Poker Cheating and Casino Cheating Blog: American Roulette

Roulette Sniff Scam!

2009-09-24T10:13:00.000-07:00

That's right, you won't believe this highly intelligent casino cheat scam but here is what happened during the month of August in London's chic Casino at the Empire. Two casino cheats happened upon a roulette game where they noticed that every three spins or so, the dealer sniffed as if he were trying to clear his stuffed nose just before spinning the ball. They then cleverly decided to use this dealer's habit in a roulette cheat scam. Being gifted in overall conning and scamming, they hung out in the casino bar looking to bait some heavy-packing punters (gamblers)for the fleece. They came across a wealthy Egyptian and told him that they had an inside scam working with that particular sniffing roulette dealer. They told him that the guy was able to control the roulette ball with a fair amount of accuracy and could hit a section of six numbers on the wheel about a third of the time. They told him that the dealer would sniff the signal when he was about to launch a controlled spin. Of course the dealer had no clue who the hustlers were, nor was his sniffing indicative of anything more than a cold or stuffed nose.

The cheats brought the Egyptian into the casino where he bought in for 500-pound chips at the roulette table. The deal was that the Egyptian and the cheats would split the profits fifty-fifty. Well, the cheats got real lucky and the first ten times the roulette dealer sniffed, he hit the section of six numbers nine times! The Egyptian increased his bets and by the time the dealer finished his shift, he'd won 60,000 pounds! He gave the casino cheats 30,000 and promptly left the casino.

The pair of roulette cheats worked the scam several more nights as the dealer continued to sniff intermittently. They won with a few marks and lost with a few others. The scam came apart when one of the marks, who'd happened to win, overheard the sniffing dealer tell a pit supervisor that he was having an allergic reaction to something in the casino, presumably the carpeting. The mark, in spite of having won, decided to complain to the supervisor about the hustling cheats. They were immediately tossed out of the casino and barred from entering it in the future.

Well, in any case, I think it was quite a creative little gig, and the least I can say for the two casino scam artists is that they sure knew how to think on their feet!

Tran Organization Biggest Casino Cheat Dealer Charged by Feds For Ripping Off Baccarat Game For a Cool $1 Million!

2009-09-24T09:38:00.000-07:00

Not only are the Tran Organization baccarat cheat busts continuing to keep pace with the plea deals and sentencings in the huge international casino cheat case, they're getting bigger! As more than 30 cheating dealers, supervisors and players have already been charged, with many of their cases already adjudicated, now the scam's biggest victim, the Resorts East Chicago Casino in Indiana, is getting the satisfaction of seeing its Numero-Uno cheat dealer, Michael Waseleski, charged by federal prosecutors with several gaming crimes. Waseleski is charged with helping a clan of Tran Org. baccarat and blackjack cheats win more than $1 million by rigging games. The conspiracy charges against Michael Waseleski allege that while he was a dealer at Resorts East Chicago Casino, he was trained by the gamblers in how to perform a false shuffle of card decks. Those players won the money there in the summer of 2005.

Authorities say 31 people have pleaded guilty to charges in the rigged games, which were also carried out in Canada and six other states. The scheme involved bribes to casino supervisors and dealers during blackjack and mini baccarat and use of unshuffled cards.

When will these Tran busts stop! PLEASE!!!

Men the Master Sites Budda in His Poker cheating Denials!

2009-09-23T09:46:00.000-07:00

We've all heard the poker cheating allegations against 6-time WSOP bracelet-winner Men "the Master" Nguyen, especially those concerning his running a Vietnamese poker cheat collusion ring. Currently playing in the World Series of Poker Europe Championships, the accused master poker cheat had this to say:

"I see a lot of things they say on the Internet," he said. "If they say that in any magazine I'll sue them for slander, but I've never seen it. They slander me on the Internet, but I talked to my lawyer and he said they can say anything they want on the Internet. If I cheated do you think I would be able to go all over the world and play poker? "They are probably jealous. I earned what I won. I came to the United States empty-handed. I got what I won, I got my name out there and people just talk about me now. Show me. Catch me. Until they can prove it they should not talk about it. It's just gossip."

Nguyen fled communist Vietnam in 1978 and settled in Los Angeles, California. He started playing poker in 1984 and won his first WSOP bracelet in 1992. A devout Buddhist, Nguyen reiterated that he would never cheat and never has. "I'm a Buddhist so I am afraid to cheat," he explained. "If I cheat on anything it will come back to me. If I do something like that God will punish me. If I cheated do you think I would be able to go all over the world and play poker? They would kick me out of every tournament."

An emotional player at the tables, Nguyen has also been accused of being abusive to dealers and floor staff. Again, Nguyen denies any wrongdoing. "The problem is that sometimes dealers make mistakes and I just try to correct them," he said. "If you play with me at the table you will see how good I am and how nice I am. I will always be nice.

"People talk and they don't think. People say 'Oh Men, you did this or that,' but they don't know. The dealer comes in and maybe they don't change the deck, so I ask why they don't change the deck, because it's a rule. I'm just correcting mistakes."

What do I think? Well, I think Men the Master cares as much about Buddha as he does about his cheat victims!

Signed to UltimateBet, Top Poker Pro Joe Sebok Should Help UB Shed Online Cheat Image

2009-09-22T08:35:00.001-07:00

Top Poker Pro Joe Sebok has signed with giant and tainted online poker room Ultimate Bet, and he will serve as well in a consulting capacity to help the scandal-ridden online poker site prevent the cheat scams that have plagued it. Long considered to be one of the top poker professionals without a major sponsorship deal, it was announced late Monday evening that Joe Sebok will be joining UltimateBet’s roster of poker pros. Sebok will also take a prominent position inside of the Ultimate Bet organization.

