeffrey C. Sullivan announced today. Johnson also pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit theft from the Emerald Queen Casino, an Indian tribal gaming establishment near Tacoma, Wash.

A three-count indictment was returned in San Diego on May 22, 2007, and unsealed on May 24, 2007, charging Johnson and 13 others each with one count of conspiracy to participate in the affairs of a racketeering enterprise; one count of conspiracy to commit several offenses against the U.S., including conspiracy to steal money and other property from Indian tribal casinos; and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. As part of his plea agreement, Johnson agreed to have a separate indictment against him transferred to San Diego for plea purposes. The separate indictment, returned on May 24, 2007, in the Western District of Washington, charged Johnson and seven others for alleged violations related to card-cheating activity at the Emerald Queen Casino.

The San Diego indictment also charged five separate individuals each with one count of conspiracy to commit several offenses against the U.S., including conspiracy to steal money and other property from Indian tribal casinos; and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

In his plea agreement, Johnson admitted that on numerous occasions between approximately March 2003 and July 2006, he participated in gambling cheats together with other alleged members of the Tran Organization at casinos, such as: Emerald Queen Casino in Tacoma; Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard, Conn.; Mohegan Sun Resort Casino in Uncasville, Conn.; Resorts East Chicago Hotel and Casino, East Chicago, Ind.; and Horseshoe Casino and Hotel, in Tunica, Miss.

Also in the plea agreement, Johnson admitted that he and his co-conspirators unlawfully obtained up to $7 million during card cheats. For forfeiture purposes, he agreed to a personal money judgment in the amount of $155,000, which will be entered by way of a preliminary order of forfeiture. He also acknowledged that the restitution that he may be ordered to pay by the court at sentencing is not limited by the forfeiture amount.

According to the indictment, the defendants and others executed a "false shuffle" cheating scheme at some of the listed casinos during blackjack and mini-baccarat games. The indictment alleges that members of the criminal organization bribed casino card dealers and supervisors to perform false shuffles during card games, thereby creating "slugs" of un-shuffled cards. According to the indictment, after tracking the order of cards dealt in a card game, a member of the organization would signal to the card dealer to perform a "false shuffle," and then members of the group would bet on the known order of cards when the slug appeared on the table. By doing so, members of the conspiracy repeatedly won thousands of dollars during card games – up to $868,000 on one occasion.

The indictment also alleges that the members of the organization used sophisticated mechanisms for tracking the order of cards during games, including hidden transmitter devices and specially created software that would predict the order in which cards would reappear during mini-baccarat and blackjack games.

An indictment is merely an allegation and is not evidence of guilt. A defendant is entitled to a fair trial in which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Johnson’s sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 8, 2008, in San Diego, before District Judge John A. Houston, in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. At sentencing, Johnson faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison on the racketeering conspiracy charge and a maximum of five years in prison on the conspiracy charge relating to theft from an Indian tribal gaming establishment.

Johnson is the eleventh defendant to plead guilty in the San Diego indictment. Phuong Quoc Truong, Anh Phuong Tran, Martin Lee Aronson, Liem Thanh Lam, George Michael Lee, Barry Wellford, Willy Tran, Tuan Mong Le, Duc Cong Nguyen and Han Truong Nguyen have all pleaded guilty to charges against them related to this scheme. Han Truong Nguyen was sentenced on May 12, 2008, to 27 months in prison and ordered to pay $1,896,659 in restitution, payable to designated victims in the case. Nguyen was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release. The remaining defendants who pleaded guilty are awaiting sentencing.

The case is being investigated by the FBI’s San Diego Field Office; the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation; the San Diego Sheriff’s Department; and the California Department of Justice’s Bureau of Gambling Control. The investigation has received assistance from federal, state, tribal and foreign authorities, including: the Ontario Provincial Police; the National Indian Gaming Commission; the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington; FBI Resident Agencies in Gulfport, Miss., Tacoma, and Toledo, Ohio; the Indiana State Police; the Rumsey Rancheria Tribal Gaming Agency; the Sycuan Gaming Commission; the Barona Gaming Commission; the Mississippi Gaming Commission; the Washington State Gambling Commission; and others. The prosecution of the case is led by the Criminal Division’s Organized Crime and Racketeering Section (OCRS). Department of Justice Trial Attorneys Joseph K. Wheatley, Robert S. Tully and Gavin A. Corn are prosecuting the indictment in San Diego. Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Tate London of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington, is prosecuting the case in Seattle related to alleged cheating at the Emerald Queen Casino.

Annie Duke Speaks Out Again on Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet Cheating Scandals

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 19:40:00 +0000

The cheating scandals surrounding online poker sites UltimateBet.com and its sister Absolute Poker.com continue to make waves in both the mainstream and industry media and in the player community, and the latest element in what seems to be a concerted damage control initiative by the owners is a Poker News video-streamed interview with the much respected poker pro Annie Duke.

This can be accessed at the Poker News Website,

Duke has a long association with UltimateBet and has been involved in both operational and branding endorsement for the website. Apparently last fall she was disenchanted with the way things were going and was thinking about distancing herself from the enterprise. In January this year, the 'hole card' scandal broke and apparently the change of management that occurred convinced Duke to revise her position in a move that was "a big 180 for me."

The cause of this epiphany was apparently the transparency of the new management, headed by CEO Paul Leggett; the way in which it handled the crisis (paying out an unspecified but claimed "seven figures" to affected players); getting rid of the "bad apples" responsible for the scandal and a bigger say for Duke in the conduct of the business.

Judging by her comments in the interview Duke is now firmly on board and confident that the historical problems have been fully addressed, although management is still considering the pursuit of those responsible. This is apparently problematical due to legal considerations around identifying the culprits and under which jurisdiction to pursue them.

Duke follows the company line in claiming that company revenues were not affected by the crisis, which is surprising when one considers the magnitude of the cheating and the editorial coverage it received. The company strategy of recruiting big poker names to endorse the website is also apparent in her comments.

Listening to the interview, there are confusing references to both 'change of management' and 'change of ownership'. This gives little clarity on who owned Absolute/Ultimate Bet prior to its acquisition by Tokwiro Enterprises, a Kahnawake registered company owned by former Mohawk grand chief Joe Norton, or what Tokwiro paid for the companies and when.

The UltimateBet story is not about to fade away. In her interview Duke confirmed information circulating for some months in the industry that the mainstream television investigative program "60 Minutes" is about to air the scandals. Producers for the program contacted Duke whilst she was at the ongoing World Series of Poker, although she does not amplify what was discussed.

Subjectively speaking, we had the impression that this was a continuation of the damage control initiative which the "new management" has been so vigorously pursuing, suggesting that the impact of the cheating scandal may have been bigger than UB would like to acknowledge. The role of the major poker forums in driving the resolution of these scandals also appeared to be underplayed, whilst the proposition that bashing UB was not good for the industry is arguable.

That said, the potential for harm to the industry's credibility that an adverse "60 Minutes" take on the affair is likely to have is a legitimate concern. What a pity that the systems at UB/AP failed in the first place, bringing about this crisis.

July Scam of the Month Posted!

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 19:28:00 +0000

My July scam of the month is "The Cooler." I am not talking about the 2003 casino movie of the same name starring Alec Baldwin and William H. Macy, but rather of a very effective casino cheating scam used by dealers to rip off the casinos they work in. Click here to read about it.

Swiss National Newspaper Article On Richard Marcus

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:13:00 +0000

For those of you who don`t read German, this is a news article about me that appeared in Switzerland´s national newspaper, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. I was quite surprised to see that the Swiss are so interested in the life of a casino cheater, but I guess with the tremendous box office success of the blackjack movie "21," the whole world is enraptured by stories of how people beat casinos. If you want to read a very similar article in English, read this FHM article about my casino cheating career.

Article in German:

Die Abkürzung zur ersten MillionPräzises Timing, Psychologie und ein bisschen Mumm. Ein Amerikaner, der mit Betrug am Roulettetisch 20 Millionen Dollar verdient haben will, verrät seinen besten Trick. Von Andreas HirsteinToolboxDruckansicht

