Poker Cheating and Casino Cheating Blog: American Roulette

Gaming Tech Giant IGT Fined Nearly $400K in Online Poker Cheating Scandals

2012-02-06T15:04:00.000-08:00

Source: Gaming Today

The Missouri Gaming Commission has announced a settlement with International Game Technology in which the Nevada-based gaming machine manufacturer agreed to pay a fine of $375,000 for not telling regulatory officials about a federal subpoena and other law enforcement actions related to its electronic bingo games in Alabama.

Officials said the information failures deal with the company’s receipt of a federal subpoena in June 2008 requesting documents related to IGT’s business dealing with VictoryLand and the Jefferson County (Ala.) Racing Association. It also cites a January 2009 letter IGT received from Alabama Gov. Bob Riley notifying it of a new task force targeting illegal gambling.

The Commission agreed that IGT did inform Missouri’s agency of a June 29, 2010, seizure of electronic gambling machines from the Greenetrack gambling center, but the Missouri settlement document says IGT did not promptly tell the agency of the seizure of a single machine from the same site several weeks earlier nor of resulting litigation.

The settlement also cites a failure to promptly notify the Missouri Gaming Commission of an attempted raid at the VictoryLand gambling site in January 2010 that resulted in litigation.

Missouri’s gaming regulations require gambling companies to inform the state regulatory agency of any subpoenas, and investigations of substantial changes to the information previously submitted as part of its licensure.

My take: The fine should have been at least a few million...They let the bastards off cheap!

Pair of Poker Card-Swapping Cheats Go Down in Pennsylvania Casino

2012-02-06T14:59:00.000-08:00

Source: Lehigh Valley Live

Two people were arrested Friday at Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem after police say they were caught cheating at poker.

Pennsylvania State Police based at the Gaming Enforcement Office inside the casino say Jose L. Rodriguez, 46, of Hialeah, Fla., and Sandro Alonso, 38, of Guttenberg, N.J., were seen swapping cards with each other while playing Texas Hold 'Em Poker.

Alonso told authorities he and Rodriguez also have cheated at Texas Hold 'Em before at Sands and also at Mohegan Sun in Luzerne County, according to court records. Alonso said he started cheating at cards a couple of months ago to earn extra money, records say.

Both men were charged with four counts of cheating, attempted theft by deception and conspiracy to commit theft by deception, according to a news release.

Rodriguez also allegedly had four counterfeit American Express credit cards and was also charged with four counts each of access device fraud, forgery and tampering with records or identification.

Both men were arraigned and committed to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $25,000 bail.

My take: $25,000 is a high bail for a casino or poker cheating crime. I guess they're taking it seriously in Pennsylvania...even with amateur poker cheats.

Canadian Casino Dealer Using False-Shuffle Cheat Scam in Blackjack and Baccarat Faces Prison Time---IF He Doesn't Come Up With Restitution Cash

2012-01-19T14:02:00.000-08:00

Source: starphoenix.com

If Christopher Stone-Spyglass doesn't come up with a chunk of cash by mid-April, he may have to spend some time behind bars for helping more than six card players cheat the Gold Eagle Casino in 2008 and 2009.

At a hearing in provincial court Wednesday, Judge Violet Meekma told the former blackjack and poker dealer she's unlikely to give him a conditional sentence for his central role in the months long scam unless he makes a significant, upfront restitution payment to the Saskatchewan Indian Gaming Authority (SIGA), which owns the casino.

Five of the six gamblers who were charged last year alongside Stone-Spyglass following lengthy investigations by SIGA and the RCMP have already pleaded guilty to theft or cheating at play. All of them paid restitution and avoided incarceration with conditional sentences or probation. One player is still before the courts.

Stone-Spyglass started giving unfair advantages to various players - not all of whom have been identified - within a few months after SIGA hired and trained him as a dealer in 2008, Crown prosecutor Mitch Piche told Meekma.

The dealer used several methods, such as falsely shuffling cards and dealing them in a set order so that "wins were virtually guaranteed," Piche said.

He also flashed cards at blackjack players, eliminating the element of chance to their benefit, and allowed them to withdraw money from the table after placing bets if the cards were not in their favour, court heard.

The players simply took advantage of Stone-Spyglass's activities, and are seen as less culpable than him, Piche said.

The only way the dealer personally profited was when he repeatedly passed $100 chips to a player by concealing them under $5 chips - a direct method of theft that cost the casino $6,000. Stone-Spyglass pocketed half of that money, but otherwise he "appears not to have been motivated by personal remuneration in any way," Piche said.

The casino lost about $20,000 as a result of the scheme, which lasted until January, 2009 and was caught on tape by surveillance cameras, he said.

Piche told Meekma the Crown takes no position on whether or not Stone-Spyglass should be incarcerated or receive a conditional sentence for stealing from his employer.

If he's sent to jail, a 12-month term would be appropriate, but if he's allowed to serve his time in the community it should be 18 months with a curfew, Piche argued, adding Stone-Spyglass should also be ordered to repay $12,600 in monthly instalments.

Defence lawyer Randy Kirkham said Stone-Spyglass supports a wife and three children. He has a steady employment record, but was recently laid off from a job and is now waiting to start work in Fort McMurray, Alberta, which leaves him temporarily cash-strapped, Kirkham said. He expects a sizable income tax refund this year and may also be able to get a loan for an upfront payment before he returns to court for Meekma's sentencing decision in April, court heard.

Kirkham noted his client cooperated fully with SIGA and RCMP investigators from the start of their investigations and gave them all the information they needed. "Personal and family issues" made Stone-Spyglass want to stop working as a dealer for the casino in the fall of 2008, and he sought career counselling from SIGA's human resources department, but was ordered to continue in the job, Kirkham said, telling Meekma the cheating activity was a "foolhardy way of trying to get himself terminated."

My take: The real danger here is that the desperate dealer might resort to more casino cheating scams to obtain the cash needed to avoid prison time in connection with this casino-cheat scam.