Because of his abilities in the world of internet radio and podcasting, Sebok will accept a position as the site’s Media and Operations Consultant. In this capacity, Sebok will help bridge the gap between the Ultimate Bet brand and poker players. His in-depth knowledge of the online poker world will likely raise the bar and make Ultimate Bet the only place players will want to visit. Sebok had previously gained the industry’s respect for his founding of PokerRoad.com, an online media outlet that provides poker fans with fresh, innovative, and often irreverent content from an insider’s perspective. Online poker fans around the world continue to look to Sebok and PokerRoad.com, where he serves as the company’s CEO, for a unique perspective on everything related to land-based and online poker.

“We are ecstatic to bring Joe onto Team UB,” said Paul Leggett, the COO of Tokwiro Enterprises. “He will not only serve as a pro player representing the brand, but more importantly will be instrumental in helping us create a poker site for and by poker players. His commitment to the brand was invaluable, as he worked closely with me to help begin to bring closure on the details surrounding the cheating investigation from last year. I’ll continue to work with him to ensure that we always do everything possible to satisfy the poker community’s concerns and will continue to work together to make Ultimate Bet the premier poker site. I couldn’t be happier to welcome Joe to the team today.”

“UB and I first started talking about a possible relationship almost four months ago and I made it very clear that I couldn’t commit until that point in time when the names associated with the scandal began to be released,” Sebok stated during the announcement. “Paul Leggett has been instrumental in this process and I now feel comfortable and excited about joining the team as we are heading in such a positive direction. While this process isn’t entirely complete, I consider this to be one of my new responsibilities moving forward and intend to continue working very closely with Paul to ensure it happens. I am very happy to be joining Ultimate Bet today and look forward to our future.”

Tokwiro COO Leggett Says Russ Hamilton is Guilty but Doubts He'll be Prosecuted for Masterminding UltimateBet Scam

2009-09-20T12:33:00.000-07:00

In a thorough comment on the Kahnawake Gaming Commission's 11-page report on the huge online poker cheat scam, Tokwiro boss Paul Leggett expressed enthusiasm that his company, Tokwiro, was not found liable for any of the cheating that transpired, with the bulk of the blame going to Ultimate Bet’s previous owners. “It is very important to us that everyone understands that our company had nothing to do with the cheating on UltimateBet,” Leggett wrote in his Tuesday blog entry. In an effort to clear up any confusion regarding other information released in the KGC report, Leggett dedicated the rest of his post to discussing his own thoughts on the findings.

He began by trying to put the scope of both UB’s internal investigation and the one conducted by the KGC into context. Leggett claimed most avenues the investigation explored resulted in dead ends, in part, because the KGC lacked resources of a law enforcement agency since it is simply a regulatory body.

“This limited the Tokiwro and KGC investigations because the only evidence available was data,” Leggett explained, before he moved on to address the data itself. The COO claimed he did not know definitively who the other 31 people listed in the report are, but he said he could “make a very educated guess as to which names were included.”

Many who have read the report chided the KGC for releasing only Hamilton’s name and suggested he is being made to be the scapegoat for the actions of many. Leggett agrees with the KGC’s assertion that Hamilton is the person who masterminded the operation:

“In my opinion, the KGC released his name because there was an overwhelming amount of evidence that showed he was the person using the software and accounts to cheat, that his close associates helped facilitate the changing of usernames and the movement of monies, and that he was the main beneficiary of the proceeds from the cheating,” wrote Leggett.

As for any potential legal action that may be taken towards Hamilton and others in the future, Leggett remains skeptical and blames the lack of regulation of online poker in the U.S. for the difficulty inherent against pressing charges and opening up a legal investigation. He explained, “The current legal environment in the United States, relating to online poker, makes it very complicated for the proper authorities to work with us and for us to bring a claim against individuals in the United States.” He then went on to make his own case for pushing for online gambling regulation in the coming months.

Leggett concluded his thoughts by expressing his own personal frustration and sadness dealing with the investigation over the past several months. He even acknowledged his de facto role as bad guy to several members of the online poker community, but concluded by suggesting the worst is behind Ultimate Bet and the $22 million reimbursement and $15 million settlement with UB’s previous owners are two big steps towards proving that the site is a safe and fun place for people to play poker online.

Eight New Indictments in Tran Organization False Shuffle Baccarat Cheat Scam

2009-09-18T18:47:00.000-07:00

Can't say this is a surprise as it seems the whole Western Peninsula was involved in this cheat scam!

A federal grand jury in San Diego has indicted an additional eight defendants for conspiracy to cheat a total of 11 casinos across the country, Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division Lanny A. Breuer and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California Karen P. Hewitt announced today.

A one-count indictment, handed up in the Southern District of California on Sept. 1, 2009, and unsealed on Sept. 15, 2009, charges seven defendants each with one count of conspiracy to commit several offenses against the United States, including conspiracy to steal money and other property from Indian tribal casinos, and conspiracy to travel in interstate and foreign commerce in aid of racketeering. Defendants charged in this indictment include Jason Cavin, Connie Marie Holmes, Brandon Pete Landry, Nedra Fay Landry, Geraldo Montaz, Jesus Rodriguez and Mike Waseleski.

For the total lowdown on this scam, search "False Shuffle Baccarat Scam" on this blog.

Nevada Slot Cheat Case Headed For Trial!

2009-09-18T08:45:00.000-07:00

In what appears to be a serious slot-cheating case, three alleged slot cheaps are one step closer to going to trial. William Cushing, Michael McNeive and Susan Lewanda are accused of possessing a cheating device, conspiracy to cheat at gambling and use of a cheating device in a slot machine. The trio allegedly used the scam at several Las Vegas casinos, including Boulder Station and Fiesta Rancho, in 2006.

At a Thursday morning, District Court Judge Douglas Herndon said a trial date will be scheduled after the next status check and evidentiary hearing, which is set for Sept. 29. Police reports indicate surveillance videos show Cushing and Lewanda would stand watch at slot machines while McNeive inserted $1 bills and forged them as $100 bills using the cheating device.

Cushing and McNeive are in Nevada's List of Excluded Persons, otherwise known as the Black Book, and are barred from the state's casinos. According to Gaming Control Board records, Cushing, 57, was first arrested in 1984 and has been arrested numerous times for gaming crimes in Nevada and other states. McNeive, 68, was first arrested by the Nevada Gaming Control Board in 1996 and has been arrested for gaming-related crimes, including cheating slot machines, numerous times.