Fenster schliessen
«Pat war ein liebenswürdiger Kerl − ausser, dass Pat ein Dieb war, ein Dieb wie ich», sagt Richard Marcus. Über zehn Jahre lang betrogen die beiden Amerikaner mit weiteren Komplizen die grossen Kasinos dieser Welt: Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Monte Carlo, Baden-Baden. «Insgesamt haben wir 20 Millionen Dollar kassiert, bis ich mich an Silvester 1999 zur Ruhe gesetzt habe», behauptet Marcus, der heute wieder in seiner Heimat New Jersey und in Saint-Gervais am Fusse des Montblanc lebt.
Marcus war der Kopf der Bande: «Ich war der , wie wir es nannten. Rien ne va plus! − für Richard Marcus begann das Spiel so richtig erst mit diesem Satz. Marcus hatte die geschicktesten Hände. Von ihm stammten auch die Ideen für immer neue Betrugsvarianten. «Als in den achtziger Jahren über jedem Spieltisch Überwachungskameras angebracht wurden, war ich besessen von der Idee, die Technik zu überlisten. Und das habe ich auch geschafft: Mein -Spielzug ist der beste Kasino-Trick aller Zeiten. Da können Sie jeden Experten in der Branche fragen.»
Anzeige Das richtige TimingEin guter Betrüger, das ist nach Marcus' Definition immer auch ein netter Mensch. «Man braucht das richtige Timing, und man braucht Mumm. Aber vor allem muss man sympathisch wirken − so wie Pat», sagt Marcus. «Ich mochte ihn, alle mochten ihn, vor allem die Frauen. Und als er schliesslich auch am Spieltisch gut wurde, haben wir die Kasinos nur so ausgenommen.»
Insgesamt habe er fast 25 Jahre lang vom Betrug an den Roulette-, Black-Jack- und Baccara-Tischen dieser Welt gelebt. «Aber ich habe eigentlich mein ganzes Leben lang gezockt. Sein erstes grosses Geld verdiente er mit Pferdewetten. 20 000 Dollar. Das war sein Ticket nach Las Vegas. Im Hotel-Casino Riviera nahm er ein Zimmer, und er gewann. Nach einer Woche hatte er 100 000 Dollar. Doch der neue Reichtum zerrann schneller, als Marcus ihn angesammelt hatte. In einer einzigen Nacht verlor er alles. Als er die Hotelrechnung nicht mehr bezahlte, landete er auf der Strasse. Ohne Geld, ohne Job und ohne Ausbildung. Von seinen New Yorker Freunden wollte ihm niemand Geld leihen, und seine Eltern wollten nichts mehr von ihm wissen.
Nach ein paar Wochen ergatterte er einen Job im Four-Queens-Kasino. Nach zehn Monaten setzte sich ein Mann an Marcus' Baccara-Tisch. Er nannte sich Joe Classon, kam ebenfalls von der Ostküste und fragte Marcus, warum er das Kasino nicht bestehle − so wie alle anderen Angestellten. «Ich wolle meinen Job nicht wegen ein paar 5-Dollar-Chips gefährden, antwortete ich.»
Trotzdem trafen sich die beiden Männer nach Feierabend, und Marcus liess sich zu seinem ersten Betrug überreden. Jeweils am Ende seines Dienstes präparierte er den Kartenstapel, so dass Classon in der folgenden Schicht abkassieren konnte. Das funktionierte so gut, dass sich Marcus für eine Karriere als professioneller Betrüger entschied. Er kündigte seinen Job und wurde festes Mitglied in Joe Classons Betrügerbande.
«Joe hat mir alle seine Tricks beim gezeigt. Dabei verändert man seinen Wetteinsatz, wenn das Spiel schon entschieden ist. Er hat mir auch beigebracht, wie wichtig die Psychologie ist. Jedes Gehirn ist manipulierbar. Glauben Sie mir, sogar Einstein würde auf unsere Tricks reinfallen», sagt Marcus.
In einem seiner erfolgreichsten Spielzüge arbeitete Marcus in einem vierköpfigen Team: Er selbst, der als Mechaniker die eingesetzten Chips vertauscht; eine schöne Frau, die den Gewinn für sich reklamiert, und zwei Hilfs-Wetter, deren Aufgabe es ist, den Croupier für den Bruchteil einer Sekunde abzulenken.
Alle vier Teammitglieder beziehen zunächst ihre Position am Tisch. Die Frau besitzt zunächst fünf 100-Dollar-Chips. Einen tauscht sie gegen 100 1-Dollar-Chips ein und baut damit fünf Stapel vor sich auf. In den hintersten Stapel mischt sie zwei 100-Dollar-Chips und übergibt unbemerkt zwei weitere an den Mechaniker, der nun ebenfalls einen gemischten Stapel zusammenstellt.
Der Croupier kann die gemischten Stapel jedoch nicht sehen, weil sie hinter den niederwertigen Stapeln verborgen sind. Jetzt setzt die Spielerin jeweils fünf 1-Dollar-Chips auf neun unterschiedliche Zahlen. Falls eine dieser Zahlen gewinnt, tauscht der Mechaniker den entsprechenden Stapel durch den mit 100-Dollar-Chips «angereicherten» gemischten Stapel aus. Dies gelingt unbemerkt, weil der Croupier für den Bruchteil einer Sekunde wegsehen muss, wenn er die strategisch placierten Einsätze der Hilfs-Wetter abräumt.
Psycho-Verwirrspiel«Bis hierhin ist alles reine Mechanik», sagt Marcus. «Das genügt aber nicht. Der Croupier würde misstrauisch, wenn plötzlich 100-Dollar-Chips im Gewinnstapel auftauchen. Er würde sich weigern, den Gewinn auszuzahlen, ohne die Videoaufnahmen zu überprüfen.»
Deswegen folgt jetzt ein psychologisches Verwirrspiel, an dessen Ende sogar langjährige Kasinoangestellte wieder ans grosse Glück im Spiel glauben. Die Spielerin schiebt ihren gemischten Stapel in den Vordergrund. Dann beginnt sie laut auszurufen: «Oh, mein Gott! Wo sind meine beiden 100-Dollar-Chips? Ich habe sie verloren. Mein Mann bringt mich um!»
Auf dem Fussboden, in ihrer Handtasche, überall sucht sie hysterisch nach den Chips. Dann aber, im selben Moment, in dem der Croupier die beiden 100-Dollar-Chips im Gewinnstapel entdeckt, bricht die Spielerin in lauten Jubel aus: «Da sind sie. Ich kann es nicht fassen. Ich habe sie aus Versehen gesetzt, und sie haben gewonnen. Ich habe gerade 7000 Dollar gewonnen, 7000!»
«Sie müssen sich vorstellen», sagt Marcus: «Da steht eine hübsche Frau, die es niemals nötig hätte zu betrügen, die erst vor Panik zittert und dann in Freudentränen ausbricht − da ist sogar der Croupier glücklich, dass er auszahlen darf. Und schliesslich bekommt er auch noch einen 100-Dollar-Chip als Trinkgeld.»
Marcus ist in seiner fast 25-jährigen Karriere nie erwischt worden. Sechsmal wurde er in einem Hinterzimmer befragt. «Aber nachweisen konnte man mir nichts», sagt er. Beendet hat er seine Betrüger-Karriere, weil er genug verdient hatte. Von den 20 Millionen, blieben ihm 7.
Nichts, was Sie bereuen, Herr Marcus? «Nein. Ich liebte den Adrenalin-Kick. Wenn ich etwas bedaure, dann dass ich keine Familie habe. Meine Ehe ist gescheitert, aber das lag nicht an mir, sondern an der Drogensucht meiner Frau.» Zu seinen Eltern hat Marcus keinen Kontakt mehr, und auch zu seiner Schwester habe er kein gutes Verhältnis. «Aber ich bin nicht alleine. Ich habe Freunde.» Heute schreibt Marcus Bücher und betreibt eine Website. Seine Autobiografie «American Roulette» soll verfilmt werden. «Ich berate heute dieselben Kasinos, die ich früher betrogen habe. Die zahlen mir 5000 Dollar pro Tag.» Und die versteuert Marcus heute. Ganz ehrlich.

«Ich berate heute
dieselben Kasinos, die
ich früher betrogen
habe. Sie zahlen mir
5000 Dollar pro Tag.»

New Roulette Tables To Fight Cheats

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 18:30:00 +0000

Roulette tables may get touch screens to combat cheating!

If Microsoft's "Surface" becomes a casino fixture next to the slot machines, the touch-screen table computer will find plenty of company. Not only are digital poker tables being developed--complete with "peel up" card corners so players can read their hands discreetly--but even touch-sensitive roulette games are on the way.

There have been attempts in the past to develop "pastpost free" roulette tables, but those failed mainly because the added protection brought along with it too many inconveniences, such as alarms going off when players innocently reached over the layout to lend a cigarette lighter or shake a hand while the table´s anti-pastposting device was activated to catch roulette players´ hands on the layout when they weren´t supposed to be there, mainly after the dealer had already marked the winning number with the dolly, at which time any hands entering the layout were detected as possible cheat tools. Similar to radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, this latest "safe casino play" invention should be more successful than its forebearers, but as RFID technology has been very slow to catch on worldwide in casinos, we will have to wait and see just how much a pain in the...hand...these touch screen roulette tables will be.

The "MultiPlay Roulette" system is the latest from Sweden's TouchTable, featuring a 56-inch touch LCD with 3,840 × 2,160 resolution. The table can accommodate up to seven players and, thanks to the company's proprietary technology, it can identify each person's bet.

Like other digital casino products, the idea is to speed the pace of play and reduce the chances of discrepancies or cheating. Because, as some of us have learned painfully over the years, fast play always favors the house.

To read a magazine article I wrote on RFID technology in casinos, click here.

Bodog Signs Another Poker Cheat!

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:35:00 +0000

Bodog Signs Reformed Justin Bonomo!

It seems to be par for the course: Get caught in an online poker scam, then say you´re sorry, apologize to everyone and his mother reading the poker blogs, then sign a deal for big bucks with a major online poker room. Such is the case again, this time with Justin Bonomo, better known as "ZeeJustin" who was caught cheating by playing on multiple accounts on sites like PartyPoker and PokerStars. (To read more on previous online cheats who signed big poker deals, click here.

Oh how I wish I had been caught cheating at online poker! Then I could have signed a big contract with Bodog too! Only problem, I was never an online poker cheat. In my next life, I will have to consider changing professions!

As reported by Jennifer Newell:

On May 5th, 2008, Bodog Poker announced that it had signed Justin Bonomo to its roster of pros, which already includes David Williams, Jean-Robert Bellande, and Evelyn Ng. Justin will represent Bodog both in live tournaments and online at Bodog, as well as possibly participating in other marketing and branding opportunities.

Poker pros ink deals regularly with online poker sites. Why is this one significant and worthy of a column? Because Justin is the Justin Bonomo, better known as “ZeeJustin” in online poker circles—the player who was caught cheating by playing on multiple accounts on sites like PartyPoker and PokerStars. And though he didn't handle the scandal well when it happened—he was not even 21 years old—he has since matured, taken particular care to address the problem, and changed.

When the scandal first broke in early 2006, Justin was not afraid to post on web forums with his excuses and justifications for using multiple accounts. He claimed that he did so because his style under “ZeeJustin” was too wellknown, and he needed to be anonymous in order to win more money. Granted, that is a simplification of his reasons for the sake of space in this column.

Eventually, the wrath he felt from the poker community caused Justin to realize the impact of what he had done, and his justifications turned to apologies. In his immaturity, he even attempted to strike a deal with PokerStars that would allow him to play on the site for several months, with all proceeds going to charity. “For me, the benefits are obvious,” he wrote to PokerStars. “I would get to play on your site again and return some credibility to my name, but more importantly, I see this as a way to become the person I've always told myself I would be. This won't be a one-time thing. This is how I want to live the rest of my life… Basically, I realize that what I've done is terrible, but I

refuse to accept the fact that those actions define me as a person. I see this as a way to overcome what I've done, not as a poker player, or a wanna-be celebrity, but as a human being.”

The site ultimately denied his request. Justin then took his poker skills to the live tables once he became of legal age to play in the United States. He played tournaments humbly and quietly, not drawing any attention to himself. He allowed time to heal wounds, and in the year and a half that he has been on the circuit, he has eventually gained the respect of many poker players who have seen his remorse and witnessed his true love of the game.

What makes Justin different from recent players involved in cheating scandals, like Sorel Mizzi and JJ Prodigy, is that he grew to understand the severity of his previous actions and let some time pass as he carefully repaired his image. Though he's still in his very early twenties, he seems to have matured immensely. Players like Mizzi seem to expect immediate acceptance of whatever apology is issued, and they come to tournaments as cocky and full of themselves as ever. As basic as it may seem, people need time to accept apologies and see another side of those players, and Mizzi is one of several who do not seem to understand this.

