Collusion in Poker and Online Poker Cheating--Which is Worse?

Over the past few years, I have been blogging a lot about collusion play by poker cheats. This epidemic of cheating began in the days of games aboard Mississippi paddlewheelers and in Wild West saloons, then naturally found its way into legal brick and mortar cardrooms first in Nevada and then Atlantic City, finally spreading to Europe and the rest of the world as poker caught fire globally. The newest collusion epidemic is of course in online poker.

But in which venue, many people have been asking me, is poker collusion not only endemic but pandemic? In other words, are the collusion attacks worse in brick and mortar cardrooms or online?

Well, believe it or not, the correct answer to this question is not the same as it was a year ago. Back in late 2006, early 2007, online poker cheating began reaching a peak, as we all learned soon afterward by the spate of major scams that erupted last summer. During the same period, regular run of the mill online poker collusion and bot play were also in peak form, running at all-time highs across the online poker world. But suddenly that has been changing. With all the heat generated by the recent insider hole card and account selling scams, along with non-play attacks such as pilfering funds from players' accounts, thousands of everyday poker colluders and bot players have begun hitting the cyber-highway in search of other pursuits. This means that online poker collusion has actually been decreasing sharply the past several months, even to the point where it has fallen behind the old and now renewed number-one collusion scourge: brick and mortar poker rooms.

How wide is this margin? That is difficult to say, at least in terms of assigning numbers and percentages to it. But I will say this, For at least the remainder of 2008 and probably much into 2009, collusion play in online poker will follow a downward trend while its evil brick and mortar counterpart will hold steady.

The good news about brick and mortar collusion play? At least it's holding steady.

Cheating At Craps: Loaded Dice and Dice Control

CRAPS CHEATING has not gotten much press in recent times, mainly because of the poker craze and all its attendant cheating, both online and in live poker rooms. Add to that the card counting frenzy tied into the MIT Blackjack Team movie and other forms of advantage play in 21, and craps really takes a back seat when the subject turns to casino cheats.

But what really is the current state of affairs with craps cheating? Are there still incidents of switching dice, loaded dice or dice control? Well, the only form of dice cheating or manipulating worth talking about is controlling the dice, and only because it's NOT worth trying. I have witnessed numerous so-called dice dominators, dice terminators, dice exterminators, dice regulators and dice-just-about-everything-else-"ators" putting their talents on display and have yet to be convinced that any single one of them can control anything more than the bullshit they roll across the table in place of the dice! Get what I'm talking about? I'm saying that dice control is simply "no roll!"

As far as switching dice into a craps game goes, it's still relatively easy, but the problem for the dice cheats doing the switching is that loaded and otherwise gaffed dice will not stay in play too long before an alert boxman or stickman running the table notices them. If you've ever seen a boxman holding up a die to the light while rotating it between his fingers and examining it, he is looking for exactly that--dice that don't belong in the game. Then a simple replay of video footage by surveillance will pick up the switch that got the crooked dice into the game--and will soon get the crooked craps shooters switched into jail.

In short, apart from pastposting and chip manipulation scams, the pickings in craps cheating have grown rather slim.