Casino and Poker Cheats Lab 101

2009-09-17T08:49:00.001-07:00

Developing That Great Casino Cheat and Poker Cheat Move in the Lab!

What are the components of an effective poker or casino cheating move? There are four basic elements that determine the feasibility and effectiveness of all brick and mortar casino and poker cheat moves. The first is the mechanics of the move, mainly whether it can be physically done and with a relative amount of ease. Since poker and casino cheating moves have really little to do with sleight of hand, the physical mechanics of cheat moves comes down to the skill and dexterity of normally capable people. An example of a difficult move would be picking up the dolly on a roulette game and slipping chips underneath it after the dealer has placed it on the winning number. Although distractions might be used to take the dealer’s eyes off the layout, it is important to distinguish the difference between these diversionary tactics and sleight of hand, which this is not. An example of an easier physical move would be the blackjack pastpost described here.

The second important factor in designing a poker cheat or casino cheat move is the exposure it takes. As in any physical crime, the longer you are committing it, the worse it is. Most casino cheat scams get busted because their perpetrators are on the tables doing it for too long a time. All the cheat moves during my cheating career were done in a split-second. I never took much exposure, giving the casino little or no time to set me up. When you hear about card-marking scams and digital camera scams in casinos getting busted, surveillance was on to them and therefore had the chance to film them and set the cheats up for the bust. So the best poker and casino cheat scams are the ones that happen quickly and limit the cheats’ time in the casino.

The third important factor is being able to conceal the move as much as possible. This does not mean physically hiding it. That part is covered in the mechanics of the move. Here I am talking about concealing the move after it has been successfully done in the poker room or casino. After you do the move and get paid, you still don’t want the casino to figure out what happened, mainly because you want to keep doing the same successful move at other tables in the casino and at other casinos. Good moves will have psychology built into them, such as setting the casino up for the kill and making them forget about it after they’re dead. This way when the cheat makes his claim to get paid on a move, the casino already believes he is a high roller and pays off. Part of this facet is to also play at the table after the move went down, further camouflaging the move and reducing the casino’s chances of catching on to you.

The last important factor is the longevity of a cheat move. Good ones will last for a while. For instance, my blackjack pastpost move produced big money in the world’s casinos for thirty years, and is still going strong. Unless your move makes huge money in a one-shot deal, it won’t be worth developing it if it doesn’t last.
With all this in mind, I would say my Savannah casino roulette cheat move would be as close to the perfect move as possible. It was physically easy to do, took only a split-second, actually concealed and camouflaged itself, and lasted as long as I wanted it to. To this day, casinos cannot stop it.

Oh!... One thing I forgot to mention that is necessary to all successful casino and poker cheat moves...You need the balls to do them! THEY are not developed in the casino cheating lab!

Poker Cheat Bots Hit Pitbull Poker and Others!

2009-09-16T07:54:00.000-07:00

Pitbull Poker, which has already seen a significant traffic decline due to an alleged superuser account scandal that its operators don't seem to be responding to, is again in the online poker cheating news with fresh allegations of widespread bot play on the site. According to information I'm receiving, bot play seems to go undetected for much longer periods of time than on most other online poker sites. This also has been noted BEFORE the super user account cheating scam broke at Pitbull Poker. As for the quality and effectiveness of the bots being used in Pitbull Poker games, I cannot say much, but overall, I figure that the majority of these bots are not that effective, and they alone should not be a reason to avoid the site.

Overall cheating bot play is on the rise throughout online poker, but again, I must stress that the high quality artificial intelligence bots are not out there in alarming numbers. However, if you do come up against them, you might be paying them off as they are good enough to beat most online players.

New Connecticut Inside Dealer Casino Cheat Scam! This Time it's Pai Gow Cheating at the Mohegan Sun!

2009-09-14T08:14:00.000-07:00

This is just unbelievable!...One inside dealer casino cheating scam after another in Connecticut's two big casinos. Soon on the dealer job applications, one of the questions is going to be: How much cheating experience do you have? Or maybe: Are you capable of false-shuffling a deck of cards? Why are these two casinos constantly being cheated by their dealers?

Ever wonder what goes on in a pai gow game with all those funny looking tiles and the dice cup? Ever say to yourself that a Chinese dealer would have an easy time cheating his or her pai gow game when supervisors in the pit don't really understand the nature of the Chinese gambling game? Well, evidently, one Chinese dealer and her Chinese cohort figured as much. Only trouble is they got caught.

Police arrested a Norwich woman who works as a table games dealer at Mohegan Sun on Saturday after surveillance picked up what appeared to be a cheating scam. Peggy Lin, 40, was charged with cheating while lawfully gambling, third-degree larceny and third-degree conspiracy to commit larceny. Police said surveillance at the Earth Casino saw Lin manipulate a deal of a pai gow tile game so that another player could win the hand. The person who won, Bi De Zhen, 43, was also charged with cheating while lawfully gambling, third-degree larceny and third-degree conspiracy to commit larceny. Both were arrested without incident and released. They are scheduled to appear Oct. 1 in Norwich Superior Court.

The arrest comes one month after a former Mohegan Sun craps dealer pleaded guilty to charges he took an $800 payoff for accepting late bets at his table from a convicted cheater. Johnnie Baker, 38, pleaded guilty to fourth-degree larceny and received a fully suspended sentence. Police said Baker accepted money from Richard “Mr. Casino” Taylor in exchange for paying Taylor $11,500 for four late bets in 2008. Baker was one of a dozen former casino employees, the only one from Mohegan Sun, charged in connection with Taylor’s craps cheating scam.

Absolute Poker and UltimateBet Online Poker Cheat Decisions Issued by Kahnawake Gaming Commission...$22 Million in Cheated Player Refunds!