Justin Bonomo has become a successful live tournament player, with final tables at EPT and WSOP events to his credit, as well as several near-televised WPT tables. He has made over $1.1 million in his short time on the circuit, and the Bodog sponsorship appears to be a positive step in his journey.

Historic Rigged Roulette Cheating Wheel Found In Reno!

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:15:00 +0000

X-Ray Reveals What’s Inside Rigged Roulette Wheel!

We're a state built on gaming, but the thing about gambling is it also attracts cheaters. Monday, the University of Nevada Medical School helped out with a cheating scam no agent with the Gaming Control Board has seen before.

"We've heard stories over the years, we've read about it but we've never seen one - it's in the league with DB Cooper, Bigfoot and UFO's," said Jim Edwards a senior agent with the Gaming Control Board.

The wooden wheel spent 70 years in a Sacramento-area garage.

A Reno couple bought it and learned it had a series of wires hidden inside. The wires were hooked up to four batteries wrapped in newspapers from the "Sacramento Bee" dating to December 31, 1932.

"And I said, 'Oh my God! We have a gaffed table,'" said owner Sharon Nickson Cox, "And to the best of our knowledge it's the only one in the world today that hasn't been destroyed by the mob or the feds."

But learning how it works could only be accomplished with the help of X-ray. "We originally thought maybe it was operated with magnets with the batteries, but we believe now it was a mechanical device - maybe a little pin came out of the side that would make the ball drop," said Cox.

And although any crime would have happened some 80 years ago (likely in California), the Nevada Gaming Control Board is still curious, "We like to have accurate information in our files as to what happens, what has happened historically," said Edwards.

Because as they say, history repeats itself.

The roulette wheel originally sold for $250 in the 1920's. Today, it's appraised for $250,000.

Blackjack Cheat Snagged Cheating Church Blackjack Game!

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:55:00 +0000

Blackjack cheating your local church! I have heard of lows but that is about the lowest of all of them. Even I have never cheated at a church blackjack game! Cheating at a party blackjack nite, that´s one thing...but a church...that´s a sin! Well, I´m glad the guy got caught. It turns out he was a card-mucker, palming cards (aces and tens) out of play and putting them back in when he needed them. Here´s what happened:

WHEN THE KING of diamonds and the ace of spades kept coming up winners in Roland "Rico" Chapa's blackjack hands last year, a dealer at the church festival called in the pit boss.

Other players at the table accused Chapa, a 67-year-old used-car dealer, of palming the cards from the deck.

Now, Chapa's 30-year lucky streak as a self-described bookmaker and "gangster" might be over after a Franklin County jury convicted him of cheating, a felony in Ohio for those like Chapa with a previous gambling conviction or someone who tries to corrupt the outcome of a bet of more than $500.

Money changed hands so fast at the St. Timothy Church fundraiser on July 14 that no one remembers how many hands Chapa played before pit boss Rob Gardner called him a cheat, said Assistant County Prosecutor Amanda Lowe.

Then festival organizers called authorities.

Lowe called five witnesses on Friday to prove the rarely-used criminal code before Common Pleas Judge Richard S. Sheward. One said a two of spades dropped from Chapa's slacks when he stood up to empty his pockets.

Chapa testified that he is a diabetic who drank too much that night and was left behind by two buddies. He said he walked into the festival with $650 and left with $450.

"I actually lost money that night. I told them (deputies) if the Catholics wanted more money, I'd have given them the $400 I had and kept $50 for a cab," he said in an interview before the verdict.

Chapa said sheriff's detectives have been after him for 10 years.

"They wanted me to rat out other bookmakers, and I don't know any."

Instead of arresting him, deputies called a cab and sent Chapa packing.

Chapa, who wore a white suit, black shirt and gold alligator belt buckle, seemed relaxed about his chances. When asked how long he has gambled, he replied, "Can I take the Fifth on that?"

It took a jury less than 30 minutes to convict him yesterday of cheating and possession of criminal tools. Sheward set sentencing for Aug. 6; Chapa faces up to two years in prison for the hustle. His daughter Katrina said authorities have harassed Chapa for more than 30 years.

"We will immediately appeal this," she said.

Defense attorney Lewis T. Dye told jurors that his client was too drunk to cheat.

"They waited six months after his last arrest to bring this case," said Dye, whose father has represented Chapa in earlier gambling cases.

Chapa's apartment at 6998 Sawmill Village Dr. on the Northwest Side was raided in 2007 as a sports bookmaking operation, the sheriff's office says. He agreed to plead to one count of gambling.

According to a search warrant, an investigation found that Chapa met customers at area sports bars and offered to take their bets for a 10 percent service charge.

Bets also were placed at the car lot where Chapa works.

An affidavit used to obtain the warrant said Chapa told a detective that he had been a bookmaker and "gangster" for more than 30 years.

Computerworld Magazine Uses Online Poker To Demonstrate Rampant Insider Cheating In The Business World

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:42:00 +0000

Computerworld article:

When determining the risk to a system and the data stored on it, insider threats are generally regarded as lower risk. Despite the complete access (high risk) that insiders generally have, most of the time insiders are trusted agents (very low risk) on the network. When it breaks down, it can break down in a catastrophic manner, especially if there is money at stake.

One such incident took place in the middle of last year when one or more individuals with trusted access to the systems of UltimateBet and Absolute Poker used that access to create several fake usernames and used them to make an undisclosed amount of money off online poker players. While creating the fake player accounts may not necessarily be cheating, it was the use of software that allowed the insiders to view the competing players' hole cards which was.

Absolute Poker was fined $500,000 in January for four breaches of the gaming commission's rules, three of which were for inaction or attempt to cover up the incident by the site. In addition to the fine, Absolute Poker will be subject to random auditing over the next 24 months, at their expense.

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Online poker playing has always been surrounded by the whispers of cheating when it comes to the actions of other players at the table and ongoing investigations with Absolute Poker turned up a more serious cheating scheme that had been operational for 21 months, completely encompassing the above incident, but unrelated.

When big money is on the virtual table for playing a card game across the Internet, people are going to be motivated to do what they can to weight the odds in their favor. At the $1.2 million 2007 World Championship of Online Poker, managed by PokerStars, the first place finisher was disqualified for cheating (believed to have been multiple accounts active at the same time to improve chances of winning, though at $2,500 per buy-in the cheating is believed to be somewhat more substantial).
Questions should now be asked about the sale of UltimateBet and Absolute Poker, given that the cheating was shown to have been ongoing from before the sale (October 2006) and that the individuals involved were shown to be linked to the company prior to the sale. With potentially multi-million dollar losses, fines, and refunds liable to be paid out there may be a case to be made against the previous owners.

New Florida Casino Cheats Candy Store Ready For Cheat Action!

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 19:16:00 +0000

Today the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel-Casino near Hollywood, Florida, expanded its casino to include a host of table games including blackjack, roulette, craps and poker carnival games such as Caribbean Stud, Pai Gow Poker and others. Before today´s dramatic changeover, the Seminole Hard Rock Casino was strictly a poker room facility. What does this mean as far as cheating is concerned?

Well, I´ll tell you this: If I were still a cheating man, I would be on the next plane to Fort Lauderdale, then driving my rental car to the Hard Rock Casino. Then I would run to the first new table game I saw, pop in a cheat move, then another and another...until I was too tired to stand in the casino!

As many of you might know from reading my book "American Roulette," new casinos (which the Hard Rock qualifies as since it is new to casino table games) are extremely vulnerable to professional cheating teams, and the Hard Rock is going to get hit...and hit hard! I have often stated that the only way I would ever come out of retirement to cheat casinos is if legalized gambling came to Miami Beach. Well, the Seminole Hardrock Cafe Casino is in South Florida, but it´s still just a few miles away from a Richard Marcus encore!

I have read articles in Florida´s newspapers this week about how the Hard Rock has been training its dealers at dealers schools to combat the cheaters. Well, I wish them a lot of luck!...And this whole event reminds me of Foxwoods in Connecticut when it opened back in ´92 and of the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast when casinos opened there that same year...Oh what bloodbaths they were for my cheating team! By blood, I mean rushing swells of $500 and $1,000 chips pouring into our pockets!!

I will keep you current on all the cheating action I hear about in Hollywood.

Swiss National Newspaper Article on Richrad Marcus

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 17:08:00 +0000

For those of you who don`t read German, this is a news article about me that appeared in Switzerland´s national newspaper, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. I was quite surprised to see that the Swiss are so interested in the life of a casino cheater, but I guess with the tremendous box office success of the blackjack movie "21," the whole world is enraptured by stories of how people beat casinos. If you want to read a very similar article in English, read this FHM article about my casino cheating career.

Die Abkürzung zur ersten MillionPräzises Timing, Psychologie und ein bisschen Mumm. Ein Amerikaner, der mit Betrug am Roulettetisch 20 Millionen Dollar verdient haben will, verrät seinen besten Trick. Von Andreas HirsteinToolboxDruckansicht