New RICO Complaint Filed Against UltimateBet.com

2012-01-19T13:53:00.000-08:00

Source: courthousenews.com

High-stakes poker players claim that UltimateBet stole $20 million from "crooked" online poker games by exploiting security flaws that allowed others - or the website and its operators themselves - to see players' hole cards.
In the federal RICO complaint, eight named plaintiffs claim they lost $2 million in the rigged games. Lead plaintiff Daniel Ashman says the cheating scandal has "been the subject of intense public interest and scrutiny."
Named as defendants are the online poker and gambling website operator, 6356095 Canada Inc. aka Excapsa Software, and 10 John Does.
The complaint states: "UltimateBet (aka Ultimatebet.com) is an online poker and gambling website that has and continues to serve players in the United States. 6356095 Canada, Inc. (formerly Excapsa Software, Inc. or 'Excapsa') and Does 1-10 are holding companies, licensing entities, marketing companies, software firms, and individuals organized in or residing in jurisdictions throughout the world that developed software for and/or operated UltimateBet by and through which owners of Excapsa sought to direct and shield its illegal and fraudulent activities from courts, police, and tax authorities. Individual Doe defendants are owners, operators, officers, employees, and/or agents of Excapsa. While UltimateBet is not itself a legal entity, it is the vehicle through which defendants operated various conspiracies to defraud plaintiffs and the broader public.
"Since at least June 2003 and until at least January 2008 Excapsa/UltimateBet did conspire to and did direct, effect, and permit the theft of over $2 million held in plaintiffs' online poker accounts at UltimateBet.com. Specifically, by creating and making use of an intentional a security flaw in the UltimateBet.com software, and with the assistance of owners, agents, and employees of Excapsa and its various subsidiaries that operated UltimateBet, defendants either allowed others to or did directly view plaintiffs 'hole cards' during high-stakes poker matches run at UltimateBet.com.
"With the assistance of owners, operators, officers, employees, and/or agents of Excapsa and its subsidiaries, the cheaters were further able to change their online identities to avoid detection and to improperly funnel their illicit proceeds through various UltimateBet accounts in a manner that would have been impossible without insider assistance. Through these activities, defendants stole or caused to be stolen at least 20 million dollars from plaintiffs and other high-stakes poker players at games run by UltimateBet."
The named plaintiffs come from five U.S. states, one Canadian province, and Peru. "At this time, plaintiffs suspect but do not know the identities of Does 1-10," the complaint states. "Evidence, some of which is discussed below, has arisen that some of the founders and management of UltimateBet and Excapsa, including Greg Pierson, Jon Karl, Jack Bates, Russ Hamilton, and others who formerly operated (and may continue to be involved in the operation of) UltimateBet were likely aware of or involved the conspiracy to cheat players. However, because the identities and activities of UltimateBet and those who have profited from its operations has been intentionally shielded though numerous agents, subsidiaries, and foreign corporations, it will be necessary to conduct significant discovery before a complete list of defendants can be identified. After such discovery, plaintiffs will seek to amend the complaint to add additional defendants."
In "the UltimateBet.com online poker cheating scandal," the complaint continues, "plaintiffs and other high-stakes online poker players were cheated out of millions of dollars in crooked online poker games where their opponents (employees, agents, owners, and/or officers of Excapsa/UltimateBet) had illicit access to players 'hole' cards. Plaintiffs unknowingly played games of high-stakes poker with their cards essentially face-up. The facts underlying the case have already been the subject of intense public interest and media scrutiny, including a feature story on 60 Minutes, an investigative series by the Washington Post, a feature article by MSNBC, and hundreds of articles and news reports across the Internet."
The plaintiffs say that UltimateBet has a "history, ownership, and business structure" that is "cloaked in layers of obscurity as a result of intentional efforts by the individuals profiting from the enterprise to avoid scrutiny. This is hardly surprising as the prospect of criminal prosecution under the Wire Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1084, the Illegal Gambling Business Act, 18 USC 1955, RICO, 18 U.S.C. § 1961, et seq., and similar statutes has haunted operators of Internet gambling sites from their inception. In 2011, a Grand Jury in the Southern District of New York returned an indictment against the current owners of UltimateBet (Scott Tom and Brent Backley) and owners of other online poker rooms for violation of these and other federal statutes.
"At the same time, Excapsa Services Inc. has suffered no harm, either due to the nature of its operations (often conducted through various and sundry foreign subsidiaries) or the cheating that took place while it owned and operated UltimateBet. Instead, since 2006, when it 'sold' UltimateBet (via the sale of various operating subsidiaries) to Tokwiro Enterprises in what appears to be a related-party transaction, Excapsa has been involved in liquidation proceedings in Toronto, Canada. As part of these proceedings, the assets (mainly cash from operations and from the sale) are being disbursed in an orderly manner to Excapsa's shareholders, which include individuals who knew of and participated in the high stakes poker cheating."
The complaint claims that "a related cheating scandal that took place at UltimateBet's sister site Absolute Poker. UltimateBet and Absolute Poker are now operated by the same holding company, Tokwiro Enterprises, allegedly a Mohawk sole proprietorship owned by the Joseph Norton, the former Grand Chief of the Kahnawake Tribe, which operates the KGC [Kahnawake Gaming Commission]."
The complaint cites a transcript from the "60 Minutes" report, broadcast in November 2008, which states: "The virtual poker games are actually run on computers servers from a Canadian Indian reservation outside of Montreal. It's all licensed by the sovereign tribe of the Mohawk nation, which has no experience in casino gambling and doesn't have to answer to Canadian authorities.
"The [current] grand chief is Mike Delisle.
"Chief Delisle says Internet gambling is illegal in Canada, but tells ['60 Minutes' reporter Steve] Kroft, 'We're not Canadians. We're a member of the Haudenosaunee Five Nation Confederacy. And we're Mohawk Kahnawake people. We're not
Canadian.'
"And that legal distinction has allowed the Kahnawakes to rake in millions of dollars a year by licensing Internet gaming sites and housing their computer servers on the reservation. They now register and service more than 60 percent of the world's Internet gaming activity from a highly protected and nondescript building that used to be a mattress factory."
The plaintiffs continues, in their 42-page complaint: "KGC, the regulatory body to which UltimateBet claims to answer, is part of a self-proclaimed sovereign entity located on a few square miles just across the St. Lawrence River from metropolitan Montreal. The Canadian government has had a history of tense, even violent, relations with the Kahnawake Tribe, who are notorious for cigarette and gun smuggling. The Canadian Government considers the licensing and regulatory activities of the KGC to be illegal." (Footnotes omitted.)
The plaintiffs say that they uncovered the cheating by sharing information at the online poker forum, twoplustwo.com.
In the complaint, they claim they identified a player who they suspected was a "superuser" who could see their cards, and other unknown players they suspected of cheating.
"Members of the twoplustwo.com forums discovered, among other things, that certain accounts with highly improbable win rates often logged on to UltimateBet right after a similarly suspicious account had logged off. Also, many of the suspicious players simply disappeared, never to return, after booking huge wins at high-stakes games, an extremely unusual pattern of activity. Finally, the high-stakes online poker community is relatively small and many high-stakes players know one another from their hundreds of hours of play together, from discussing poker strategy online, and from meeting at live events, such as the annual World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. However, no one had an information about the real world players behind the suspect UltimateBet accounts," the complaint states.
The players say that Tokwiro admitted, in a May 29, 2009 press release, that six player accounts had been cheating, listed 18 account names that "participated in this scheme," and offered refunds.
The complaint states: "UltimateBet has admitted that at least six accounts (presumably six separate individuals), some or all of which belonged to employees and/or owners of Excapsa Software, Inc., used a software vulnerability to steal millions of dollars from players on its site. However, UltimateBet did not then and to this day has not released the names of any individual other than Russ Hamilton, a former World Series of Poker Winner, early manager/employee of UltimateBet, and shareholder of Excapsa, on who UltimateBet has sought to pin the exclusive blame.
"However, given the nature of the security breach (which is essentially built in to the underlying software) and UltimateBet's willingness to protect the identities of the cheaters, it is likely that the cheaters were high-level members of UltimateBet's management and/or software engineering team, and/or its founders and original programmers, as only such individuals could create and exploit the software loophole, frequently change the names of cheating accounts to avoid suspicion, and bypass security measures designed to prevent the cash out of illegitimate winnings. Statements from insiders at UltimateBet have corroborated these suspicions."
The plaintiffs add that the refunds UltimateBet offered also have been shrouded in secrecy: "While UltimateBet has provided 'refunds' to certain players, it has largely kept its methodology for doing so secret. Moreover, it has refused to publicly release or even send affected players hand histories from the compromised games, so that they might determine the accuracy of the refunds; it has refused to provide a full account of its investigation, so that players can examine whether the list of fraudulent accounts is complete; it has not addressed the role of cheating accounts in other poker games, such as high-stakes tournaments or high-stakes limit (as opposed to no-limit) games; and it has refused to compensate players for lost interest, lost profits, emotional distress, or any other form of damages. In short, UltimateBet has acted as its own investigator, judge, and jury in this matter and has stifled any public scrutiny of its 'investigation.' ... Cheated players are bringing this action because they believe that only a public and impartial tribunal can accurately determine the full scope of the cheating and the identities of the individuals behind it."
Finally, the plaintiffs say: "Under federal and state law, the affected players have a right to learn the truth of who cheated them, how they were cheated, and to receive appropriate redress for their injuries. UltimateBet should not be allowed to control the investigation into its fraudulent activities and to set the terms of any penalty unilaterally."
The players seek an injunction and damages for RICO conspiracy, conversion, interference with prospective economic advantage, intentional infliction of emotional distress, unfair business practices, fraud and negligence.
They are represented by Alan Engle with Meador & Engle, of Anaheim Hills.