2009-09-12T10:46:00.000-07:00

Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG, the parent company of UltimateBet, yesterday received a decision from the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, UB’s regulatory authority, regarding the UB cheating scandal in 2008. The report, which followed an intensive and exhaustive investigation, ruled that Tokwiro has met the conditions imposed on it and has shown adequate cause as to why its Client Provider Authorization (“CPA”) should not be revoked. The report also included a full public disclosure of all 23 accounts and 117 usernames that were used by the cheater. The method for determining the list of names was approved by the KGC and their forensic auditors.

The KGC concluded that Tokwiro was not aware of the deficiencies in the control system until after the cheating activity had been initiated; Tokwiro fully cooperated with the KGC throughout the investigation to identify the individual(s) responsible for the cheating incidences; No individual identified as “unsuitable” is currently involved in any aspect of Tokwiro’s ownership, management and operations; Tokwiro has ensured that all players victimized by the cheating activity were promptly and fully reimbursed; and Tokwiro has paid the USD$1.5 Million fine imposed by the KGC, plus the costs of the investigation.

Paul Leggett, Chief Operating Officer for Tokwiro said, “The welfare of our players is our top priority and we are very pleased they now have access to the details of the fraud and all the facts and findings released by the KGC included in their report. A lot of our players have been patiently awaiting the release of the full list of usernames involved in the cheating incidences, and we can now answer any of their outstanding inquiries related to their refunds.”

With the completion of the investigation, the KGC has now released their final list of account numbers (User ID) and usernames (the “cheating accounts”), and they are provided on Kahnawake's website.

It is important to note that the legacy UB software, which is no longer in use, historically allowed a username to be reused, provided that the username was no longer associated with an account. Because of this, it is possible that some of the usernames which were released yesterday by the KGC may have been used by legitimate accounts, once those usernames were no longer used and controlled by the perpetrator. It is also a fact that a very small number of the usernames associated with the cheating accounts never actually played a hand.

As previously determined by independent investigations and stated in yesterday’s KGC report, the malicious software code that enabled the cheating was placed on UB servers prior to Tokwiro’s acquisition of the business from Excapsa Software in 2006. Tokwiro’s consistent position that the ability to cheat predated its ownership was vindicated by the recent legal settlement with Excapsa, under the terms of which Excapsa paid Tokwiro USD$15 million in partial compensation for the damage that was done by the cheating. This payment went toward the USD$22,054,351.91 in complete refunds that Tokwiro issued to the players that were adversely affected by the UB cheating incidences.

“It is extremely important to us that our players and the rest of the poker community understand that the individuals who perpetrated the cheating have never had any involvement with our company and we hope that the KGC report helps to inform the poker community of this fact,” Leggett added. “Over the past year we have literally rebuilt our company, creating a new management team and core staff that are poker players themselves and passionate about the game, and we are very excited to demonstrate what we can do in the coming months.”

In response to the cheating scandal, Tokwiro has implemented a range of key security measures that include a complete corporate reorganization, the dissemination of new mandatory ethics policies as well as strict policies regarding account name changes and VIP player vetting, the creation of an expanded Security Department to incorporate a specialized group of poker security analysts, and the development of a state-of-the-art Security Center that uses statistical analysis and real-time monitoring to catch cheating, including collusion, chip-dumping, bots, and other illicit activities.

Major Counterfeit Chip Scam Busted in Macau!

2009-09-12T10:34:00.001-07:00

Macau is a MAJOR casino cheat area and of course the favorite of casino cheat teams who are also members of the Chinese Mafia Triads. Usually it's baccarat cheat scams or junket player chip scams that proliferate in Macau, but this time it's a sophisticated high-tech counterfeit chip scam. True, it was busted, but the big question is: How many casinos got bilked and for how much money?

Macau police arrested six mainlanders at Wynn Macau and seized 38 highly sophisticated counterfeit gaming chips, each with a face value of HK$10,000. The five men and a woman, aged from 22 to 63, had successfully passed off 16 of the chips - implanted with microchips - which fooled dealers and infrared detectors on the gambling tables and made it all the way to the casino cage.

But they pushed their luck in trying to pass off the remaining 22 chips, by which time the chips were detected by a more delicate detector in the cage. Casino staff using CCTV cameras found the suspects were still gambling. They were taken to the security room and arrested two hours later. Genuine Hong Kong banknotes and real chips totaling HK$210,000, which police believe they got from cashing the chips that included the 16 fake ones, were found on them.

The mainlanders arrived in Macau at about 4pm on Tuesday and immediately went to Wynn. They gambled on tables with the fake chips and collected real chips and cash in payoffs before an expert using a more delicate detector in the casino cage found the 16 fake chips, which contained lower-value microchips, at 6pm.

Police found 22 fake chips on the suspects, who came from Guangdong and Hubei. They will be charged with deception in gambling and participating in a syndicate. Chau Wai-kuong, head of the Judiciary Police Criminal Investigation Department, said the fake chips were probably produced in the mainland by a syndicate that has been active for no more than a month.

The syndicate hired so-called "drivers" to go to Macau casinos to cash in the fake chips. Police are now trying to determine if the syndicate deceived other casinos and whether other "drivers" are still being hired. The mastermind is still at large.

A Wynn Macau spokeswoman confirmed an attempt to cash in counterfeit gaming chips was detected on the spot, thanks to vigilant staff and the effectiveness of security technology. The casino refused to comment further as police investigations are continuing.

It's not the first time Wynn Macau has been targeted by counterfeit criminals. In March last year, a Zhejiang man commissioned an advertising company to replicate the stickers on the Wynn chips and put them on fake chips. He managed to exchange 44 chips for HK$220,000. He was arrested two months later when he entered Macau again. Police seized 149 semi-completed chips and 444 HK$1,000 stickers.

Party Poker Takes Cheats To War!

2009-09-12T10:23:00.000-07:00

I have been blogging about player safety in internet poker for four years now and Party Poker has been one of the few sites that during this time has both avoided cheating scandals and consistently appeared on my Top-10 rankings for the safest poker sites. In addition to its clean record as far as cheating and player-accounts security are concerned, Party Poker has also been a leader in offering the best player sign-up bonuses as well as maintaining top of the line customer support and service, with online response times among the best in the online gaming industry.

