Should Phil Ivey be Banned from Professional Poker for Being a Casino-Cheat?

This is the kind of issue that will always gather momentum from each side. There are two typical points of view on this. The first is that he has never been accused of cheating in any poker scenario, therefore he should not be banned from playing any form of poker. The second is that he is an alleged casino-cheat, at least by those who considered playing-card edge-sorting to be cheating.

What do I think about it? I think he should be banned from professional poker. I know that may sound strange coming from one of the most prolific all-time casino cheats. But, then again, I never entered any other casino money-making world. My reasoning is that cheating casinos is too close to cheating at poker. I mean, after all, both poker and casino games like baccarat take place in casinos.An analogy I can make is a professional football player getting caught taking steroids while playing a second professional sport, most likely baseball. Just on reputation alone, Ivey, whose is now sullied by multiple casino cheating accusations and lawsuits, should get a lifetime ban from playing in any professional poker tournament.

Hey Phil, if you're not doing anything, how 'bout teaming up with me for a little casino-cheating romp!!! LOL

So is Top-Notch Casino Cheating More Profitable than Top-Notch Poker Playing?

Of course there is only one person in this world better equipped to answer this than me, and of course, that's Phil Ivey, considered the best poker player in the world...and now maybe the best casino cheat as well. Unfortunately though, Ivey is not sitting next to me right now, and if he were, I doubt that he'd be inclined to answer. So I will have a go at it myself, since I do know something about each of those avenues that lead to riches.

Of course the answer is that high-level casino cheating is more profitable than high-level poker-playing, and of course that applies to the professional ranks of both, with the exception of the creme de la creme poker players who rake in millions from endorsements and online poker-room ownerships.

Let's take Ivey as our prime example. First off, it is clear that in his poker-tournament career, he has not earned the $20 million he is said to have earned by cheating casinos via the defective card-cheating process known as edge-sorting. We have heard of two $10 million-or-more wins for Ivey by way of cheating, and I'd bet there are more that have been hushed up. Of course Ivey has probably earned tens of millions thru his endorsements and associations with online poker-rooms, but his entry into this type of "soft" casino cheating was probably propelled by thrills and the knowledge that he'd never be risking criminal prosecution. By soft cheating I mean the type of cheating that does not alter the outcome of the deal of cards or use any type of gadget, electronic or not, to gain an advantage over the casino.

So now to leave Ivey and look at other huge casino-cheating scams, we have seen several raking in huge amounts of money, each one more than any professional poker player has ever made playing tournament poker. There was the $40 million arranged-cards scam that beat Australia's Crown casino, and the huge baccarat scams that have beaten the hell out of casinos all over the world. All of these are much more lucrative than playing poker at any level, and the motherlode of money comes over the course of days if not hours.

However, there is one tiny thing that must be considered by anyone considering giving up poker-playing for casino cheating: THE RISK!

I highly doubt that Ivey will ever be prosecuted for his edge-sorting scams but one day we might see some law-changes by which he might be.

High-Tech Loaded Dice in Detroit Casinos?

A few months ago I reported that there was a possibility that undetectable loaded dice were floating over casinos in Detroit, Michigan. I clearly stated that I had no evidence of it, only that I'd received some reports on the subject from various sources. Well, after waiting anxiously for more on this and hoping to have some exciting news, it hasn't come. This doesn't mean that it never happened but could mean that for some reason the use of high-grade loaded dice may have stopped for some reason, either temporarily or indefinitely. I simply have had no reports on them since, and the sources who'd originally supplied the information tell me they have heard nothing more about it. So in spite of all this, I am not going to say it was all bullshit. I'm just going to say that for now it is all quiet on the green-felt front.