My Take: I don't think this huge online poker cheating cheat scam will ever go away...and it shouldn't, just to serve as a reminder of what can happen in the nefarious world of online poker and online gambling in general.

Cheat Casinos in Cambodia...Risk Getting Your Fingers Cut Off!!!

2012-01-19T13:47:00.000-08:00

Source: blackjackchamp.com

Cambodia casinos have taken a tough stance on dead beat players who fail to repay loans or gangs of cheaters who plagues the casinos throughout the world.
According to casino gambling news, Ms. Vo Thi Biet of got the shock of her life after finding a chopped of finger after signing for an express delivery parcel at her home in Vietnam.

What nearly made the elderly lady give up the ghost was that the finger belonged to her 23 year old son – who went with friends on a gambling trip to neighboring Cambodia a few days earlier. The package contained a note urging the mother to pay US $3,500 that her son borrowed and lost at a Cambodia casino and attempted to sneak out of the country without first covering his debt.

”They said my son’s friends left him as collateral with the loan shark and that my son escaped and was punished. His friends left him and never returned and there is no one but me to repay for his baccarat and blackjack card games loses at a Cambodia casino,” explained the distraught mother.

Luckily for her dummy of a son, his mother decided that he was worth saving. Just a few days later, Ms. Biet gave a thick wad of currency to a local agent of the Cambodia casino loan shark and soon her son, her wayward son was safely at home. The son claimed that he was captured with several others who escaped from the loan shark and everyone either lost a finger or an ear.

Cheater Feels the Pain at a Cambodian Casino
The chopped off finger and tales of mutilation and torture involving a Cambodian casino are not as rare as one may think. A few months earlier, a female Thai national, Mrs. C., was found dead at a border Cambodian casino.

A cleaning girl discovered the Thai national’s body inside her casino suite covered in thin razor cuts and cigarette burn marks strapped to a chair with fishing line and a plastic bag tightly wrapped around her head. Evidence of prolonged torture was unmistakable.

Police indicate that at least 3 million Thai Bhatt ($200,000 US) that the woman won during the previous days was missing. This is when the case took a strange twist when the dead woman’s Thai passport was determined to be a forgery.

Local police indicated that they were shown casino security tapes where the dead woman was seen wearing an electronic cheating device to win close to a quarter million US dollars at the Cambodia casino with the help of a local Cambodian blackjack dealer.

When police arrived at the blackjack dealer home, they were informed by neighbors that on the night of the murder they heard multiple motorbikes and cars enter and leave the residence throughout the night and in the morning their neighbor was gone.

Police were unable to interview or locate the blackjack dealer boyfriend, finding his home deserted with only a note to indicate that the man was distraught and planed to jump in a nearby lake to end his life. Authorities ruled both deaths as aggravated suicides.

Cambodia Casino Accepts Children as Collateral
Another recent event involved the 13-year-old daughter of a deranged gambler who apparently left the girl as a form of collateral at a Cambodia casino to cover his nearly US $5,000 debt. The grandparents of the girl received a call from a Cambodian casino loan shark threatening to sell their granddaughter to a Thai pimp to work the many whorehouses of Bangkok unless the gambling debts were paid.

The family had no option but to pay back the debt with interest. The father of the 13 year old girl hasn’t been found.

According to casino insiders, the recent incidents at Cambodian casinos were calculated acts aimed specifically at foreign gangs of professional casino hustlers and cheats who plague gambling destination throughout the world. Statistics show that tourists have little to worry about gambling at Cambodia casinos and millions flock each year to see the sights and enjoy themselves without problems.

However, those who enter a Cambodian casinos with the intent to cheat or escape loan repayment may find themselves in a world of problems to say the least. There is no need to be concerned, since there is always a foreign based online casino in Cambodia instead.

My take: If you gotta go to Cambodia, that's bad enough...if you gotta go to Cambodia to cheat casinos, that's even worse!!

Dirty Dozen Cheats Nabbed in Panaji Casino!

2012-01-17T14:02:00.000-08:00

Where is Panaji?

What the heck do I know, but I will guess it is some island off the coast of India???

In any case, the cops there busted a cheat gang consisting of twelve people, two of whom are women. Now get this!!!...Their total take was 39.19 lakh LOL at least twice!

What the heck is lakh?

Well, I guess it's some kind of currency unit.

How much is 39.19 lakh in US dollars, British Pounds or Euros?

Beats me, but I doubt it's much! LOL

This was a credit card fraud where the Dirty Dozen swapped fraudulent credit cards to obtain gambling chips that they cashed out. It happened at a casino called the Casino Pride.