Another field of excellence from Party Gaming is its online betting and sportsbook offering accurate wagering lines on various sporting and gaming events from all over the world including American, Australian and European professional leagues as well as wagering opportunities for popular lawn and pub games like cricket and darts. Just about all the action you can think of is waiting for you at Party Poker, so if you´re new to Internet Gambling or you´re a veteran looking for a change for the better, don´t hesiteate to sign up.

My advice is that you can feel safe and protected from cheating scandals when playing on Party Gaming´s sites.

Join the world's premier online poker room and enjoy a range of exciting tournaments. Play Omaha Hi Lo Poker in our busy poker rooms, with free practice play, and a range of money play games.

Insider Poker High Hand Jackpot Cheat Scam Busted at Planet Hollywood in Vegas!

2009-09-11T08:56:00.000-07:00

It just keeps getting better and better, if not stupider and stupider. Four Planet Hollywood poker room supervisors have been arrested for cheating the Las Vegas casino´s poker room out of the paltry sum of $2000. What's that come to...$500 per guy? Hard to believe that guys with solid poker room jobs would put them on the line for such a trifling amount of money, but that's what happened. The Nevada State Gaming Control Board has charged Jonathan Sanner, Jason Peterson, Thomas R. Kordick, all of Las Vegas, and Scott Marshall of Henderson, Nevada, with crimes including forgery, embezzlement and conspiracy in connection with the poker cheat scam that swindled the Las Vegas Strip poker room’s high hand jackpot of slightly more than two grand.

The four cheating poker supervisors apparently filed false paperwork on the jackpot payouts so that they could collect the prize money for the jackpot high hands that never actually got dealt. A suspicious fellow employee blew the whistle on them. I wonder if that's because there wasn't enough profit in the cheat scam to either include him or buy his silence!

In any event, the insider poker and casino cheat scams continue to proliferate world wide.

Any Truth To UK Laser Card-Marking Poker Cheat Scams?

2009-09-09T09:32:00.000-07:00

In the last two weeks I have received two-dozen e-mails asking me if I know anything about a current poker card-marking cheat scam using lasers in the Victoria Casino in London and several others in the UK. Although I have blogged about the real threat of laser card-marking on brick and mortar poker tables, I have not heard from any of my European contacts that it has taken place at the Victoria casino or anywhere else in the UK. I have, however, been informed that there is a highly-skilled poker cheat team from Eastern Europe (I believe Hungary) that is in the operational stage for marking cards with lasers and ready to cheat B&M poker rooms. When I get news about their actually implementing it, I will of course pass it on. I would think that the first major poker area to get hit with laser card-marking poker cheat scams would be California. Why there is a proliferation of talk about this concerning UK poker rooms, I don't know, but it might have something to do with the fact that Eastern European high-tech poker and casino cheat teams like to work the UK, i.e. the Ritz roulette scam and the London 3-card poker scam using tiny digital cameras.

Labor Day Greetings To Poker Cheats, Casino Cheats and Poker and Casino Cheatcatchers!

2009-09-04T09:02:00.000-07:00

Labor Day is an American National Holiday for all labor, right? So poker cheating and casino cheating is hard labor like anything else, as is catching poker and casino cheats. Therefore, I salute all of you cheats out there, especially those of American extraction. And for those of you poker and casino cheats and cheatcatchers who are not American, let me know when your national labor holiday is and I will salute you too!

Meanwhile, in the US, Labor Day weekend is a major work weekend for poker and casino cheats working American casinos. That Labor Day always falls on a Monday, gives the cheats an extra day of weekend work to rip off the poker rooms and casinos. If you're curious, the biggest holiday and holiday-weekend poker and casino cheat festivals ranked in order are:

1) New Year's Eve (by far) My teams have made more in that single night than any holiday weekend.
2) July 4th. We light the fireworks INSIDE the casinos.
3) Labor Day Weekend.
4) Memorial Day Weekend. (another extra day as it's always on a Monday)
5) Christmas Day. (Might be surprised at this, eh?)
6) Thanksgiving Day. The cheats say their thanks inside the poker rooms and casinos, then have their turkey afterward!

South African Casino Hit By Dealer-Aided High-Tech Cheat Scam!

2009-09-04T08:30:00.000-07:00

South Africa, known casinocheatwise for being the land of the famous Las Vegas chip cup scam, has been hit with another inside dealer cheat scam, albeit one not quite as devastating as the chip cup scam that rocked South Africa's casinos in the 1980s. Five people, including two Carnival City dealers, were busted for the latest high-tech digital camera scam that happened on the casino's punto banco tables, a game similar to US baccarat. Apparently the scam came apart because the scammers appeared nervous at the tables, which given the fact that Chinese were involved is quite surprising, as they're usually cool under the cheat gun. It must have been non-Chinese dealers who gave the scam away. The casino surveillance department picked up on them and began watching the videos of their tables.

The three Chinese hid a tiny digital camera in a cigarette box to take pictures of cards being dealt while playing punto banco. This is not the first scam to use a box of cigarettes. The most famous is the French Cigarette Scam using a Marlboro box. In the South African scam, the dealers purposely dealt the cards slow so that their confederates' cameras could film them clearly. The pictures were then sent to computers in a hotel room, from where one of the cheat-team members would watch and then send his partners at the table the card information via sms. More than three million rand was taken out of the casino.

Overall, this sounds like a pretty good scam that had a weak link: the dealers

Major Online Poker Cheat Hack Scam Exposed!

2009-09-03T08:43:00.000-07:00

HACK WARNING FOR ALL ONLINE POKER PLAYERS AND BROWSERS!

The site pokerproalbums.com, with videos, forum and every other facet that makes it look real is a HUGE SCAM looking to hack you and steal your personal info. A fake player saying he´s from Sweden and using the name "Cheesecake" and e-mail address nestor_pkr66@hotmail.com has been contacting people via MSN and asking them to watch videos for which he sends the links. The site looks very real but then when you try to watch videos, a warning follows telling you to update your flash player. This is a backdoor Trojan scam and it's VERY Dangerous! Several people playing the 200-400+ nlh/plo games on Full Tilt Poker have been contacted with links from this person whose MSN has been hacked.