Fenster schliessen
«Pat war ein liebenswürdiger Kerl − ausser, dass Pat ein Dieb war, ein Dieb wie ich», sagt Richard Marcus. Über zehn Jahre lang betrogen die beiden Amerikaner mit weiteren Komplizen die grossen Kasinos dieser Welt: Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Monte Carlo, Baden-Baden. «Insgesamt haben wir 20 Millionen Dollar kassiert, bis ich mich an Silvester 1999 zur Ruhe gesetzt habe», behauptet Marcus, der heute wieder in seiner Heimat New Jersey und in Saint-Gervais am Fusse des Montblanc lebt.
Marcus war der Kopf der Bande: «Ich war der , wie wir es nannten. Rien ne va plus! − für Richard Marcus begann das Spiel so richtig erst mit diesem Satz. Marcus hatte die geschicktesten Hände. Von ihm stammten auch die Ideen für immer neue Betrugsvarianten. «Als in den achtziger Jahren über jedem Spieltisch Überwachungskameras angebracht wurden, war ich besessen von der Idee, die Technik zu überlisten. Und das habe ich auch geschafft: Mein -Spielzug ist der beste Kasino-Trick aller Zeiten. Da können Sie jeden Experten in der Branche fragen.»
Anzeige Das richtige TimingEin guter Betrüger, das ist nach Marcus' Definition immer auch ein netter Mensch. «Man braucht das richtige Timing, und man braucht Mumm. Aber vor allem muss man sympathisch wirken − so wie Pat», sagt Marcus. «Ich mochte ihn, alle mochten ihn, vor allem die Frauen. Und als er schliesslich auch am Spieltisch gut wurde, haben wir die Kasinos nur so ausgenommen.»
Insgesamt habe er fast 25 Jahre lang vom Betrug an den Roulette-, Black-Jack- und Baccara-Tischen dieser Welt gelebt. «Aber ich habe eigentlich mein ganzes Leben lang gezockt. Sein erstes grosses Geld verdiente er mit Pferdewetten. 20 000 Dollar. Das war sein Ticket nach Las Vegas. Im Hotel-Casino Riviera nahm er ein Zimmer, und er gewann. Nach einer Woche hatte er 100 000 Dollar. Doch der neue Reichtum zerrann schneller, als Marcus ihn angesammelt hatte. In einer einzigen Nacht verlor er alles. Als er die Hotelrechnung nicht mehr bezahlte, landete er auf der Strasse. Ohne Geld, ohne Job und ohne Ausbildung. Von seinen New Yorker Freunden wollte ihm niemand Geld leihen, und seine Eltern wollten nichts mehr von ihm wissen.
Nach ein paar Wochen ergatterte er einen Job im Four-Queens-Kasino. Nach zehn Monaten setzte sich ein Mann an Marcus' Baccara-Tisch. Er nannte sich Joe Classon, kam ebenfalls von der Ostküste und fragte Marcus, warum er das Kasino nicht bestehle − so wie alle anderen Angestellten. «Ich wolle meinen Job nicht wegen ein paar 5-Dollar-Chips gefährden, antwortete ich.»
Trotzdem trafen sich die beiden Männer nach Feierabend, und Marcus liess sich zu seinem ersten Betrug überreden. Jeweils am Ende seines Dienstes präparierte er den Kartenstapel, so dass Classon in der folgenden Schicht abkassieren konnte. Das funktionierte so gut, dass sich Marcus für eine Karriere als professioneller Betrüger entschied. Er kündigte seinen Job und wurde festes Mitglied in Joe Classons Betrügerbande.
«Joe hat mir alle seine Tricks beim gezeigt. Dabei verändert man seinen Wetteinsatz, wenn das Spiel schon entschieden ist. Er hat mir auch beigebracht, wie wichtig die Psychologie ist. Jedes Gehirn ist manipulierbar. Glauben Sie mir, sogar Einstein würde auf unsere Tricks reinfallen», sagt Marcus.
In einem seiner erfolgreichsten Spielzüge arbeitete Marcus in einem vierköpfigen Team: Er selbst, der als Mechaniker die eingesetzten Chips vertauscht; eine schöne Frau, die den Gewinn für sich reklamiert, und zwei Hilfs-Wetter, deren Aufgabe es ist, den Croupier für den Bruchteil einer Sekunde abzulenken.
Alle vier Teammitglieder beziehen zunächst ihre Position am Tisch. Die Frau besitzt zunächst fünf 100-Dollar-Chips. Einen tauscht sie gegen 100 1-Dollar-Chips ein und baut damit fünf Stapel vor sich auf. In den hintersten Stapel mischt sie zwei 100-Dollar-Chips und übergibt unbemerkt zwei weitere an den Mechaniker, der nun ebenfalls einen gemischten Stapel zusammenstellt.
Der Croupier kann die gemischten Stapel jedoch nicht sehen, weil sie hinter den niederwertigen Stapeln verborgen sind. Jetzt setzt die Spielerin jeweils fünf 1-Dollar-Chips auf neun unterschiedliche Zahlen. Falls eine dieser Zahlen gewinnt, tauscht der Mechaniker den entsprechenden Stapel durch den mit 100-Dollar-Chips «angereicherten» gemischten Stapel aus. Dies gelingt unbemerkt, weil der Croupier für den Bruchteil einer Sekunde wegsehen muss, wenn er die strategisch placierten Einsätze der Hilfs-Wetter abräumt.
Psycho-Verwirrspiel«Bis hierhin ist alles reine Mechanik», sagt Marcus. «Das genügt aber nicht. Der Croupier würde misstrauisch, wenn plötzlich 100-Dollar-Chips im Gewinnstapel auftauchen. Er würde sich weigern, den Gewinn auszuzahlen, ohne die Videoaufnahmen zu überprüfen.»
Deswegen folgt jetzt ein psychologisches Verwirrspiel, an dessen Ende sogar langjährige Kasinoangestellte wieder ans grosse Glück im Spiel glauben. Die Spielerin schiebt ihren gemischten Stapel in den Vordergrund. Dann beginnt sie laut auszurufen: «Oh, mein Gott! Wo sind meine beiden 100-Dollar-Chips? Ich habe sie verloren. Mein Mann bringt mich um!»
Auf dem Fussboden, in ihrer Handtasche, überall sucht sie hysterisch nach den Chips. Dann aber, im selben Moment, in dem der Croupier die beiden 100-Dollar-Chips im Gewinnstapel entdeckt, bricht die Spielerin in lauten Jubel aus: «Da sind sie. Ich kann es nicht fassen. Ich habe sie aus Versehen gesetzt, und sie haben gewonnen. Ich habe gerade 7000 Dollar gewonnen, 7000!»
«Sie müssen sich vorstellen», sagt Marcus: «Da steht eine hübsche Frau, die es niemals nötig hätte zu betrügen, die erst vor Panik zittert und dann in Freudentränen ausbricht − da ist sogar der Croupier glücklich, dass er auszahlen darf. Und schliesslich bekommt er auch noch einen 100-Dollar-Chip als Trinkgeld.»
Marcus ist in seiner fast 25-jährigen Karriere nie erwischt worden. Sechsmal wurde er in einem Hinterzimmer befragt. «Aber nachweisen konnte man mir nichts», sagt er. Beendet hat er seine Betrüger-Karriere, weil er genug verdient hatte. Von den 20 Millionen, blieben ihm 7.
Nichts, was Sie bereuen, Herr Marcus? «Nein. Ich liebte den Adrenalin-Kick. Wenn ich etwas bedaure, dann dass ich keine Familie habe. Meine Ehe ist gescheitert, aber das lag nicht an mir, sondern an der Drogensucht meiner Frau.» Zu seinen Eltern hat Marcus keinen Kontakt mehr, und auch zu seiner Schwester habe er kein gutes Verhältnis. «Aber ich bin nicht alleine. Ich habe Freunde.» Heute schreibt Marcus Bücher und betreibt eine Website. Seine Autobiografie «American Roulette» soll verfilmt werden. «Ich berate heute dieselben Kasinos, die ich früher betrogen habe. Die zahlen mir 5000 Dollar pro Tag.» Und die versteuert Marcus heute. Ganz ehrlich.

«Ich berate heute
dieselben Kasinos, die
ich früher betrogen
habe. Sie zahlen mir
5000 Dollar pro Tag.»

Rash Of Employee/Insider Slot Cheat Scams Rocking US Casinos

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 16:18:00 +0000

Nation´s New Slot Machine Casinos Will Have To Deal With Slot Machine Cheating and Slot Cheats Smarter Than Their Own Technicians And Security Staffs!

With new slot machine-only casinos popping up at racetracks all over the country and in states like Pennsylvania, cheat-wise employees are going into business for themselves. I have gathered information from both inside sources and newspapers that details some inventive new slot cheating scams put down by casino employees.

High-tech thieves have discovered a new way to rip off slot machines - stealing more than $1 million from the Orleans before management shut down their computer-assisted heist. Gaming regulators say the crime - one of the largest in years - shows a vulnerability in casino security that could lead to new surveillance standards. The theft began in September 2006 and allegedly involved three slot workers who, over several months, manipulated software that prints slot machine payout tickets. They allegedly worked with two accomplices who posed as customers and cashed the tickets.
One defendant, slot technician Seferino Romero, pleaded guilty last month and will be
sentenced in Clark County District Court on Jan. 24. Felony theft carries a maximum 10-year prison term. His attorney, Jeffrey Segal, said his client didn’t mastermind the heist and has agreed to pay restitution of $100,000. "I think that his actions subsequent to the conduct indicate that this is a person of good character who got caught up in something and realizes it was a mistake," Segal said.
The Orleans incident shows that other casinos are similarly vulnerable to inside jobs by casino workers, security experts say. Employee theft - sometimes as simple as pocketing cash or chips - is a recurring problem in the cash-rich industry, which can corrupt the most trusted employees. Most crimes are not publicized by casinos and regulators are reluctant to discuss them for fear of tipping thieves to new techniques. Boyd Gaming Corp., which owns the Orleans, declined to discuss the particulars of this case, which is still in progress. "It could compromise the investigation" and assist other cheats, spokesman Rob Stillwell said.
Four other defendants are awaiting arraignment next year on felony theft charges. The
Gaming Control Board’s enforcement chief says the Orleans incident was a new one to him, although it had a familiar ring to security experts.
In this case, Orleans workers printed winning tickets on test machines in a back room, using software allowing the machines to mimic machines on the slot floor that had been turned off, investigators told the Sun. The tickets were for relatively small amounts - a few hundred dollars each - to escape the notice of casino bosses. Stealing from cashless machines is a new challenge for thieves. Casinos have turned from coin slot machines to ticket machines because they are easily played and maintained and had been considered more secure than old-generation coin slots,
which skilled thieves could quickly compromise using mechanical tools such as magnets and metal wands. These newer thefts typically involve casino employees with access to sensitive areas of a casino’s nerve center. And therein lies the problem - and the solution - for casinos. The slot technicians involved in the Orleans theft had appropriate access to the slot testing room but probably shouldn’t have been allowed to tinker with the slot system that communicates with the machines on the floor without some interaction with other departments or higher-ups, said Jerry Markling, chief of the Gaming Control Board’s enforcement division. The good news for casinos is that "these are no longer easy scams" and can mostly be defeated with "strong internal controls," Markling said. Michael Crump, a Fresno-based slot
security consultant, said the Orleans case is typical of an emerging scam that is foiling casinos nationwide. Many casinos rely on manufacturers to create security clearances for casino employees to access their slot tracking software, said Crump, a former executive with Boyd Gaming in Las Vegas. But those casinos may lose track of what clearances those employees have, allowing them to exploit the system later on, he said. Typically, employees who steal have stumbled upon access they shouldn’t have, he said. What’s especially troubling for casinos is that some employees can cover their tracks by erasing transactions or signals that could red-flag auditors, he said. The theft came to light during last month’s Gaming Control Board meeting, when regulators discussed and approved a request by the South Point to put slot machines in a relatively remote part of its casino. Regulators worried about surveillance and the casino offered to post either a security guard or a slot technician at the machines. At the meeting, board member Randy Sayre said ticket machines may not be as secure as industry executives would like to believe. "It’s not just a matter of, we have got the room, we have the people to watch it, let’s put (slots) out there," he said. "Technology is moving forward on us and the bad guys are getting smarter." Regulators are loath to discuss details of how slot machines can be exploited, but indicated that, in a general sense, surveillance of the slots is important. Regulators generally require surveillance cameras on remote machines, though regulations specify dedicated cameras only for big jackpot machines. Some casinos don’t train cameras on machines that have been shut down. Cameras may not stop an actual theft but they can be used to watch employees who might be breaking some procedure by, say, not being on the floor when they should, Crump said. Still, security clearances, rather than surveillance, are the real culprit in this case, he said. Sayre says his concern isn’t with the distance of any particular slot machine from the main casino floor but the possibility that with the spread of slot machines into remote areas, a casino’s security staff could be spread too thin. He says a standard policy for surveillance of remote machines would help casinos and regulators combat crooks. Sayre wonders whether manning the machines with a gaming employee would be preferable to a guard, who is trained to spot underage gamblers but perhaps not as familiar with the technical aspects of the games and how they can be compromised by cheats. Casinos lose an estimated 6 percent of revenue to internal theft, which is chalked up as a cost of doing business, Crump said. Many thieves prefer to ply their trade at smaller casinos outside of Nevada with cruder security mechanisms, he said. But Las Vegas eventually attracts the
most accomplished and polished criminals, who try their hand here "to prove they can get away with it." The Orleans scam was hardly the perfect crime, Markling said. "It was only a matter of time" before the thieves were caught because the casino’s high-tech slot monitoring systems can detect deviations from the expected payout of any particular slot machine, he said.