My take: Heck, I don't even know why I am writing about this, but I think I wrote about a casino cheat or poker cheat scam in Panaji before (I am not sure, how could I be?), and if I do remember right, it was another rinky-dink cheat scam for about the same amount of lakh...It did give me a good laugh, however.

Poker Cheat Nabbed in Pennsylvania Casino!

2012-01-17T13:53:00.000-08:00

Source: Lehigh Valley Live

A 46-year-old Phillipsburg man cheated at least 15 times in December during three trips to the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem, Pennsylvania State Police report.

Paul E. Catanio, of the 300 block of Thomas Street, profited $540 from sleight of hand tricks, police said. Catanio often doubled his initial bet after being dealt cards, a violation of game rules, according to court papers.

The move worked 13 of the 15 times he tried it, police said. On his last trip to the casino, Dec. 11, police and casino personnel confronted him after suspecting him of cheating, and he agreed to pay $40 restitution, police said. He was also ejected from the casino, according to court papers.

Casino personnel reviewed Catanio's December visits and found additional instances of cheating, police said, and concluded Catanio profited $500 during those visits. Police said Catanio played poker at the casino more than 30 times since August, but the casino only keeps a seven-day log of video records. Catanio was charged with prohibited acts and theft by deception. He was released on $20,000 unsecured bail.

Allison's World Game Protection Conference Continues Charade of Worthlessness in 2012

2012-01-11T14:06:00.000-08:00

Mr. Smooth

Willy Allison has outdone himself this year with his 2012 World Game Protection Conference line-up of speakers. He's got the number of them way up from last year, but unfortunately this 2012 roster is filled with speakers who have little or nothing to do with modern game protection. The list is again filled with computer software specialists, bank security experts and magicians (THIS IS THE BIGGEST JOKE as if SAL PIACENTE wasn't enough of a magician to satisfy this un-needed prerequisite to speak at the WGPC), and Piacente is not much more than a magician.

Add to this criminalogists, businessmen of the year and sales directors, and you get to see the picture of what I'm talking about. True, there are the few so-called "game protection" specialists, but they're none other than Bill Zender (who should be nicknamed the "e-mail bomber" for his relentless unsolicted e-mail bombardments hyping his baccarat-cheating seminars), Sal "THE HITMAN" (why the heck would a so-called game protection consultant call himself "THE HITMAN"?), and, of course, master magician George Joseph. Zender will do his hyped-up baccarat-cheating presentation, hoping to make casino executives think baccarat cheat-scams are as prevalent in casinos as cards and chips, and that they need to hire him immediately to come to their casinos and wise them up. Zender, in his 3-times-per-month emails to everyone in his "contacts box," has exaggerated this baccarat cheating-plague to the point where it fraudulent information. Anyone who does not believe me about Zender can contact me for specific proof of his miswritings and misinformation.

Piacente, on the other hand, will delight the conference-goers with his magic card tricks in off-conference-hour bar gatherings, and use that non-game-protection-related performance to make everyone think he is "Mr. Game Protection." BAck in 2007 when I was the WGPC keynote speaker (the last one who had anything to do with game protection, I might add), Piacente gave a lecture on casino-cheating with cellphones and other high-tech devices. I wonder if Piacente crammed the info he gave out like a college kid cramming for a mid-term exam.

Allison uses repetitive speakers to cover the items he wants covered, even though these speakers really no nothing or very little about the topics they are presenting.

I have been trying to convince repeat WGPC conference-goers and first-timers that Allison's so-called game protection conference is all smoke and mirrors designed solely to put a big pie of money in Allison's pocket, and to get more casinos to hire Zender, Piacente and Joseph to come to their properties and give seminars, all of which have no real effect on better-equipping casinos against cheats and advantage players,let alone raising casinos' bottom line.

In short, and I don't want to sound crude here, if you are attending your first World Game Protection Conference this February 29, I hope you get what I mean about the smoke and mirrors.

If you are a repeat attendee, you are a sucker!

Two Women Video Gaming Cheats Busted in Louisiana!

2012-01-05T14:34:00.000-08:00

Baudoin

Stewart

Source: KATC.com

Two Lake Charles women are accused of cheating at least eight video poker casinos out of thousands of dollars. State police say 33-year-old Jennifer Stewart and 33-year-old Alisha Baudoin redeemed counterfeit tickets at businesses in Calcasieu Parish.

The women are charged with theft and monetary instrument abuse. Early last week, troopers assigned to the Gaming Enforcement Section of the Louisiana State Police Bureau of Investigations were notified that two unknown people were cashing in counterfeit gaming tickets. Troopers say they identified Baudoin and Stewart and obtained warrants for their arrests. "Stewart has an extensive criminal history including previous arrests for fraud, monetary instrument abuse, identify theft, and drug related offenses," Sgt. James Anderson said.
Stewerat's bond is set at $100,000, and bond for Baudion is $35,000. Additional charges and arrests are likely.

Does Facial Recognition Software REALLY Pick Casino and Poker Cheats out of a Crowd?

2012-01-04T15:08:00.000-08:00

Hypothetical Situation:

Yours truly, Richard Marcus, EX-casino cheat extraordinaire, decides to take a stroll through Caesars Palace casino in Las Vegas, which just happens to be my favorite casino of all-time where I made bundles of cash through a variety of casino-cheat moves.

As I am walking through the blackjack and roulette pit, I am suddenly accosted by two young and burly security guards who whisk me right off the casino floor and into the back room (security office). I am handcuffed to a chair, all the while screaming that I didn't do ANYTHING! Then I ask the head of casino surveillance, who rushed down from the eye-in-the-sky (the surveillance room with all the screen hosting images from the bubbled-up cameras covering the casino ceiling) to greet me.

I say, "How the hell did you recognize me? I haven't walked through here in fifteen years!" I have long since retired."

He says, "But you've heard of facial recognition technology, haven't you?

I nod, and he says, "IT recognized you."

Do I believe this?...that some gizmo software program can pick me out of a thousand-strong throng in a jam-packed casino?...that, according to some casino security experts, this facial-rec technology is so advanced that it could have ID'd me even if I'd had plastic surgery to purposely change my facial appearance?

In a short word, NO! I do not believe this. I believe that someone already believing he saw me can get an agreeing nod from the software. But this stuff about recognizing Richard Marcus in the blind...NO WAY, JOSE!

Hot-Looking "Cooler" Specialist Nominated For Poker Cheats and Casino Cheats Hall of Fame!

2011-12-31T14:11:00.000-08:00

Most woman casino cheats are used as diversions to get the attention of male pit bosses away from the table layout where the cheat move goes down, but With Ida Summers, who was one hot babe in her day, the male attention could be right on her when she made those cheat moves. Later known as the Vegas Vixen, she was a master at cunning, quickness (at the casino blackjack table, I don't know about in bed) and getting the money off the table. She was one of the early Nevada female pioneer casino cheats.