If you´ve been on this site and watched the videos, it's time to reset your entire system...NOW! Clean computer, reset passwords for poker, e-mail, everything. And don't forget that other e-mail addresses with other ideas for getting you on the site can be involved as well. DO NOT GO ON pokerproalbums.com for any reason!

Latest Anti-Online Poker Cheat Claim by Cognisafe...Is It Real?

2009-09-02T07:42:00.000-07:00

COGNISAFE ANNOUNCES THE ADDITION OF CHIP DUMPING DETECTION TO ITS PITBOSS-AC ONLINE CHEATING SOLUTION!

That's the anti-cheat poker claim and here's what they say:

Program offers real time solution to cheating in online games including use of bots.

Chip Dumping is becoming one of the most common frauds in online Poker and the new PitBoss-AC solution will save operators and networks huge sums in lost revenues. Chip Dumping is the practice whereby one player deliberately loses his chips to another player at the table, with the losing player often having obtained his chips by fraudulent means.

The PitBoss-AC program also has the ability to prevent cheating through the use of online bots, online advisors, software cheats and even collusion. The Bot protection program within PitBoss-AC has already been successfully deployed for online gaming clients. In addition to protecting online games from cheaters, the system, which monitors games without intruding on the player’s experience, can provide customers with player data such as gaming patterns (profiling) which reflect playing habits and skill levels.

My opinion: Well, I have not yet seen any conclusive evidence that Cognisafe's PitBoss-AC solution actually solves the problems they say it does. I'm not saying that it's not effective, but until I see some results and positive analysis published by entities other than Cognisafe itself, I cannot endorse their product.

Pitbull Poker Traffic Tumbling In Wake of Online Cheat Allegations

2009-09-02T07:29:00.000-07:00

The Pitbull Poker cheating scam is taking its toll on the Flash Network poker room. It's administrators continue to evade the issue and are not accepting various offers by forums and poker websites to reassure the public via interviews. This prolonged silence can only be interpreted one way: online poker cheating is rocking their boat!

Online poker traffic monitor, PokerScout.com shows a drop in their player numbers over the past six months with a steep decrease over the last month. The weekly average for real money ring players now stands at only 33 players.

Many players are reporting cash-out problems from Pitbull Poker. The maximum cash out has been set to $1000 over 7 days by Pitbull management. The fear now is that this scandal will escalate to online players losing their money in Pitbull Poker accounts.

Pitbull Poker is falling in the pits!

Tran Organization Baccarat Cheat King Truong Sentencing Delayed Until November

2009-09-01T08:33:00.000-07:00

Phuong Quoc Truong, also known as Pai Gow John, who masterminded the huge false shuffle baccarat scam detailed extensively in this blog, was not sentenced yesterday as scheduled. He will be sentenced in November. Meanwhile, another big cog in the international card-cheating ring, Phat Ngoc Tran, was sentenced by Judge John Houston in federal court in San Diego to a term of 45 months in prison. Truong, the boss of the casino-cheating Tran Organization, is expected to draw more time, up to 20 years, but I don't think he'll get more than seven or eight years in light of Tran's 45 month sentence.

In any event, I don't think we've seen the last of these massive dealer-inside casino cheat scams. However, I doubt the next one will be at baccarat.

Banning Online Poker Cheat Software...Really?

2009-08-31T08:25:00.000-07:00

If you play on most major rooms, including PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, you either have an unfair advantage or many of your opponents have an unfair advantage over you. The top nine poker networks all have the same problem, with the Cake Poker Network being the largest to mostly avoid this issue. The major rooms and networks have put themselves in a very unpleasant position where they have outlawed things they cannot prevent from happening. Poker-Edge is a prime example. According the Terms and Conditions of PokerStars and Full Tilt, this software is strictly prohibited. You can't play on the site without agreeing to their rules and since Poker-Edge is against the rules, you are breaking them if you use it. By the very definition of the word, the use of Poker-Edge on PokerStars is cheating. If you aren't using it, then you are being cheated because many opponents are using it against you.

Poker-Edge has been around for years and banned for most of that time, but I don't know anyone who has ever been kicked off an online poker site for using it because the programmers go through great trouble to conceal the use of it from the sites. Right at this very moment, Poker-Edge is being used on all of the major sites and no one using it is in any fear of being caught. Those who are willing to break the rules have a significant advantage over those who do not; that is the crux of the problem.

When you outlaw something that you cannot enforce, you simply punish those who choose to follow the rules and reward those who break them. This pushes more and more people to break the rules and the few who choose to abide by them are punished even further.

Let's look at another example, hand history resellers. These sites sell massive quantities of hand histories from the major networks for a very reasonable price. Anyone with $20 can buy hand histories, load them into their favorite tracking software, and have a huge database on players they have never played with. PokerStars has banned this practice, but as far as we know, there is no enforcement in place.

That guy who just sat down at your table has thousands of hands on you and a very good feel for how you play, but you have never seen him before. The site you are playing on cannot do anything about the fact that he has that information, but they have asked you not to get it yourself. If you choose the honest road and don't use that resource, then you are at a disadvantage, but if you do it, you are cheating. What a mess.

Other prime examples are sites like Official Poker Rankings (OPR) and Sharkscope, which list the results of tournaments on a number of popular rooms. This is publicly available information and is no different than reading about who won recent live tournaments in the back of a poker magazine. Full Tilt recently banned the use of OPR, which is what brought on the idea for this article. When I heard about the ban, I was lamenting that I had not taken more notes while using OPR in the past. It occurred to me that people who have taken more notes from OPR now have an advantage over me.

I have a laptop and could certainly have it open to OPR while I am playing on my desktop, but that is against the rules. I know people are doing it. In fact, I’d imagine that thousands of players are and there is no way for Full Tilt to ever know.