Scam #2
Arizona ~ East Valley Tribune

Two employees of the Vee Quiva Casino in Laveen have been indicted for allegedly stealing $9,400 in non-existent slot machine jackpots. Jason C. Beal, 31, and Fernando Lechuga, 25, both of Phoenix, will be tried in January for theft by an officer or employee of a gaming establishment on Indian lands. If found guilty, they each face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $1 million. According to federal prosecutors, Lechuga, a slot attendant, and Beal, a slot assistant supervisor, wrote and signed jackpot slips for $4,900 and $4,500. A review of surveillance tapes confirmed the jackpots never occurred.

Scam #3
Florida . Sun Sentinel

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating an alleged slot-machine theft ring by employees at Gulfstream Park Racing & Casino. This is the first potential scandal for the fledgling industry, which is both heavily regulated and heavily taxed by the state. And I’m the one bringing you the news for one reason: The largest newspaper in Broward County, the Sun-Sentinel, had the story first but got cold feet and decided not to publish it. Before we examine the Sun-Sentinel’s apparent cowardice, let’s look at the emerging scandal at Gulfstream, one of the county’s four pari-mutuels and the first to unveil voterapproved, Las Vegas-style slot machines last year. FDLE spokeswoman Paige Patterson-Hughes confirmed that her agency, which has a regulatory office on Gulfstream grounds in Hallandale Beach, is criminally investigating the casino, although she declined to provide any details. The investigation is centered on promotional cards used to generate interest in the
slot machines, according to sources in the gambling industry and in Tallahassee.
Local casinos provide patrons with the cards, which usually hold $25 to $100 worth of "nonredeemable credits" to play the slots. Patrons can cash in any winnings beyond the card’s originally assigned value. Gulfstream employees are alleged to have exploited the promotion either by playing with large amounts of money on the cards or by their unauthorized selling. Cards used to test the machines also may have been involved in the scam, sources say. Sources also indicate that a Gulfstream executive has been removed from his post while this investigation continues. Gulfstream spokesman Mike Mullaney was almost laughably coy about this. When I asked whether the executive in question had been fired, Mullaney said, "I haven’t seen him around in a while." Mullaney downplayed the investigation. But Gulfstream’s filings to the state reveal that hundreds of thousands of dollars may have been involved in the alleged scam. Gulfstream reported that it gave out a whopping $1,051,000 in nonredeemable credits during July and August. In that same period, Mardi Gras Gaming, a larger casino that does about twice the slots business of Gulfstream, reported using only $108,000 of the credits. Since the investigation began, Gulfstream’s numbers have come back in line, according to state filings. In October, the casino reported using just $107,986 in nonredeemable credits, a huge decline from previous months. Mullaney claimed he wasn’t aware of those numbers. "I’ll have to defer to our accounting department about that," he said. "If there is an investigation, any comment I make could jeopardize it." Mullaney did offer that he had heard people were speculating that millions of dollars were involved in a Gulfstream theft. "I can’t imagine it’s millions of dollars," said. "That boggles the mind." Mardi Gras President Dan Adkins said the Gulfstream investigation could
have far-ranging effects on the industry, which is already hampered by an effective 62-percent tax rate. "To have something like this, which is a scar, a black mark, on all the hard work we’ve done . it hurts me," he said. Mardi Gras would have caught the anomalous numbers immediately, Adkins said, due to its "controls and sophisticated accounting system." State Sen. Steve Geller, who confirmed that the FDLE investigation involves allegedly misused nonredeemable credits, said pari-mutuels are so strictly regulated that any scams are bound to be discovered sooner or later. "It’s impossible to get away with, but the higher up the ladder it goes in terms of management, the longer it takes to get caught," he said. Mullaney said Gulfstream has fully cooperated with the investigation. "As a gaming enterprise, integrity and dignity and credibility are of utmost importance to us," he said. "It’s
in our best interest to play ball with FDLE, which is stationed here anyway." Meanwhile, Mullaney said the first call from the media about the investigation did not come from me but from Sun-Sentinel reporter John Holland. Mullaney said Holland asked him questions and told him the daily newspaper was going to publish an article about the investigation nearly two weeks ago. "But the days came and went without a story," Mullaney told me. "I wasted two dollars and five cents on the Sentinel looking for that story." Holland declined to comment. Sources at the Sun-Sentinel say his article about the investigation was edited and vetted by a lawyer, then killed at the last minute. Earl Maucker, the paper’s executive editor, at one point told Holland to speak with a Gulfstream executive who wanted the story spiked, a veteran Sun-Sentinel reporter said. Gulfstream regularly runs large ads in the Sun-Sentinel. Maucker did not return my calls for comment. Others at the Sun-Sentinel say they heard the story was not published because editors were concerned that it used unnamed sources and because editors were worried that such news could harm the gambling industry. Some in the newsroom were angered by the decision. "A
lot of people are upset about it," one reporter told me. The Sun-Sentinel’s circulation has plummeted lately. At the same time, the paper is undergoing what its management calls "transformative change." To some degree, this entails blending reporting with advertising and marketing. The idea is to better serve advertising
clients as well as readers, even as readers fall away. Traditionally, reporting has been kept strictly separate from the interests of advertisers. The fate of the Gulfstream story in the Sun-Sentinel’s newsroom could be a sign that the paper is not just bridging departments but that its hunt for revenues in an increasingly grim industry has overtaken its journalism, which would be far worse than whatever happened on the slots floor of a local casino.

Scam #4

Intelligence received: A casino reports the detection of an employee working in collusion with outside agents to steal downloadable credits from slot machines. The employee worked in the rewards center and loaded up unearned and undeserved credits onto cards for friends/family. A significant amount of money was stolen. Some of the tells seen when these cards were used: - Suspects had multiple cards in possession and used all - Print out of TITO or cash out credits after every win - No further
play when e-play was used up - Account in false name or identities (player did not match description)
- Kiosks were used to cash in for relatively small amounts $50, $100 etc.
- Employee used another clerk.s computer log-in and password. Noted in paperwork: -
Blocks of numbered card stock were taken in quantity by employee.
- PIN numbers changed frequently on accounts (every few minutes)
It is recommended PIN changes, redemption lists and card issuance reports be checked on a routine basis.

Ripping Off Las Vegas Three Times A Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:06:00 +0000

LAS VEGAS’S FAMOUS CHECK ROLLER

What is a check roller? Naturally it’s someone who rolls a check, but the occupation here is applicable only to casino restaurants. The term was born in recognition of the bust-outs who preferred eating in casinos to soup kitchens when they went broke. So after the meal when the waitress put the check on the table, the bust-out simply rolled it up inside his folded newspaper and walked out, but not before stopping at the cash register to change a quarter for two dimes and a nickel, just to make it look good in case the waitress was watching as she cleared her table. If the bust-out was completely broke, then at the cash register he stopped only for a toothpick or a mint. Another term for rolling checks was “putting it on your Dine and Dash card,” though that meant you were probably being chased by a very pissed off waitress.
In Las Vegas hundreds (sometimes thousands) of checks are rolled every day, more than any other city. Same was true back in the eighties when a man nicknamed Neal Beat A Meal roamed the city’s casinos looking for coffee shops where he would beat his meals. He did it three times a day, reading his newspaper as he peacefully ate breakfast, lunch and dinner, then folded the check inside the paper and waltzed by the cash register and out the door. He kept records of his escapades, which avoided his going to the same coffee shop too soon. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred he was clean as a whistle. No one noticed him go. But once in a while a sharp waitress caught on to him and followed him to the register. When she saw he grabbed a toothpick instead of paying the check and then screamed for him to come back and pay, which of course he never did, the chase was on.
Neal Beat A Meal always got away but sometimes it was a close shave, especially when he had to run through casinos and escape security guards. Finally, word of his jaunts through the coffee shops spread up and down the Strip and casino security forces began an all-out operation to snag him. They gleaned photos of him taken from casino surveillance cameras, blew them up to life-size images and hung them on the walls of coffee shop kitchens so the wait staff would recognize him on the spot. Then they began lying in wait for him outside the restaurants.
But they were no match for the seasoned meal-beater. Neal Beat A Meal would not even let them spoil his appetite. Nor would he cut short his meals, always ordering sumptuous desserts like layer and cheesecake after his main course at lunch and dinner. Then he’d wait for the security men’s attention to waver and at the right moment make his move to disappear from the coffee shop right under their noses.
Finally, the Las Vegas police were called in. They actually set up an undercover operation to bag Vegas’s notorious meal-beater. But Neal Beat A Meal caught on to them, too. And he enjoyed a challenge. So he began making his thrice a day outings to casino coffee shops in disguise. Sometimes with a cane, sometimes as a cowboy. Even as a woman. Not to give himself away, he made sure to vary the dishes he chose from the menu. He also abandoned the newspaper, which really threw the cops for a loop. And when word about this unusual police undercover operation leaked out, Neal Beat A Meal appeared in the newspaper, and he couldn’t resist carrying that paper with his photo in it into the Stardust coffee shop one morning. He blissfully read the article about himself as he took his morning coffee with pancakes, eggs and hash browns. The waitress didn’t recognize him but two plainclothes cops at an adjacent table did. And this time they took no chances. They called for backup and the cops covered every exit out of the casino. If Neal Beat A Meal could escape that dragnet, the chief of Las Vegas detectives later confided to reporters, then he’d personally take the meal-beater out to dine in Vegas’s most expensive restaurant.
When the judge asked Neal Beat A Meal how many meals he thought he’d beat in his lifetime, the defendant replied in an unwavering and even proud voice, “Oh, I’d say around ten thousand.” The judge guffawed and then sentenced him to five hundred hours of community service, and specified that it be served as a waiter in a hospital cafeteria. When those hours were completed Neal Beat A Meal was hired as a waiter at the Stardust coffee shop, a restaurant he figured he’d beat at least a hundred times. He worked there twenty years. Then one night while carrying his tray he had a heart attack and died. His last words to a fellow waitress were that he’d always had a soft spot for the occasional bust-out who came to his table, ate a hearty meal and rolled the check.