Her cheat gig was first "hand-mucking" cards at blackjack tables and then later switching in entire "coolers" (blackjack shoes filled with prearranged cards to cheat the house) at those same blackjack tables. Hand mucking is the art of hiding a card (usually by palming) that has been snuck to the table before the play of a hand or taken off the table after it had been put into play by the dealer. Then with a quick sleight-of-hand movement the mucked card is either returned to play or taken off the table by the card-mucker, all in accordance with whether the cheat needs the card in his or her hand or back in the deck.

Ida Summers used all her beauty and talent to pull of these card swithces.
In addition to her good-looks, she was very flirtatious and very socialable, much like fellow Hall of "Famestress" Ruthie Berin. She was also quite petite, five-feet-two and less than a hundred pounds. This petiteness appealed greatly to the macho pit bosses of her day. She played them on her charm as she expertly and effortlessly switched cards in and out of decks.

But Ida took her cheating to the hilt. Uninspired by the ease of hand-mucking cards, she stepped up her craft to switching entire coolers into play. These are also called "cold decks" that are already prearranged to make the involved players at the table winners on as many hands they want. Some losing hands may be placed between the winners just to make the scam look more believable. After all, a player winning every hand, even if it be a beautiful woman, would surely raise suspicions in even the most distracted pit boss.

What made this move so bold was that the original card show on the table had to be physically lifted off the layout while the cooler was slipped into its spot, all in a split second. AND the shoe taken off the table had to be hidden from everyone's view. Ida managed this by placing that original shoe on her lap and then passing it off to a male cohort standing behind her at the first opportune moment. Then she would leave the table herself while other cohorts would begin playing the hands the dealer dealt from the cooler. The idea was that if they were caught, they would never catch Ida with the removed card shoe at the table.

In spite of this, gaming commission officials in Las Vegas, working in conjunction with the FBI, eventually caught Ida and her casino cheat partners, but they must have been very impressed with her skills and looks as well: she received but probation for her trouble.

At the time of her exploits and arrest, Ida Summers was the only known professional female casino cheat, which made her a true legend in casino cheating and underworld lore.

Online Poker-Cheat Leak Gives Up Data For 3 Million UltimateBet Playes!

2011-12-24T08:17:00.000-08:00

If UltimateBet.com hasn't already had enough poker-cheating and security problems!

Now, in the latest UB.com cheat scandal, the names, real addresses, e-mail addresses as well as phone numbers and account detailed account info including balances of more than three million UltimateBet and Absolute Poker players had been compromised to the public in early December. The culprit, although unclear of what the intention was and by whom, was a faulty security device on a web-spammer’s site.

The full history of how the pilfered info got into the claws of e-mail marketers has not been detailed but many experts believe it is related to UB.com's post-cheating scandal collapse and egregious mis-management.

My take: UltimateBet and Absolute Poker just seem to be forever married to cheating at online poker and other interconnected scams.

Poker Cheat Settlements Linked to "High Stakes Poker" TV Show.

2011-12-24T08:06:00.000-08:00

I have been saying for years that the GAMING SHOW NETWORK's "High Stakes Poker" show is all bullshit where no real money changes hand. Here is an interesting piece of news involving Gabe Kaplan, the former TV actor-turned poker broadcaster who coincidently is one of the broadcasters of that fraudulent show. Read this and tell me if you still actually believe there is one grain of truth to the crap you see on "High Stakes Poker."

News: Tobey Maguire, the "Spider-Man” star, and veteran TV-poker commentator and broadcaster Gabe Kaplan have agreed to settle lawsuits which were brought by poker-cheat victims of a convicted racketeer who took part in Maguire's high-stakes Hollywood poker games. Maguire reached a settlement for $80,000 while Kaplan settled to receive $26,900. The claims were brought by bankruptcy attorney Howard Ehrenberg, who sought to recover nearly half a million bucks lost by an imprisoned man convicted of fraud, one Bradley Ruderman.

First Major Conviction in Online Poker Cheat Fraud Case! I Hardly Believe It!!!

2011-12-21T14:57:00.000-08:00

But is has happened! And lots of you have been waiting years for this news!

Source: Part Time Poker

Brent Beckley, one of the pioneers of Absolute Poker, pleaded guilty today in federal court. U.S. Magistrate Judge Ronald Ellis accepted the guilty plea in a Manhattan federal court. Beckley pleaded guilty to bank fraud, wire fraud and violating the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). The UIGEA, passed in 2006, makes it illegal for banks to process payments for illegal online gambling businesses that accept players from the U.S.

Beckley became the first executive of an online poker room related to the Black Friday indictments to plead guilty. Beckley’s half brother Scott Tom was also indicted on Black Friday. Scott Tom is believed to have been the mastermind behind the Absolute Poker insider cheating scandal. Tom’s whereabouts are unknown.

Beckley worked in the security department at Cereus, which consisted of Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. His job also involved setting up payment processors for the online poker room. Beckley was accused of creating bogus companies in an attempt to get U.S. banks to process payments to Absolute Poker, payments the banks would otherwise have declined.

PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker banned U.S. players within 24 hours of the Black Friday indictments being unsealed. The Cereus Network continued to allow U.S. players to play for real money. These players just did not have access to the cashier section. After reaching a settlement with U.S. authorities, players in the U.S. were blocked and could not even see the real money tables in the software’s lobby.

Players in the U.S. have not received any payments since Black Friday. Players in the rest of the world have receive small payouts. Typically these payouts were made once a month and the maximum payout was $1000. In October, Cereus announced that they would go into liquidation. This was after payments to players outside of the U.S. stopped. It is estimated that players from around the world could be owed as much as $50 million.

My take: Boy! This has been a long time coming coming! Finally someone pleads guilty and faces real prison time in connection with online poker cheating and fraud. You gotta love this! Especially if you were a victim to one of these malicious online poker cheat scams.

Poker Card-Swapping Cheats Busted in Pennsylvania Casino

2011-12-21T14:45:00.000-08:00

Source: Lehigh Valley Live

Giansergio Caputi, 33, and Fernando A. Rodriguez, 28, both of Sunrise, Fla., profited from swapping cards four times in less than 45 minutes this morning at the Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem, police said. One of the men won $1,221 during hands in which he received beneficial cards from his friend, and the other man gained $50 from similar moves, according to court papers. Caputi and Rodriguez were seen on video, police said, and monitored by security. Both men were charged with four counts of prohibited acts and one count each of theft by deception and conspiracy.

Caputi was sent to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $50,000 bail. Rodriguez was sent to Northampton County Prison in lieu of $150,000 bail.