I don't want anyone to go nuts here. These things have a minor effect on your win rate when compared to studying, taking lessons, reading books, or joining a training site. The games are certainly beatable without these advantages and I can be absolutely certain of this because I don't use them and make a good living playing online poker. These programs do not create such an imbalance that the games are unbeatable, but the policies are not fair, don't work, and they do what a rule should never do, punish the just.

I never like to present a problem without offering at least some ideas on a solution. The first thing the sites can do is allow everyone to use these programs. As I noted above, these programs are not making people instant winners nor are they going to seriously hurt someone who isn't using them. As you move up in limits, these programs have a larger effect, but by the time you are playing high-limit poker, you should have learned about all of the options available to you. The sites could allow these programs, everyone could use them, and those who are willing to break the rules would longer be rewarded.

The other potential solution is to do what the Cake Poker Network is doing and Bodog used to do: don't give people a way to track the hands. The Cake Network uses incomplete hand histories that don't list opponent's names and allows screen name changes once per week. If you take notes on a player, they remain even though the screen name changes, giving you an advantage.

This brings poker back to the old school, where it's tough to play more than a few tables at once and you have to take notes in order to know your opponents. Because the 12+ table grinders who rely on stats are not interested in playing on the Network, the games are much livelier, more interesting, and fish-filled. Playing three or four tables on Cake Poker, DoylesRoom, or any of the other network sites can yield just as high of an hourly rate as playing 12 tables on PokerStars. Then, we can get back to using software to improve our games instead of relying on it to help us play.

Tran Organization's Pai Gow John To Be Sentenced Today For International Baccarat Cheat Scam

2009-08-31T08:01:00.000-07:00

Here's a very good article on the baccarat cheating scam that beat casinos out of millions across the US and Canada. I participated in the article and I think it is worth a read.

Busted Card-Cheating Ring Found Success In Simplicity

Expensive cars, flashy jewelry, three houses — Pai Gow John had it made, all thanks to a magic touch at casinos from California to Connecticut.

Too magic, as it turned out.

Tomorrow, the 44-year-old man whose real name is Phuong Quoc Truong is to be sentenced in San Diego federal court for helping run one of the biggest, most audacious card-cheating rings in modern history. Before authorities finally broke it up in May 2007, the Tran Organization had targeted 25 casinos and taken away up to $7million over five years. “In the 20 years I've been in the business, I haven't seen anything this big, this well-orchestrated, this successful,” said one Las Vegas casino security. “And it was simple. That may have been the beauty of it.”

Simple because it relied not on the high-tech gadgets of Hollywood heists such as “Ocean's Eleven,” but on a sleight of hand almost as old as cards themselves — the false shuffle. The ring, based in San Diego, went so far as to bribe dealers in other states and fly them here for training in the shuffle. They sent scouts to Mississippi to assess a casino's vulnerabilities to the trick. When everything was set, they would move in and occupy several seats at a table run by a bribed dealer. They would bet like they knew what cards were coming — which, thanks to the false shuffle, they did. At one casino in Indiana, at mini-baccarat, they won $868,000 in 90 minutes. More than 30 participants have pleaded guilty in San Diego and Washington state. Those already sentenced have received terms ranging from probation to 3½ years in prison.

Truong, well-known in local gambling circles as Pai Gow John — he once drove a $100,000 Mercedes with the vanity plate “PGJOHN” — is looking at a maximum of 20 years after pleading guilty in April 2008 to charges of conspiracy and racketeering. He has agreed to forfeit almost $2.8 million in property: a house in Otay Mesa, another in Escondido and one in Vietnam; a 2001 Porsche Carrera and two other vehicles; a Rolex Presidential watch; and a white-gold pendant featuring a Mercedes-Benz logo encrusted with 105 diamonds.

Authorities say the cheating ring started when Truong and his wife, Van Thu Tran, were dealers at Sycuan Casino east of El Cajon. In July 2002, according to court papers, they executed six false shuffles between them, enabling others to win about $3,000. Both lost their jobs but apparently not their nerve. Authorities said the couple, along with a third defendant, Tai Khiem Tran, organized the ring and sent it to casinos in California, Canada, Washington, Indiana, Mississippi, Nevada, Connecticut and Louisiana. Among the victims: Sycuan and the Barona casino in Lakeside. They would set up shop for days, weeks, months at a time — at one point even renting a house in Tacoma, Wash., to be near the Emerald Queen casino. Tai Khiem Tran pleaded guilty to conspiracy and racketeering this year and is awaiting sentencing in San Diego. Van Thu Tran has pleaded not guilty to those charges. Her next court date here is in late November. Seven of the people charged in the case share the last name Tran, which is how the organization got its name. Most reportedly belong to the same family, though their relationships aren't spelled out in court papers. Attorneys for the three alleged ringleaders did not return phone calls, and prosecutors declined interview requests.

What is detailed in court files is how the organization operated and how easily it found dealers who were willing to go along — five alone at Cache Creek, a casino west of Sacramento.

Richard Marcus, a former casino cheat now working as a gaming consultant in Las Vegas, said it probably helped that many of the participants are Vietnamese and have language and cultural connections. “It sounds risky, but they were comfortable approaching these dealers, getting to know them, having a drink after work,” Marcus said. “And the main thing you have to remember is that everyone who works at a casino knows it's not their money. So they aren't all that invested in protecting it.” Marcus, who has written extensively about the Tran Organization on his Web site, said working in a casino gets boring, “and this scam probably sounded exciting to the dealers. Throw them some money (up to $5,000 per false shuffle) and away you go.” With the bribed dealer in place, here's how mini-baccarat — the ring's preferred game — was typically rigged, according to authorities:

At least one ring member, the recorder, secretly wrote down the order of the cards as they were dealt from the shoe, a rack that holds multiple decks. When the shoe was played out, the dealer gathered the cards to shuffle. During the shuffle, through sleight of hand, the dealer kept a group of cards — called a slug — intact, in the order that was just played. A typical slug was about 40 cards. After the false shuffle, the dealer put the cards in the shoe and started dealing again. When the slug appeared, the recorder, because he knew what cards were coming, could determine which hand would win. He signaled the other ring members, and they would string together winning bets until the slug ran out.

