Has Collusion Cheating Been Down at 2018 World Series of Poker?

WSOP Collusion Book

The answer to that question is an absolute yes. And decreased collusion at the WSOP has been the trend for more than a decade, especially during the main event.

Why is that so? you may ask?

Simply because there are just too many entrants at the main event, which makes it statistically improbable to obtain a big enough advantage with collusion play to make it worthwhile.

Back in the late 90s and early 2000s collusion play at the WSOP was endemic, even at the main event. This is because the fields were much smaller than today, just a mere fraction of the multi-thousands of entrants we now see each year.

In my 2006 book Dirty Poker, for which I took a huge amount of negative criticism from the poker community, I pointed out how professional tournament collusion teams involving big-name players were taking down several tournaments at the WSOP.

They were able to do it mainly by chip-dumping in order to get key members of their collusion rings to advance as the limits went up. I showed how the numbers of both repeat final-table players and tournament winners defied probability when you compared the degree of difference in skill between the top players who were mainstays of the WSOP.

Adding to that the huge luck factor intrinsic to poker, it was just impossible that collusion rings weren't the best strategy for taking down tournaments in the WSOP.

But today the fields are just too big, thus professional poker tournament collusion teams now play smaller tournaments.

Ex-NBA Star Charles Oakley Busted in Vegas for Cheating Casino! Accused of Pastposting and Pinching Bets.

Accused casino cheat Charles Oakley in better days

First thing I want to say is that I hope Charles Oakley didn't get his idea to cheat casinos from reading my website!

I'm serious. Although my website is meant to be educational and somewhat entertaining, I do not endorse casino-cheating in any way, shape or form, and I discourage people from cheating each and every time I am contacted by someone I think might be interested in cheating.

Oakley is accused of "pinching" a $100 chip from a betting table (I don't know which game) after realizing he had a losing bet at the Las Vegas Cosmopolitan Casino. Pinching is the act of taking your losing chips off the table before the dealer can collect them for the casino. It can happen after a loss or when a player realizes he will probably lose, being at a disadvantage.

Some accounts state that Oakley was also "pastposting" bets, which is the opposite of pinching when a player adds chips to his bet after it won or when he realizes he probably will win the bet.

Oakley is not the first superstar athlete to be arrested for casino cheating. Back in April 2017, Australian rugby star Joe Ofahengaue was caught at the Treasury Casino in Brisbane for pastposting a $100 chip in a proprietary poker game, eerily similar to what Charles Oakley was arrested for.

My take: First thing that comes to mind is why Oakley would be involved in cheating a casino...and for a mere $100. I use the word "mere" because Oakley earned nearly $50 million during his prolific NBA career.

The first thing that comes to mind answering my question is gambling. Many high-profile athletes, especially NBA basketball players, have either admitted to or been alleged to being very heavy gamblers. I believe Charles Barkley has admitted to losing huge sums of money gambling while Michael Jordan has been alleged to have gambled for big money as well.

Perhaps Oakley had gotten himself into severe financial trouble through gambling. I sure hope not, but in any event this is indeed sad news.

Armed Robberies not the only Crime on the rise in North American Casinos

Canadian Money Laundering Palace?

Not by a longshot!

Pulling up alongside armed robbery at the top of the casino-crime stretch is...you guessed it!...money laundering.

As more and more casinos sprout out of the ground and those already existing get bigger, organized crime is growing along with them. And the new new-wave casino crime is big...and it's federal.

It's good 'ol money laundering.

And I'm not just talking about the drug and LA gangs using Vegas casinos to clean up their dirty money. Nor am I talking solely about the United States when I mention "North America."

Canada is getting their fare share of casino money-laundering action as well. Just today a report made available by the British Columbia Office of the Attorney General has poured rotten eggs all over Metro Vancouver casinos.

According to an article on Castanet.net, "information revealed through a freedom-of-information request details suspected cheating, fraud and money laundering at the Kelowna Playtime Casino."

The article goes on to state that eleven other investigations of cheating or collusion are underway, not only in Vancouver casinos but as well in Okanagan casinos.

One Vancouver casino allegedly accepted $13.5 million in $20 bills in a one-month period.

I don't know if all of Las Vegas gets that many $20 bills in a month! It does seem like money laundering to me.

Attorney General David Eby says at least $100 million has been laundered through these casinos.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Deputy Commissioner Peter German, commissioned to investigate by Eby, found that the actual total laundered is probably much higher.

To top that off, surveillance video from an unnamed Vancouver casino shows gamblers walking into the casino with suitcases and a hockey bag full of $20 bills.

It does not say if they simply dumped all those twenties on the craps table.