My take: Card-Swapping at poker tables and casino derivative poker tables such as three-card and four-card poker is a very crafty casino-cheating art--when done by professionals who have practiced and perfected their art. These guys here seem like amateurs who never really had a chance of getting away with it for more than one hour, let alone one night.

Computer Casino Cheat Keith Taft Nominated For Poker and Casino Cheats Hall of Fame!

2011-12-12T13:57:00.000-08:00

Keith Taft with "George"

With all the emphasis on high-tech poker and casino cheating these days, and old name from this type of casino cheating has come back to the surface and been nominated for 2012 entry to the Poker and Casino Cheats Hall of Fame.

Keith Taft was a real-life "Inspector Gadget" character, a true genius who spent three decades developing and perfecting electronic devices to cheat US casinos. He began working with casino computers with his son, Marty Taft, back in the late 60s. Today he is believed to be the first casino or poker cheat to develop a computer that captured digital video the way today's microcomputers are processing data filmed in false-shuffle and other baccarat and blackjack cheat scams.

While vacationing in the Bahamas in the 60s, Taft got interested in Edward O. Thorp's famous blackjack card-counting book "Beat the Dealer." In fact, he quickly became obsessed by it. However, he did not make any money counting cards at blackjack using Thorp's plus-minus count system.

Thus he turned his attention to developing computers to beat the blackjack tables. His first and now famous invention was a 5-kilo computer that he called "George." He used it to enter data while counting cards at blackjack, using his toes to enter the data to the prototype computer he had tucked underneath his baggy shirt. He later decided that George was a bit unwieldy and developed a lighter device that he called "David."

Taft had immediate success with David, beating Vegas casinos out of fifty grand in the first two weeks of operation. made $40,000 the first week he used it. After taking some heat in casinos, Taft decided he would do better by selling his minicomputers based on the David prototype for ten or fifteen grand apiece, which included his training of the buyers.

This decision Taft made after being grabbed up in a casino and taken to the back room, where he was interrogated by Nevada Gaming Control Board agents as well as the FBI. But neither law enforcement agency had the slightest idea of what the microcomputer actually was and failed to make any legal connection to casino cheating that they could use in court, therefore Taft was releaed.

Another casino.cheating computer deeloped by Taft´s sons Marty and Keith was called the "belly-telly." This was a small video camera they fitted into their belts and could film the dealer's hole-card at blackjack. The image was then transmitted to their cheating partners sitting in a van at the casino's parking lot. These cohorts would then send a signal back to the cheating blackjack players at the table, identifying the value of the hole card.

Yet another electronic gismo invented by Taft and his sons was the "Thor" computer, which could track the positions of cards in a multiple-deck shuffle. This was the first casino-cheat invention that directly led to today's high-tech video-reader devices that are used in blackjack and baccarat shuffle-tracking scams, which are currently costing casinos worldwide millions, especially in Macau.

In 1986, the Nevada Gaming Commission created a law making it illegal to use any electronic devices whatsoever in gaming casinos, which today is a felony punishable by up to ten years in prison.

A true casino-cheating pioneer, Keith Taft was also inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame in 2004.

Table Games Protection Training

2011-11-26T14:14:00.000-08:00

Keynoting 2007 WGPC in Las Vegas/

As casino table game cheating scams proliferate in the world's casinos, especially on baccarat and roulette tables, it is time to get the proper table game protection training for your casino staffs. And it is time to get that training from the BEST, the only casino table game protection specialist in the world

today who has solid bona fide experience from both sides of the casino's tables.

Richard Marcus was both a casino dealer of all the basic table games as well as the most recognized casino cheat in the history of legalized gaming casinos. For more information on his casino table game protection training classes and seminars click here.

Study Says Online Casinos Use Software that Cheats Craps Players!

2011-11-25T13:59:00.000-08:00

Source: Pittsburgh Live

At least two online casinos use software that cheats craps players, two leading gambling statisticians say.

The software by BLR Technologies, based in Costa Rica, detects a player's bet and increases the chances of a losing roll, according to gambling consultant Michael Shackleford, known as the "Wizard of Odds," and Eliot Jacobson, operator of Jacobson Gaming, which audits and certifies casino games around the world.

Legends.com and World Wide Wagering (www.wager.dm) use the BLR software in their craps games, according to rating service SportsBookReview.com. A third operator, 5Dimes.com, said it dropped BLR after the studies were posted on Shackleford's WizardOfVegas.com site.

Rachel Miller, general manager of Legends, said the software used on her site plays fairly. She said the company has invested thousands of dollars in new random number generators to work with the BLR software. She said she could not agree or disagree with the Shackleford and Jacobson studies because they did not test the craps game at Legends.

"I guarantee that everything is perfect on our end," she said.

A spokeswoman for 5Dimes said the company had no comment beyond a statement to Shackleford's site that it had removed BLR software from its casinos.

"BLR was given ample time to address the concerns of (WizardOfVegas) forum members as well as our direct questions," the statement said. "No acceptable answers were given, so the casino platform was removed."

BLR and World Wide did not respond to phone and e-mail requests for comment.

Legends, licensed in Panama, and 5Dimes, based in Costa Rica, are among only five online sports books with an A-plus rating from SportsBookReview.com, which grades hundreds of sites for customer service, incentives and pricing. World Wide, licensed in Dominica, West Indies, has a B grade.

The complaint about the craps software surfaced last month in a WizardOfVegas player forum.

Norman Clem, 66, of Las Vegas said he had been playing craps at World Wide for about a year and was slightly ahead before he suddenly started losing.

"I thought I was just on a bad run. But it never stopped," he told Player's Advantage. He documented his play, recording each bet and each outcome in a spreadsheet. From May 14 to Aug. 27, he videotaped 3,200 rolls in which he bet "pass" or "don't pass," the simplest bets in craps.

Those bets should win almost 49 percent of the time. Clem said he won 856 times, about 27 percent.

Intrigued by Clem's postings, Shackleford played craps at 5Dimes, which was using BLR software at the time. He said he bet only the pass line, winning 81 times and losing 247.

"It would have been easier to win the Powerball two out of two times than to be as unlucky as I was," said Shackleford, who has helped design slot machines for Internet casinos.

Jacobson said he devised a test to see whether the software "would really misbehave." With his approach, he would win something unless a seven came on the next roll.

"Suddenly, it produced a lot of sevens," he said. In 74 chances, a seven came up 41 times, or more than once in every two rolls; with fair dice, a seven comes up an average of once every six rolls.

"Thousands of people have been ripped off by this software," Jacobson said.

Clem said World Wide refunded his losses.

"It's obvious I was cheated, so what were they going to do?" he said.

Shackleford said 5Dimes refunded his losses. It's unclear whether others received refunds.

Jacobson said BLR also makes software for online blackjack, video poker, roulette and slots, but he does not know of any research into those.