“If it's done right, the false shuffle is pretty close to the perfect scam,” Marcus said. “But you have so many people involved, it's bound to fall apart. People talk, they get greedy.” Authorities haven't said how they discovered the Tran Organization and its scheme. Marcus, the casino security expert, said he first heard about it in early 2003. He said dealers at casinos in Palm Springs were approached by the ring, and they told their bosses, who spread the word. At some point, the FBI and other law agencies got involved, and they began tracking ring members. They eavesdropped with wiretaps, examined bank records and videotaped the organization inside casinos and out. Some casinos apparently agreed to lose money to the ring so that authorities could conduct their investigation. Some dealers, identified in court papers only by their initials, cooperated.

When you have something of this size, you want to be sure you cut off the head of the snake. You don't want any loopholes. Authorities eventually cheated the cheaters. They put undercover agents in place at the Imperial Palace Casino in Biloxi, Miss. According to court papers, Truong tried to bribe one who was posing as a floor supervisor and another who was posing as a dealer. It was only a matter of time before the ring was broken up. But even though casinos are doing things differently now — some are using machines to shuffle cards instead of dealers — I wouldn't be surprised to see more scams come along. Card cheating has been around since the beginning of cards. So can it happen again and be successful? Yes. Will they get caught? Only if they get too greedy!

PKR Quiets Poker Cheat Threats--Despite Norwegian Pyramid Scam Artist!

2009-08-28T08:38:00.000-07:00

PKR is reassuring affiliates over funds after login problems and poker cheat allegations. PKR has said affiliates have “nothing to worry about” after not being able to log in to the PKR.com affiliate site for more than a week. Concerns were raised by affiliates this week, some of them due thousands of pounds from the poker site, after their PKR log in details were rejected, leaving them unable to check their account statements.

However, speaking to EGRmagazine.com today, a spokesman for the poker site said: “The affiliate site is in the process of being updated and should be rectified very soon. No one has anything to worry about when it comes to the financial element.”

Speaking to EGRmagazine.com yesterday, one affiliate said: “The egaming industry has endured too many bad situations for affiliates, so I think it’s better to be safe than sorry. It's been a number of days, and I have money in the PKR kitty to collect, but haven't been able to log on, so one can't blame me in the slightest for starting to get concerned.”

Affiliates sought reassurance after Linx Media Group, the company behind the Eurolinx, BetOnBet and Linx Casino brands and the BetonBet sportsbook, ceased trading this week, leaving affiliates and players owed account funds totaling thousands of pounds.

Linx Media is the company behind the Eurolinx, BetOnBet and Linx Casino brands and the BetonBet sportsbook. A statement on the LinxMedia.com homepage states that Linx Media has “put its businesses into liquidation and will cease trading with immediate effect”, but claimed that liquidators have not yet been appointed and that it will “provide updates on the situation as and when information becomes available”.

Linx Media was owned by Jo Remme, who is understood to be a Norwegian also known as Jo Arild Remme. He is also alleged to have been involved in scams in Norway including a pyramid scheme with more than a thousand members, and a company called Arctic Uni that claimed to be able to provide sea urchin semen to breeders.

Eurolinx poker claimed to be licensed in Curacao, Linx Casino claimed to be licensed in Kahwanake and Betonbet claimed to be licensed in Malta. However a statement on the Curacao Egaming Licensing Authority website in response to enquries reads “please note: we do not license www.eurolinx.com or www.betonbet.com”.

Maltese regulator the Lotteries and Gaming Authority (LGA) issued a similar notice that stated “Eurolinx Ltd is not and has never been a licensed operator with the LGA [and] that the sportsbooks of Alpine Malta (BetonBet and Eurolinks) are not and never were licensed by the LGA”.

Linx Media was part of the Microgaming network, and Microgaming said in a statement: “Micrograming has terminated its software licence agreements with the Linx Media Group, with immediate effect. It has been advised that the group companies are insolvent. Microgaming is presently gathering all facts relating to this matter and will provide further announcements as and when information becomes available.”

Poker Cheat Machines in Australia Get Protection!

2009-08-28T08:20:00.000-07:00

Imagine walking into a casino and being told that "some of the poker machines cheat you, but we're not gonna tell you which ones. You have to figure it out on your own." Sounds pretty rotten, huh? But that is kind of what is going on in Australia.

We're talking about pokies, the poker machine games that "cheat" plaayers out of their money more than any others - but you aren't allowed to know which ones they are. Eight of the 134 games approved since December 2007 have a level of volatility which is higher than what is recommended by the Australia/New Zealand Gaming Machine National Standard, but their names remain secret. While all poker machine games must have a return to player of at least 87.5 per cent, games with a low volatility pay out a larger number of small prizes. However, highly volatile games pay out a smaller number of large prizes.

Freedom of Information documents state there are eight games with a volatility higher than 15 but their names must remain secret because the information is "commercially sensitive". It is, however, not clear how many machines these games are operating. Independent MP Kris Hanna said these games were cheating gamblers. "While some receive higher jackpots, there is less return to players in between payouts," he said. "The machines are already addictive enough without extra tricks. Gamblers should be told which games pay out lessfrequently."

The Australia/New Zealand Gaming Machine National Standard recommends the nominal standard deviation of a game be no more than 15. Independent Gambling Authority director Robert Chappell said he was not concerned about the claims because the regulation was a guideline. "This particular fact doesn't concern me," he said.
"It's a welcome development that the regulators have put limits on volatility because it enables us to be better assured games will resolve at their true return to player."

Australian Hotels Association SA general manager Ian Horne said if Mr Chappell wasn't concerned, then no one should be. "If the independent regulator has no concerns and they are qualified in this material, why would Kris Hanna have any concerns other than to cause mischief," he said. "We have total confidence in the integrity of the approval system and anyone who suggests there is some manipulation here is being deliberately provocative for political gain."