Pennsylvania Bags First Casino Table Games Cheat!

If someone had asked me what I thought the first casino-cheating arrest in Pennsylvania would be for, I would have said bet-capping at a blackjack table, as that is the most common casino-cheat attempt made by amateur or weak professional casino cheats.

Sure enough, the state, which opened table games in its casinos or racinos (racetrack casinos) or whatever they're called, caught Claudie Kenion III, 41, of Harrisburg, PA and charged him with manipulating a game after he increased (capped) his blackjack bets to win more money on his hands that stood an excellent chance of winning, such as a hard twenty against a seven or eight dealer up-card. According to investigators, Kenion III (fancy suffix for a lowly casino-cheat, huh?), palmed the extra chips and managed to drop them without being seen on probable winning bets some 13 times, after which he finally got caught. Well, I guess 13 isn´t Mr. Kenion III's lucky number.

By the way, I don't know about you, but I think this is the first time I wrote a possessive apostrophe on "III" in my life!!! LOL

Oh!...and from what I hear, the law against casino cheating isn't very punitive in Pennsylvania. Kenion and other future arrested casino and poker cheats are likely to face only fines and not prison time. This doesn't mean I'm encouraging poker cheats and casino cheats to hit Penn State's casinos...but at least if you do, you probably won't end up in Penn State...pardon the pun.

Australian Casinos Bit By Major Rash of Recent Casino Cheating!

Australia has long been a favorite haven for professional casino cheat teams, and I myself used to love going Down Under only to resurface with loads of profits! With its giant casinos that rival the size of the biggest US casinos, and perhaps its less capable or nonchalant surveillance departments, casino cheat teams have found some friendly confines in which to ply their crafts.

I have been receiving steady reports through June and the first week of July of pastposters, shuffle-trackers and poker and slot machine cheats. Conrad Jupiters seems to be the Foxwoods of Australia, meaning, of course, that Conrad Jupiters is Australia's most cheat-prone casino. Strangely enough, that casino has also been the target of dozens of complaints about gamblers leaving their kids unattended in and around the casino.

There have been more than 1400 complaints of casino cheating within the last year at Brisbane and Gold Coast casinos, including sharp rises in the theft of casino chips and coins. There have also been credit scams and reports of cheating in poker rooms. I imagine the Russian card-swapping and collusion teams are having a field day there!

Conrad Jupiters' managing director Stuart Wing said the company was happy for the information to be in the public domain. Mr Wing said the company's commitment to regulations was displayed in any increases in statistics. That he would have to explain to me. Remember a large number of reported cases does not mean surveillance is doing a good job catching the cheats. It means that the casino is rather easy to cheat.

"We work to close any loopholes that are found," Mr Wing said. "It shows we are responsible managers of a casino operation. We have a very pro-active stance on regulation."

In spite of Mr. Wing's supposed commitment to regulation, Conrad Jupiters and other casinos have also had problems with licensing dealers, such as breaking the law with "official" letters showing a dealer worked the tables at the Gold Coast casino last December despite being unlicensed.

In some of the 525 internal procedural breaches last year, a three-month audit of the operation of the game of craps found violations at the same Broadbeach venue. It found "dealing inconsistencies" had occurred for some time but the details have been blacked out by FOI officers for commercial-in-confidence reasons. In another case at Jupiters in Townsville in December, the integrity of 12 decks of the casino's official playing cards were compromised when a staff member left them on top of a roulette touchbet terminal.

Wow!...It might be a long flight to get Down Under, but it sure as hell seems worth it--if you're a poker or casino cheat.

Online Indictment of Russ Hamilton in UltimateBet Poker Cheat Scandal!

PokerPlayer's Jennifer Newell wrote this article today linking Russ Hamilton, the 1994 WSOP main event champion and former owner of the online poker site UltimateBet, to the recent gigantic and monsterous Ultimate Bet cheating scandal. I met Hamilton a few times over the years and cannot say what if any direct involvement he had in the scam, but I am awfully curious.

UltimateBet has its hands full and some explaining to do, as does former UB owner and 1994 World Series of Poker main event champion Russ Hamilton.

The UB scandal officially began in January of 2008 when the site’s management acknowledged that there was some credence to players’ claims of cheating. But by July 2008, after the official investigation had been ongoing for at least four months, UB confirmed that the cheating actually began in January of 2005, meaning that it could have been going on for nearly three years. In the fourth month of the investigation, new accounts were still being linked to the software glitch that allowed one or more super-users to cheat on the site.

Enter the biggest glitch of all, courtesy of Nat Arem, the rogue investigator/poker player who was a key figure in breaking the Absolute Poker scandal wide open. That glitch’s name is Russ Hamilton.

Arem took some information he was given and began researching confirmed super-user account names. Three names --nvtease, NoPaddles, and sleepless—given to Arem by a whistleblower at UB, were linked back to one address in Las Vegas. The address belonged to none other than one of the owners of UB during the time the scandal was confirmed to have happened. Russ Hamilton bought the home in 2006. At the very least, three of the super-user accounts in the UB scandal were directly connected to the Hamilton family during the time that the accounts were being used to cheat players on the UltimateBet website.

While it may sound as if dots are being connected by an unauthorized person in this matter, a source tells me that Hamilton is being implicated in the UB scandal, as evidenced by his having hired an attorney, and that Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth—both UB-sponsored players—had knowledge of Hamilton’s alleged involvement prior to Arem’s revelation.

My request to Russ Hamilton for an interview or statement was not returned.

Others have attempted communication with Hamilton as well. Barry Greenstein and Joe Sebok asked Hamilton to make an audio appearance on PokerRoad Radio, and though Hamilton declined for the July 16, 2008 show, he did invite Greenstein and Sebok to come to his home for a private discussion. Hamilton’s lawyer was present during the meeting. According to Greenstein and Sebok, Hamilton claimed that when all of the facts are eventually revealed, he will be cleared of any wrongdoing. And his lawyer, while advising his client not to respond directly to the allegations with an alibi or other explanation, asked why the public was unable to “unable to wait a couple months.”

At press time, a spokesperson for UB has accepted my request to answer questions but has not yet done so. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC), the regulatory commission that issues gaming licenses to companies like Absolute Poker and UltimateBet, released a statement to note that the main objective has been to identify and reimburse cheated players on UB, which has been done, and correct the flaws that allowed these breaches to occur. The statement read, in part:

“The KGC’s investigation into the UltimateBet matter has yielded a number of key findings which, within the next several days, will enable the KGC to issue its decision on the appropriate steps to be taken.”

For now, the public waits. We wait for answers from UltimateBet in the form of a resolution to an ongoing scandal that continues to get worse, a formal decision from the KGC, official charges against Russ Hamilton, and/or a statement from him regarding recent allegations.

Casino Poker Cheats or Poker Casino Cheats

Poker Casino Cheat or Casino poker Cheat? Do you know the difference? Does a casino poker cheat only cheat in the poker room? Does a poker casino cheat only cheat in the casino? And if so, why is he called a "poker" casino cheat?

No, I am not playing some stupid game with you. Rather I am copying this e-mail that I just received to my blog because I'm not really sure how to answer the e-mailer? If you have any ideas, I would appreciate you telling me because I always reply to my e-mails, and I don't want to leave this guy hanging.

For the time being, I would say a Casino Poker Cheat is a cheat who cheats brick and mortar poker rooms and not online, and that a Poker Casino Cheat is...well, the best I can come up with is a poker player who moonlights as a casino cheat! lol