Legends, World Wide and 5Dimes are primarily sports books, but offer casino games as another gambling attraction. Miller said less than 10 percent of Legends' 7,500 active gamblers use the casino.

She said Legends continues to use BLR, in part, because the software works so well with the site's main function of handling sports bets.

The United States does not license or regulate online gambling. Federal law prohibits American gamblers from collecting winnings from Internet casinos.

The federal government's April 15 crackdown on Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars and Ultimate Bet was based on accusations that they violated U.S. banking law.

Although those sites were shut down in the United States, 300 offshore companies continue to offer online gambling to U.S. players, according to the American Gaming Association, an industry group.

Shackleford and Jacobson said the BLR case should hasten the move toward U.S. regulation of online gambling.

"It only goes to show that when there's no regulation, there's nothing to stop these types of things from happening," Shackleford said.

"This kind of issue just shows how much (regulation is) needed," Jacobson said. "People are going to continue to gamble at these sites. There are still thieves and crooks creating crooked software."

My take: Well, how do we know that this study is not using software to cheat readers??? Really, your guess on this is as good as mine.

Syndicate Casino Cheating on the Rise in Singapore

2011-11-21T12:56:00.000-08:00

Asian Cheat Favorite 3-card poker

Ever since two giant casinos opened in Singapore, casino and poker cheating has plagued the nation`s gaming tables. At first the casino-cheating attacks came from small international professional cheat groups and rank amateurs mostly from Singapore, Malaysia and other Asian countries. But know big-time Mafia-type Chinese and Asian crime syndicates are getting into the act, and I don't mean only loan-sharking and money-laundering types of crime. I am also talking about good old-fashioned table games and slot machine cheating scams. These syndicates are specializing in baccarat scams and poker-derivative-game scams, especially 3-card poker where they are using digital cameras and other high-tech equipment to scam Sinapore`s casinos.

And what makes these kinds of cheats a real pain in the ass for casinos is that they have muscle behind their cheating scams. They can scare authorities into not taking legal action against them when they are caught.

My suggestion to Singapore casino game-protection authorities: Start teaching your floor personnel to spot and stamp out casino table game scams before the cash rolls out of the cages!

Good Example of How Casino Steaming Leads to Casino Cheating

2011-11-18T13:23:00.000-08:00

Source: Asia One News

A Malaysian visitor was frustrated and angry after losing $18,000 on his first visit to Marina Bay Sands.

At about 5pm on Oct 26, Tan Kuan Loong tried to cheat at a three-dice game, sic bo, by placing a late bet of $30 on the winning combination.
It should have won him $1,500, but his cheating ways were found out after dealer Chaiyaboot Narumon told her pit manager about her suspicions of the bet.

As the surveillance department reviewed the video footage of that bet, Tan tried to sneak in another bet of $30, when one of the dice already showed a five.

Tan pleaded guilty to one charge, while the second cheating offence was taken into consideration by the judge in the sentencing. Tan's defense counsel Rajan Supramaniam asked for leniency, saying his client had a five-year-old daughter with a hole in the heart. He had also resorted to cheating in a moment of foolishness. Tan was fined $1,500. He could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined up to $10,000.

My take: This type of entry into casino or poker cheating is always a risk for those who steam while losing at gambling and out of desperation decide to cheat. At least in this case, the authorities and the judge had the decency to cut Tan a break. It was hard to hear about the hole in his daughter's heart.

Piggyback Casino Cheating...Can it be Done?

2011-11-17T13:34:00.000-08:00

I was asked an interesting question yesterday: "I am a fairly intelligent guy and was wondering if I can go to Vegas and spot a casino cheat team or individual cheat or a poker team and piggyback onto their operation without taking any of their heat if they get caught?

Like I said, interesting.

Well, as far as the poker piggyback cheating goes, forget it! You can't join a collusion ring your not part of, nor can you read marks on cards their marking if you don't already have the right lenses in your eyes.

But in casino table games it is possible, albeit rare and difficult. With advantage-play teams at blackjack and baccarat tables, it may be possible to read their advantage if they are counting cards, ace-tracking, hole-carding or any of the other scams done on those tables that do not involve chip manipulation. On craps tables the idea of piggyback cheating would be more feasible. One example would be with dice-sliding, where the dice-cheat slides one of the dice so that it does not tumble or hit the back wall, therefore staying put on the number he has set up, usually six. If you pick up on a guy throwing dice and one of them not hitting the back wall and consistently coming up six or any other number, you could piggyback onto the scam and not take heat because you are not rolling the dice. So if you can see a guy rolling one of the dice six, you know that on a come-out or come-bet roll, you have a 2 to 1 edge right off the bat of a winner 7 or 11, against a craps loser 12. And there are many other opportunities like this involving field bets.

UK Casinos Say Their Video Software Will Thwart and Catch Poker Cheats and Casino Cheats

2011-11-09T13:25:00.000-08:00

Source: newscientist.com

People trying to cheat in casinos may soon be taking more of a gamble than they realise. Grosvenor Casinos, a major UK chain, is assessing software that can spot cheating at the roulette table and alert the croupier.

Some people cheat at roulette by placing their chips on the table after the croupier has already called "last bets". Doing so gives a player a real advantage, because as the ball slows it becomes easier to predict which quarter of the wheel it will land in, says Boghos Boghossian, head of technology at London-based Ipsotek, which has come up with the system. Cheats will often work in pairs, with one trying to distract the croupier while the other places bets.

The new software would be installed on the existing CCTV cameras in casinos. To prevent cheating, the software analyses the video feed to first monitor the speed of the ball to determine when last bets are called. It then detects whenever a hand enters the betting area of the table and leaves a chip. Footage from the cameras is used to train statistical models to look for this type of event or activity.

It can also pick out another form of cheating called "top-hatting", which hinges on each player using specific-colour chips. This is when a cheat places a bet after the ball has landed, but the stack they place includes different coloured chips, borrowed from an accomplice, at its base.

If the croupier is on the ball and spots the late bet the cheat's chips will be removed from the table. But unless the croupier is really sharp they may assume that the accomplice's chips were already there and so leave them on the table. The software spots this by keeping tabs on the colours of chips placed during betting. So when a late bet is made and removed, the system knows if other chips have been added.

"When you have 10 people around a table all trying to place bets as late as possible it can be difficult to see these things," says Sean Cunningham, director of security for Rank Group, which owns Grosvenor Casinos. The software is currently only designed to work on roulette tables but if trials go well the plan is to extend this to blackjack and baccarat, says Boghossian. The group is due to make a decision on installing the software in January.

Casinos have used surveillance cameras for some time, but having an automated system to spot cheats is like giving the croupier an extra pair of eyes, says James Ferryman, who researches automated surveillance systems at the University of Reading, UK.

