Does Every Poker Cheating Dog Have Its Day?

What do I mean by this? well, if your native language is English you have surely heard this expression. Generally it means that every bastard or bitch in the world who takes advantage of, robs, or CHEATS other people eventually has his day of reckoning where he or she in turn becomes the victim. In this case I am talking about poker cheats who constantly cheat the poker games both in brick and mortar poker room casinos and online. The cheating dogs who work the live poker rooms and home games are quite more likely to "have their day" (get caught, busted or beat-up) than their fellow or unfellow online poker cheats. This is simply because they are in physical reality when plying their cheating trade. They can be accosted, detained, arrested, and in some cases, especially home games, have the royal shit kicked out of them and even be killed!

But the online cheating dogs work behind the cloak of non-identity and cyberspace, and when they are caught they have the luxury of using their cyberknowledge to come right back at you under different user names, IP addresses, etc. And even when they are identified, as was the case with Russ Hamilton, the crooked mastermind behind the biggest online poker scandal ever, the UltimateBet.com insider hole card-scam (biggest ANY poker scam ever), it is extremely unlikely that that dog will have its day. I mean, after all, does anyone think Russ Hamilton, the real ALPHA DOG of poker cheating, will ever have his day?

I highly doubt it!

Latest Blackjack Cheat Caught in Pennsylvania Casinos is Philadelphia Police Officer!

Surprised? Well, in spite of the cheating free-for-all taking place on Pennsylvania casinos' new table games, it's a bit surprising, to say the least, that a Philadelphia cop took a shot at joining the blackjack cheating epidemic.

This latest and somewhat embarrassing incident took place at the Parx Casino near Bensalem. But at least the accused cop/blackjack cheater showed a littly more mettle than the herd of blackjack bet-capping cheats plaguing PA's baby casinos. Apparently he was caught with a card-counting device, which violates the Pennsylvania casino law prohibiting play with any digital or electronic equipment abetting you. The blackjack cheating officer has been identified as John Gallagher, and although the Philadelphia Police Department has offered no comments on the blackjack cheating case, Gallagher has immediately retired from the law-enforcement job he has held for more than thirty years. He has not yet been charged with a crime, and I would not be surprised if he never is...I mean, come on, they gotta give one of Philadelphia's "finest" a break...and by "finest" I am not talking about blackjack cheats!

My take: Well, using a card-counting device to me is not a great feat or even a real intention of cheating, but practically all American gaming jurisdictions treat doing so as a felony...Hate to see a cop go down for this.

UK Chip-Counterfeiter Gets 18 Months in Prison!...Before Passing off the First Fake Chip!

A twenty-year-old UK resident identified as Augustin Dago was sentenced to 18 months in the British brig after being convicted of defrauding casinos by counterfeiting their chips.

Dago contacted various casino-chip manufacturers in the UK saying that he wanted £25-denomination chips for his own personal card games. He sent photos of the specific London Gala casinos' chips that he wanted. Back in 2009 he had used a phony driver's license to become a member of two Gala casinos in London and also opened bank accounts with the false identification, apparently thinking there would be lots of ill-gotten booty to deposit.

Dago's plan went awry when one of the chip-manufacturing companies recognized the Gala Casino chip design he had requested on his order and notified the police. The London Clubs and Vice Squad arrested Dago and searched his apartment, finding photos of the chips, lists of the chip-manufacturing companies he'd contacted and copies of his orders. Confronted with the evidence, Dago quickly admitted his plan to cash in the phony chips at the Gala casinos and deposit his funds into the bank account opened under the phony names, in effort to launder the money back to a legitimate account in his real name.

London Detective Inspector Ann Marie Waller said, "This was a calculated attempt to commit fraud against one of the major gaming groups in the UK. Due to the quick thinking of both the chip-manufacturer and Gala Coral Group Limited, Augustin Dago was stopped from circulating counterfeit casino cash chips."

My take: What I don't get is why Dago confessed. As far as I can tell, he was accosted by the cops before trying to pass off the counterfeit chips in the casinos, so no crime had as yet been committed. As well, I don't understand why the London coppers didn't wait and let Dago make his cash-out moves inside the casino. Well, I guess the coppers got lucky this time.

Stupidity of Cambodian Casino Allows it to Fall Victim to $1.4 Million Baccarat Scam...Using Automatic Shuffle Machine to Boot!

I have heard of stupid casinos before, and taken advantage of many in my day, but the NagaWorld casino in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, takes the cake!

The casino uses automatic card shufflers on its baccarat tables but then permits the dealers to manually shuffle after the cards have already been automatically shuffled. What's the point to the automatic shuffler? you, as well as I, are asking yourselves. Well, the NagaWorld (what the hell does NagaWorld mean anyway?) casino says that the manual shuffle is done as a courtesy to high-rolling baccarat players who want to be sure the automatic card-shuffle machine is not cheating them...LOL!

Come on, gimme a break! Like these high rollers are gonna walk outta the casino if the manual shuffle were refused them.

Here's how the gang of baccarat cheats did it:

Using three women dealers and a tiny digital camera, a pair of Malaysian men recorded the manual shuffle then relayed the order-of-card info back to themselves at the table via a high-tech communication center outside the casino, most likely in a vehicle parked in the vicinity.

The casino finally wised up after the continual abnormal win-rates for the group of players and arrested one of the dealers. But the other two and the players at the table got away with the cash and presumably split the country. The captured dealer spilt her guts on her accomplices.

NagaWorld says it will review its policy of permitting their dealers to do the manual shuffle...gee, how smart they are!!! An official at the casino enlightened the casino world with these remarks: "Players will always be looking to find ways to cheat casinos and electronic ways of cheating are harder to detect than most. Casinos increasingly have to rely on monitoring how much players are winning and seeing if it really is plausible. Everyone thinks it’s easy being the house and you always win but this demonstrates that it really isn’t as simple as you’d think."

My take: I think this post says it all!