$100,000 Roulette Cheat Computer! But Does It Work?

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:00:00 +0000

Hybrid Roulette Computers are the latest phase of roulette cheating, but the pricetag on it is a bit hefty: $100,000! But it is worth it? Before I tell you, read all about them below, lots of hype like all the other roulette computer hawkers, but is this one finally the real deal? Well, we shall see.

HOW TO WIN AT ROULETTE! GUARANTEED ROULETTE STRATEGY!

Cheat at roulette with a powerful electronic devices that have literally won millions (LEGAL in most countries). This is the only device of its kind available anywhere.

What is a Hybrid Roulette Computer?
Point a hidden camera at the wheel, and a computer tells you where the ball will land . . . sound like a fantasy? It's not. It's the Hybrid Roulette Computer System - by far the most effective roulette prediction device available anywhere, and the most effective way to win at roulette. This is not exactly a roulette strategy, it is an electronic cheating device.

The Hybrid is the envy of other casinos cheating technology and roulette strategy developers. It is not available anywhere else, and no other cheating device is anywhere near as effective or covert.

Indeed we do use it ourselves, but there are far too many casinos world-wide for us to apply it in all casinos, which is why we can afford to offer a few of them publicly. Let us make this perfectly clear: the Hybrid not only CAN earn you millions, it is LIKELY to earn you millions. The technology is not to be taken lightly. Additionally, as we use the technology ourselves, we do not offer it to just anyone - you must meet us personally and meet specific security requirements.

See a personal demonstration
We have conducted many demonstrations of our technology to both large and small audiences. On most occasions though, group sizes range from 1 to 15 individuals.

Image left: One of our demonstrators exhibiting our Hybrid Roulette Computer. The actual camera for the Hybrid can be miniature and kept close to the wheel, or hidden as far as 50 meters from the wheel. It can even obtain a view of the wheel from ceiling reflections to ensure line-of-sight.

We prefer to keep groups small and personal. Demonstrations to larger audiences are more to establish clear proof of effectiveness with many witnesses, whereas demos to smaller audiences are more for serious players who have intent to purchase our technology. If you are seeing a demonstration with intent to purchase, you are required to sign a non-disclosure agreement, and there are other requirements specified on the purchase page.

If you are merely curious, you can attend a larger group demo, although such public demonstrations are censored, and you only see what you need to see to know without a doubt our claims are accurate. For example, at a larger group demo, you will clearly see accuracy rates of 1 in 10-15, but you will not be permitted to inspect the equipment or be privy to information relating to its operation. But if you attend a personal demo with intent to purchase, you will see everything. Additionally, at any of our demonstrations, you can see other roulette cheating devices - you can test them personally and decide for yourself if competing devices are scams. Unfortunately we've found other sellers of roulette prediction technology blatantly lie about their products - most cheating device sellers are extremely dishonest.

Image right: demonstration of other cheating devices available. How they work and why they are ineffective.

If you attend any of our demonstrations, rest assured your identity and/or any photos or footage of you are kept strictly private. We know very well an important factor for beating casinos is anonymity. In most cases we require photo ID before admittance is granted, and our security staff may note details such as your driver's license number, although such information is retained purely for security reasons.

If you wish to purchase censored video or audio of a public demonstration, or to attend a public or private demonstration, please contact us.

How effective is the Hybrid?
Once the camera is aimed, the equipment automatically predicts where the ball is most likely to land. The ball and wheel speed is measured automatically, so there is no human error involved, and user skill or fatigue is irrelevant. This enables extremely accurate and early predictions to win, without many manual clicks of a button (as is traditionally done), and without the user needing to even look at the wheel.

Predictions are relayed to one or more players, and if you bet on just one number, you win once about every 10-15 spins, without even needing to look at the wheel. This is an enormous edge over the casino, and it's completely covert.

If you bet on just one number, you win once every 10-15 times, instead of the usual 1in 37 times. You don't just beat roulette, you obliterate the house edge

But is it LEGAL?
Contrary to popular belief, this computer system is actually LEGAL in approximately half of the world's casinos. How is this possible? It is because most gaming laws state that a player may not force or influence the outcome of spins, but they do not at all state your cannot "predict" spins. This provides Hybrid players with a unique and perfectly legal strategy for earning potentially millions, yes millions. It will not be an opportunity that will last forever though.

But legal or not, of course casinos don't like you applying such technology to beat roulette. If they find you are using a cheating device, they can and will likely ban you. This is why such cheating devices must be applied covertly. Covert application does not make it illegal, and you can't be charged for winning if you aren't breaking any laws.

NOTE: Purchasers are told exactly where the device is legal. However, purchasers should always do their own research for confirmation.

Roulette cheating devices are LEGAL in most jurisdictions because they do not influence game outcomes - they merely predict them.

We're not in the business of helping players break the law. If you purchase any of our technology, you are required to sign agreements stating your will not use the technology to play roulette illegally. However, application is mostly legal anyway. But that doesn't mean casinos will permit the technology, which is why it is applied covertly.

How much does it cost?
There are different versions of the Hybrid, and many equipment options available. Ultimately the options you choose determines the price. The approximate price range varies between US$25,000 - US$100,000, which is a small price considering your investment can be returned within 24hrs of play (However, realistically you should NOT win too much too soon - you should win discretely to avoid detection).

What are the options? . . . To maintain secrets, you need to visit us personally to discuss the full range of options. However, a basic outline of two different packages you can purchase are below:

Full Package (The best of everything for highest accuracy possible)

Accuracy (direct number hit rate): 1 in 10

Price: US$100,000

This package is for the most serious teams. Almost all components are entirely custom-made to ensure small size, covertness, accuracy and practicality. You receive everything from a miniature 100x zoom camera, to state of the art fully custom-made image recognition engines [IREs] that can determine the ball's location within an accuracy of 5mm per video frame.

Basic Package (The bare essentials for covert and practical application)

Accuracy (direct number hit rate): 1 in 15

Price: US$25,000

The basic package still includes everything you need, including custom image recognition engines, although the technology is not as small, not as sophisticated, and not as accurate. For example, you receive a 40x zoom camera instead of the 100x zoom camera. Additionally, the image recognition processor is less powerful, although still determines the ball's location within an an accurate of 10mm per video frame. Overall, the components are larger and less covert, although by no means difficult to conceal.

NOTE: The above packages are regarding version 1 Hybrids only. Hybrid version 2 is not available to the public. You can add components to the basic package to suit your needs. You must visit us personally to discuss details and pricing of optional components. There is an enormous range of options to choose from, each with varying associated costs. The only way to obtain details of the options is to visit us personally - after all you need to physically see and test the various options and components to know what you want, and we need to teach you how to use the equipment.

It's not a matter of how much you can win, it's how much you can win without drawing undue attention.

IMPORTANT: Availability and stock is strictly limited. While some components can be readily made / assembled by our technicians, some of the equipment has been made purely under contract from specialist companies. While we have recently been able to purchase additional stock, we have no plans to purchase further stock. This means once the current stock is sold or used by partners, the opportunity will not be available any longer.

Browse our site and learn more. To acquire our Hybrid, please first Contact Us to schedule a meeting in person with us. You will witness a full demonstration on a real wheel and see full capabilities before purchasing. If you are not interested in cheating devices, learn about our roulette strategy.

MY TAKE:

Like all the roulette computers hawked on the Internet before it, this hybrid computer is somewhat effective, at least according to people I´ve talked with who´ve witnessed it being used in live casino play. The problem is that it is not effective enough to justify the huge price, and when the sellers mention that the computer´s cost can be won back in a single night, they are way off line. What they don´t tell you is the heat you will take winning that kind of money (if it could really be done), and that you will be barred very quickly from casinos where computer play is not against the law.

Remember, the most important point about any roulette computer play is the same as in blackjack card counting: Stay under the heat and be content to win little chunks of money at a time. In the long run you will last a lot longer and win more money.

Are Online Casinos As Cheat Risky As Online Poker Rooms?

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:06:00 +0000

You certainly can feel safer while gambling at online casinos playing blackjack, craps, roulette and baccarat than you can while playing online poker, right? Of course you can! Why? Because when you are playing any of those casino games you are playing against the casino only. When you’re playing online poker, you’re playing against other players who might have the incentive to cheat you with bots and collusion methods of play. Even more important is the fact that while playing in online casinos you face much less risk of being cheated by employees of the sites or ex-employees of the sites who have access to the source codes. For instance, in the recent online poker insider-hole-card scams, employees or ex-employees of Absolute Poker and UltimateBet used their access codes to peek at opponents’ hole cards, allowing them to cheat their victims mercilessly. This kind of cheating would not occur in online blackjack, roulette or craps games because other players would gain absolutely nothing from your losses. There could not be bots or collusion efforts against you either. Does this mean you are absolutely free of cheating threats while gambling at online casinos? No, but it makes you much safer than when playing online poker. There is still of course the remote possibility of running into a crooked online casino whose software is rigged to cheat you, but since the very early days of online gambling there has not been any major cases of casinos messing around with random number generators, and in the last few years I have not heard of any major online casinos simply absconding with players’ funds.