It's not the first time such software has been used in casinos. One system called MindPlay, now discontinued, used embedded cameras and invisible ink to keep track of cards. But it required specialist hardware and was not successful at detecting cheats.

Ipsotek's software is different because it uses the existing CCTV network. "You're trying to pick up anomalies, or anything that is unusual in the context," says Ferryman.

Followed, one camera at a time
A system called Tag and Track can automatically track people and vehicles in a town as they move from one camera to another.

Developed by Ipsotek, the software first detects and categorises different types of object. Once identified, these objects can then easily be tracked by the camera.

What's clever about the system, claims Boghos Boghossian of Ipsotek, is that after being shown training footage it can automatically learn the location of the different cameras in relation to one another. This means it can infer when someone leaves one camera, and where they will reappear. The system was shortlisted at the Global Security Challenge in London last week.

My take: Well, all this high and higher-tech video surveillance equipment in casinos is great--but it will never deter or catch the best of the cheats like myself and other highly-professional poker cheat and casino cheat teams.

UK Casino Cheat Dealer Goes Down For Inside Roulette Cheating Scam

2011-11-02T15:47:00.000-07:00

Source: Bolton News

A cheating croupier teamed up with gamblers in a casino fraud to help him pay off debts. Peter Fisher paid over the odds when they placed bets at his roulette table at the Grosvenor G Casino, Bolton Magistrates Court heard. Two gamblers approached the croupier in January this year asking him to help them cheat. Crippled by a car debt from his teens and struggling to come to terms with his father’s death, he agreed. Fisher, aged 26, of Molyneux Road, Westhoughton, pleaded guilty at magistrates court yesterday to three counts of cheating at gambling.

Over three days, the customers made just less than £1,000, splitting their profits with Fisher. The town centre casino lost more than £2,000 in potential earnings, the court was told. William Donnelly, prosecuting, said: “All of a sudden, the punter has made a substantial profit without doing anything. “You can double your winnings without too much trouble.”
One of the gamblers had been discreet, always betting on the same numbers, the court heard. But the other was not, throwing money at Fisher for him to change. Another gambler spotted “something dodgy”, Mr Donnelly told magistrates, and reported Fisher to casino bosses. They reviewed CCTV footage of the table and uncovered the fraud. Fisher lost his job and his gaming licence, and following a police investigation, the former croupier was arrested and interviewed in May. William Birtwell, defending, said Fisher had brought shame on his family, especially his brother, who is a serving police officer. Mr Birtwell added: “He is disgusted with himself that he has allowed himself to get caught up in this. It was a moment of madness. He had worked hard to get where he was, but he has lost his gaming licence and can no longer work in the gambling profession.”

The court was told that croupiers were constantly asked to cheat by punters. Fisher had always said no, but finally relented in January this year, as his debts mounted. He had taken out a £5,000 loan for a car in his teens, but had taken out further high-interest agreements since then, in an attempt to consolidate his loans. January also marked the anniversary of his father’s death, the court was told. Chairman of the bench Frank Whittaker said: “You were caught redhanded. It is a significant amount over three days. If it had continued over, say, two years, it would have been an awful lot of money. You were a trusted senior member of staff. You didn’t do it alone, there was a level of organisation and premeditation.”

Police are currently investigating the other men involved in the fraud.
Following the hearing, Fisher said: “I do regret what I have done, it was a stupid mistake and it wasn’t like me at all. It was completely out of character and I have apologised for it.”

Fisher was warned by the court that he faces a high level community order when he is sentenced tomorrow.

More Trouble For Giant Online-Cheat-Plagued Full Tilt Poker--This Time It's a $900 Million Lawsuit!

2011-10-27T13:30:00.000-07:00

Source: paidcontent.org

In a lawsuit filed on Monday in federal court, two Los Angeles men are demanding that Full Tilt give back money— $10 for one of the men and $120,000 in the case of the other—they say is owed to them after they were unable to cash out their accounts. They also seek punitive damages and $900 million for other Americans who are out of pocket after Full Tilt allegedly cheated them in games and after owners began helping themselves to customer money.

The class action, which names famous poker stars Howard Lederer and Christopher Ferguson, appears to be based on many of the dramatic allegations set out in an FBI indictment unsealed last April. The owners of Full Tilt are accused of using flower stores and pet shops as front companies to trick U.S. banks into processing customers credit card and check transactions. The owners used the front companies because payment requests from them did not carry a transaction code used to flag online gambling, which is illegal in the United States.

The class action also demands that the site owners and celebrity players repay customers for cheating in the online poker games. Full Tilt’s nastiest tactic allegedly involved the use of robots—computer players hatched by Full Tilt that would appear at sparsely populated games and use their card-counting skills to fleece the real players. According to the complaint, Full Tilt assured players that they had “zero tolerance” for robot players—but went ahead and deployed robots created by two company owners with degrees from MIT and UCLA. Even worse, Full Tilt used customer hatred of robots as a pretext to rob successful players:

Certain players who repeatedly lost to a skilled player would start on-line jihads against the successful player, accusing that player of being a robot. The Defendants discovered over time that cancellation of real player accounts accused of being a “robot” was another profit center, as the player account money of the wrongly-accused player was confiscated.

Online gambling is a vast and lucrative enterprise as evidenced by reports that the US government was able to seize $115 million from Full Tilt simply by intercepting a percentage of the payments made to the front companies. Full Tilt and two other major poker sites began struggling in the last two years, however, as increasing pressure from US authorities made it increasingly difficult for the companies to circumvent rules that forbid businesses from processing online gambling transactions. During this time, the Full Tilt owners allegedly began raiding customer accounts, leading US prosecutors last months to describe the company as a “Ponzi Scheme.”

It is unclear whether there will be anything left to collect if the class action suit is successful. The U.S. Department of Justice is already demanding a $1 billion civil penalty from many of those listed in the California suit. There may be good news for customers based on a report that a French investment firm is promising to make losses whole if it can take over the business. The bad news is that the new prospective owner served prison time for stealing from a soccer club he owned.

Poker Cheats and Casino Cheats Boot Camp?

2011-10-21T13:58:00.000-07:00

Getting fit to poker cheat

According to an email I received today, that's exactly what one potential casino and poker cheating person wants. He directed me to the days of poker boot camps that I believed were started by Phil Hellmuth and a few other notable cheating and non-cheating poker pros.

Well, I can't take this poker and casino cheat request TOO seriously because even if I wanted to actually do it, it would be pretty hard to pull off. First off, it would have to be completely underground as I could not freely advertise it, even on my poker cheating website! Can you imagine me printing "Poker Cheat Boot camp Available To All!" or "Casino Cheats, Come To Me and I will Hone your Skills!"???

Afraid not! I might find myself in some serious trouble with all sorts of crime fighting agencies. And besides, I really don't want to actually encourage people to try cheating casinos and poker games. It is VERY dangerous!