So in all, do not worry about being cheated in online casinos. As far as online poker goes, don’t worry about cheating too much—just keep in the back of your mind that it’s part of the game.

Can a Fart Spoil a Million-Dollar Scam?

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 17:16:00 +0000

THE POWER OF A FART

Can a fart spoil a million-dollar scam? Just ask Mumbles and Wheels, two elderly casino grifters who’d been grinding it out for fifty years in Vegas’s dingy downtown gambling joints before discovering the power of a fart. Mumbles had lost his voice to throat cancer and Wheels his legs to shrapnel in the Great War supposed to end all wars. But this did not hinder their old-age ingenuity. They came up with the greatest dice-switching scam in the history of craps, a perfect plan with each minutia examined the way the allies must have studied coordinates for Operation Overlord before their D-Day landing on Omaha Beach. At the precise moment, with all the diversions and distractions in place, the legitimate dice were switched out of play and replaced by their “tumblers.” But one distraction they didn’t count on during Mumbles’ first fateful throw of their crooked dice, on which they’d bet their entire bankroll, was that Wheels would blow a silent but deadly fart from his wheelchair at the crucial moment of release. Mumbles, overcome by the smell, threw the crooked dice too hard and they skidded over the table’s wall and out of play on the floor beyond. Amazingly enough, the dice retrieved by a craps shooter at the opposite end of the table from the two old-timers were not the ones Mumbles had tossed but his own crooked dice that worked on an entirely different principle from those of Mumbles and Wheels. He, too, was a professional dice-switcher and had capitalized on Mumbles’ errant throw to sneak his own crooked cubes into the game. Unfortunately for Mumbles and Wheels they did not notice this, and when Mumbles rolled the other guy’s crooked dice, expecting a seven, they came up “snake-eyes,” causing them to crap out and lose their entire bankroll on that very first roll of their scam. All because of a fart. Had Wheels been able to restrain himself they probably would have become millionaires instead of going to the grave broke.

What Is The Real Future Of Online Poker?

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 17:11:00 +0000

Back in April, 2006, in the final chapter of my book “Dirty Poker,” What does the future hold for online poker?, I made the bold prediction that unless some drastic security measures were taken, online poker would within a decade “go the way of dinosaurs.” Well, only two years and a few months have passed since then, and my prediction, in spite of the fact that many people thought I was crazy for making it, is right on course to become reality.

In the past year we have seen one major online poker cheating scam after another. They have come from the inside, from the outside, from the deeper inside, from the farther outside, and from the middle of all of that. We have seen multi-accounting, botting, collusion, hole-card-peeking, funds-stealing and even sophisticated money laundering schemes through online poker accounts. We’ve seen heralded players exposed as super frauds. We’ve seen respected poker magazine editors and writers fired from their jobs because of their implication in cheating rings. We’ve seen online gambling sites’ owners and employees, and thousands more ambitious cheats attacking the integrity of online poker—and succeeding in raking in tremendously large pots.

But does all this mean that online poker is doomed the way I said it was? Does it mean that in another five years 95% of players playing online (or should I say people occupying online poker tables with whatever means including human beings?) will be doing everything but playing legitimate poker hands? Well, if I had to answer this question right now, I would say that online poker will not be extinct in eight more years, but I would also say that unless some serious measures are taken (and I do not know if those measures are even possible to offset much of the cheating), we will have very little honest online poker games going on. But the irony of that dire outlook is that it might not even matter. People playing online poker might come to think of cheating as the norm and accept it, which means that it might just become incorporated as part of the strategy of the game. For instance, the competition of thinking simple and complex poker strategies we see now might give way to a competition of writing simple and complex poker bot programs. The use of sophisticated bots equipped with artificial intelligence might become so ordinary that hooking them up will be nothing more out of the ordinary than keying in your credit card numbers or whatever the source of your account funding might be.

Another way to look at the “online poker cheating revolution” is to see it the way we have seen the very game of poker change over the past few decades. Before we even had online poker we had five- and seven-card stud in brick and mortar poker rooms. The word “Texas” being bandied about around poker tables only had significance as to where a great percentage of the table’s occupants may have come from. But now “Texas” is the holy grail of poker. And just the same, cheating may become just that of online poker.

The point is that the cheating might only serve to increase the competition, as we have seen in several mock or serious bot tournaments, depending how you look at them. The old adage “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” might be the defining moment for the future of online poker. Whatever the case, I now hardly believe that online poker will ever disappear from the cyberworld, and inasmuch I doubt that online sites will ever be able to stop all the cheating…from either the inside, outside, middle, top or bottom. What I do think is that online poker will go on regardless of its degree of corruption.

Why? Because the competitive element in all of us will make us strive to be the best we can be—no matter how we may “be” that way. And the writing of this article has nothing to do with baseball and steroids…or at least I thought it didn’t.

Are Online Poker Sites Purposely Cheating Their Players?

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:59:00 +0000

According to a MajorWager interview with Jay Lakin of Pokersourceonline.com, the answer is no, but you can´t be surprised that lots of people in and around the online poker world are questioning whether or not the poker sites are cheats themselves.

Here is Hartley Henderson´s account of his interview with Jay Lakin.

"The other day I received an invitation to conduct an interview with Jay Lakin from Pokersourceonline.com, a very large poker affiliate site. My first inclination was to decline the invitation since my articles generally don't focus on poker. But as a result of many incidents occurring with online poker of late (including the scandals at Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet), I decided to take Mr. Lakin up on his offer. After all, Jay is very close with all the poker sites and knows the ins and outs of the industry as well as anyone online. There were no restrictions on my line of questioning.

My first question to Jay concerned the Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet scandals. For anyone who isn't familiar with the incidents, both sites were found to have "super users" that were able to see the hole cards of other players. The case was brought to light last year when a player in one of Absolute Poker's large buy-in tournaments suspected that another player at the table was playing unusually and he believed he was somehow cheating. Absolute Poker sent the player a list with every hand that was played at the table along with information on the observers. After examining each hand it was clear that the winner was indeed cheating. The cheater was a former manager at the site who had the ability to see the hole cards of other players and played accordingly, easily winning the tournament. For their part Absolute Poker did a full investigation and subsequently refunded the entry fee for all the players in the tournament. Recently the same thing happened at Ultimate Bet, which like Absolute Poker operates from Kahnawake.

The obvious question regarding the scandal was, why it was allowed to occur in the first place? Why do these super users exist? I asked Jay. What possible reason is there for a site to have the ability to see hole cards?

"It had to do with the early testing stages of the site," Jay answered. "Supervisor accounts existed in the early days so that owners could see the hole cards to test the software. Seeing the hole cards would tell if the software was operating correctly." According to Jay, the idea was that the supervisor accounts were to be deleted once the site went live, but two of the supervisor accounts were kept by mistake. Unfortunately a couple of seedy managers who still had access to the supervisor accounts after leaving the company decided to use it to cheat others. "What they did is no different than someone going to a bank and sticking a gun in a teller's face" Jay said. Lakin says he knows the owners of both sites well, however, and is certain that the supervisor accounts were not left open on purpose. Lakin also noted that Absolute Poker made full restitution to players, and then added some security features to their software to try and stop any similar recurrence. One such feature was a block on any account from changing a screen name. Apparently this was a common technique to try and block one's identity from others. "Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet are probably the safest sites to play at right now," Lakin commented.

Asked what could be done to ensure incidents like that never occur again or that collusion doesn't occur in Poker, Lakin said it was impossible. "If people are determined to cheat they will find a way. People can create virtual accounts, they can make up IP addresses, use Proxy servers, etc. The companies try to stop the cheating, but if someone is savvy enough they can get around it," Lakin stated. Jay suggested that sites are always looking to catch suspicious play and have people watching 24/7 for tell-tale signs. The poker operators also have very sophisticated technology running algorithms, tracking IP addresses, looking for transfers between players, etc. But Lakin suggested the only real way to catch cheaters is for the players to step up to the plate when they see something fishy going on, as happened with the Absolute Poker incident. "If someone raises a concern, the sites take it seriously," Jay commented. "Otherwise, people will spread the word and players will go to other sites." Jay's biggest disappointment with the whole incident is the fact that the cheaters are still walking free in the streets of Costa Rica.

My next question to Jay concerned the sites themselves and whether he thought that they tampered with the software to ensure bad beats in the lower dollar games as many have contended. The belief here is that while software is run by a random number generator, the RNG can be set in such a way that it only gives random numbers within a range on the turn and river for certain games in an attempt to affect the outcome. The reasoning behind this is that it would provide incentive for the fish to keep playing believing they are good players. Note, while I never believed personally in the theory, the question has been raised on various poker forums. In Jay's opinion, the whole notion that poker sites are purposely cheating players is ludicrous. "As long as poker rooms are making money on the rake there is no need to cheat," Jay commented. While he has a bit more hesitation about online casinos where the house makes money on players losing, Jay thinks it would be insane for a poker site to cut its own throat by cheating players when the site has no vested interest in which players win. Jay believes the bad beats that occur frequently in low dollar games and tournaments are a result of players playing too many hands and poor play in general. Whenever someone loses with pocket aces to 3-5 suited in a real game it's the luck of the draw. When someone loses with the same hand online it's because the fix is in. According to one poker site, it has a staff member whose main job is to respond to complaints that the site is rigged. The staff member has to explain that more hands are played online than in real games, as well as other facts that explain bad beats. Jay also believes that these lower staked hands feature people who graduate from the free games and the .net sites. "I tell people all the time," Jay said, "playing at .net sites will only worsen your game. If you want to improve you have to play for real money."

For my next line of questioning I turned to the issue of the Poker Player's Alliance and the Frank and Wexler bills. My two main questions were: 1) how pokersourceonline.com is affiliated with the PPA and 2) what he feels about PPA's seeming desire to sell sports betting down the river to achieve the legalization of poker. Jay said that he is not affiliated with PPA and personally believes that all online gambling should be legal, but he fully understands PPA's desire to want to disassociate itself from other forms of gambling. "Wexler's bill couldn't be clearer," Jay said. "It wants to legalize skill games online and the differentiation is whether one is playing against another player or against the house." Jay doesn't buy the argument that sports betting is still player vs. player (even though, in theory, the sportsbooks balance their action based on how players bet either side.) He also isn't convinced that sites like Betfair or Matchbook is skill simply because one player sets the line and another takes it. Jay's feeling is that as long as they stick to their guns of trying to legalize the skill game of poker, PPA has a shot. If PPA were to venture off track they could lose the battle. In Jay's mind the UIGEA carved out exemptions for horse racing and lotteries which are clearly based only on luck. Therefore the belief is that if a law can make exemptions for games of luck it must provide exemptions for games of skill. "The fact that the same faces are at the final tables of every poker event negates the propensity of luck like that you would find in picking a lottery ticket," Jay commented. Nevertheless, Jay also feels that if poker is legalized eventually courts will rule that all gambling must be legalized. "If someone goes to a liquor store they aren't told that vodka is legal but you can't buy the gin. It makes no sense." In the meantime, PPA has over a million members and is right now looking out solely for the interests of poker, and if that means that it has the appearance of selling out sports betting, so be it. For his part, Jay makes it clear that his site is just an affiliate site and not associated with PPA. Pokersourceonline does post news articles on all gambling and often features ones from MajorWager. Their forum, devoted to poker, has over 130,000 members.

During the discussion of the the UIGEA and the PPA an interesting side discussion took place regarding the law about promotion of gambling. The Feds seem to want to outlaw promotion of gambling, as can be seen by the cases launched by the DOJ against Google, Yahoo, Esquire and The Sporting News, yet every televised poker event features all the stars in Poker Stars or Full Tilt Poker gear. "Why do you think that is?" Jay Lakin asked me. For my part I assumed it had to do with the fact the players wore shirts that had .net on it, but anyone with half a brain can see through that. After all the .net site is just window dressing for the real .com site where anyone can play for real money. Full Tilt and Poker Stars aren't paying these celebrities hundreds of thousands of dollars and paying tournament fees to promote an "information site." But Jay also wanted to point out that all the poker magazines feature ads for online gambling and are never approached by the DOJ for compensation or told to cease advertising poker immediately. All the magazines operate in the U.S. "Bluff magazine has a big building in Atlanta," Jay said "And Card Player has a huge office in Las Vegas. They all run poker ads, but the difference between them and The Sporting News is that poker ads represented a tiny percentage of the advertising for The Sporting News. For Bluff and Card Player it's everything." Consequently Jay is certain that when managers for The Sporting News met they decided it wasn't worth their while to try and fight the DOJ on this. $7.2 million was a small price to pay to get the Department of Justice off their backs and the loss of revenue from online gambling ads was negligable. Bluff and Card Player magazine, on the other hand, are able to operate strictly due to poker ads. Consequently if they were to agree to drop poker advertising for their magazines they may as well fold (pardon the pun). Similarly, with players like Phil Ivey, Allan Cunningham and Chris Ferguson, the advertising gear they wear gives them a reason to play in all these tournaments. They are American citizens and have the right to wear what they want. Jay is convinced that the reason the magazines and players were not approached by the DOJ and told to cease advertising gambling ads as The Sporting News was told to do is that the players, realizing their future earnings could be at stake, and the magazines, realizing their existence is on the line, would take the Department of Justice to court. And the last thing the DOJ wants is to test the law in the courts. Until now the law has never really been tested and the government is fearful that perhaps if the case does go to the courts, the judges will rule that the law is a violation of free speech. If that happens it would open up the floodgates to advertising in the U.S. for online gambling along with other vices the government really would rather not see advertised stateside. So the easiest way for the DOJ to accomplish their goal is to go only after companies it knows won't challenge them in the court of law. It is noteworthy that poker is often testing the reach of the law and thus far has not been touched. The World Poker Tour has a site called clubwpt.com where people can subscribe to the site for a $20 a month fee, and in turn they can play poker tournaments against each other for prizes like free entry fees to real WPT tournaments and every night they have $1,000 tournaments for members. The site makes it clear that "it's not gambling" because people don't actually have money in their account, but really there is no difference in paying a fee to play in a tournament at Full Tilt Poker or paying a fee to play in a tournament at clubwpt. The World Poker Tour also has a site that offers gambling but not to American players. It should be noted that Mega$ports was forced to declare bankruptcy for hosting an online gambling site that only catered to customers in Australia.

Lastly, I questioned Jay Lakin about the Party Poker billion dollar offer to settle with the Department of Justice. I couldn't fathom why a company would pay a billion dollars for such a minor thing as the option of stepping foot again in the United States. "When you're rich it's not a minor thing," Jay replied. "The ability to go to the United States without fear of prosecution probably isn't worth a billion dollars to you or me, but to someone worth at least $7 billion it very well may be." As well, Jay is certain that the Party Poker owners are still concerned about the long reach of the Department of Justice; after all, Gary Kaplan and Stephen Lawrence were extradited from foreign countries to face prosecution in the United States. Lakin agreed there could be other extenuating circumstances, such as a sweet deal for Party Gaming if and when online gambling becomes legal in the United States, but he's not sure that's the main impetus. Asked why Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker seem to be getting off unscathed by the DOJ, Lakin points out that both places are located offshore. Poker Stars is in the Isle of Man, and unlike the owners of Party Poker, the owners of Poker Stars likely couldn't care less if they step foot in the U.S. again. Moreover, only Party Poker was incorporated and needs to answer to shareholders and the regulatory body where they are incorporated. The owners and management of Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker only have to answer to themselves.

Asked it he had a preference in the upcoming U.S. election, Lakin (like everyone in the gaming industry I have put the question to) stated he wants to see a Democrat win. "When you look at the UIGEA and similar bills it's always the Republicans behind [them]. And all bills that counter the UIGEA are being put forth by Democrats." When I mentioned that Barak Obama is a well known poker player, Lakin responded, "I don't know if that matters. I'm sure George Bush and John McCain play poker as well. But it's not about playing poker, it's about the superiority of telling you that they believe what's better for you than you do."

Online Poker And Casino Owners Are Cheats Themselves!

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:52:00 +0000

No one should be surprised by this, but a study has come out that confirms our greatest fears...or expectations...that a big chunk of online casino and poker website owners are cheats themselves. Don´t forget, that Party Poker itself was founded by an ex-porno magnate who herself has a dubious history with the law.

One of the myriad of problems caused by the United States' continuing attempts to prohibit online gambling and shut down online casinos is the unintended consequence that remaining online operators tend to be less scrupulous.

A study by Professor Juan Manuel, a Guatemalan expert in business development, has found that 15% of online casino owners have a criminal record. The studt determined this via a random sampling of 119 owners.

By trying to cast all online gambling activity as criminal, the U.S. has encouraged an unsavory element to assume ownership of many online casinos. Men like Calvin Ayre, sporting lengthy histories of legal shenanigans, take advantage of opportunities law-abiding citizens may regretfully decline.

Just as prohibition of alcohol did not prevent drinking, but rather created a class of vicious robber barons, prohibition of online gambling has given great wealth to untrustworthy men.

Regulation would ensure honesty and fairness in play, avoiding unseemly scandals such as the recent cheating discovered at UltimateBet and AbsolutePoker. It would also bring in a huge source of tax revenue, rather than spending millions prosecuting dubious cases.

There is no doubt online gaming is an expanding and growing business. The United States could solve the issues listed above and placate their trade partners, all by simply enacting a reasonable plan for regulation.

Poker Humor At It´s Best!

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 21:53:00 +0000

With all the cheating scandals and dark clouds hanging over the online poker world these days, of which I´ve been blogging about, I think it´s high time for a bit of poker humor--online poker humor of course!

So please read this little tale and enjoy a laugh before you go back to your favorite online poker room and risk getting scammed, cheated, defrauded, bilked or even worse!

POKER THIEVES NAB 273 QUADRILLION CHIPS!!!

On the Internet, no one knows your dog plays poker, but PokerBlokes.net, a popular online poker site, was robbed of 273 quadrillion chips in a daring heist over the weekend. Investigators are describing it as the largest theft of play money in history.

According to a police report, two men showed up at PokerBlokes headquarters on Saturday morning, posing as florists. One man distracted an employee while the other man set a large potted plant in the lobby. The pot was large enough to hide a wireless router attached to a car battery. The men spent the rest of Saturday and all day Sunday downloading chips. The theft was discovered on Monday morning when players couldn't access the play money in their accounts.

"Right now we think it was an inside job," said Detective Daniel Waterson. "The men knew exactly where to put the plant for maximum bandwidth." Investigators have been studying employee records for possible leads.

Blake "Bloke" Dodge, the site's owner, told reporters he may be forced to shut down if the chips aren't recovered quickly. "Gaming rules require us to keep enough reserves in our vault to cover payouts. The criminals took 1,387% of all the chips currently in players' accounts." Dodge said he has filed for a two month waiver "so our software can generate enough chips to replenish our reserves."

Even if regulators approve the waiver, PokerBlokes might still collapse due to hyperinflation. "Our play money will be worthless if we don't recover those chips," Dodge admitted. "Also, many of our players have lost faith in our security. They're taking their winnings to other poker sites. The exodus is bleeding us dry."

Dodge believes the chips will end up on the black market. "It's a lucrative business," he said. "You can buy Monopoly money, EverQuest experience points, and poker chips for pennies on the dollar if you know where to look." Dodge fears the profits will be used to support Al Qaeda and other terrorist networks.

Police are warning auction sites and online casinos to watch for anyone trying to sell or launder chips. "I'd be suspicious if someone wanted to convert, say, 50 trillion PokerBlokes chips into 25 million chips at any of the tables I guard," said Greg Wilson, a respected poker security expert. "Contact a local law enforcement agency if someone offers you a billion poker chips at an unbelievably cheap price."

PokerBlokes is offering a trillion-chip reward "for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of the perpetrators."

New Blackjack Card Marking Cheat Scam!

noreply@blogger.com (Richard) — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 19:35:00 +0000

Here´s a new and very effective version of the old "Spill The Drink Card Marking Scam."

The scam has a player sitting on a blackjack game with the dealer dealing the first card. The player receiving the card in first position sees the card is an Ace and proceeds to spill a drink on the card. The card is quickly changed out by the table games staff and replaced with a new Ace. Little does the staff realize but the cards were in play for almost an entire shift. The player involved in the unknown scam will simply look for the bright white edge of the new Ace when the deck is presented after the new shuffle for the cut. He will cut one card in front of the Ace and have a double digit edge over the house when he receives the Ace.

This scam is very easy to pull off. If you take several decks of used cards and place a new Ace of Diamonds into the mix, the newer white border easily stands out and presents the perfect cut and steer target.