Poker Cheating At Buckingham Palace!

Well, I have heard of some ROYAL Places where poker cheating has gone on through the centuries, like the stately casinos at Baden-Baden and Monte Carlo, but Buckingham Palace??? That takes the cake! Accoring to testimony in a £3 million betting and property scam trial, an ex-royal protection officer accused of running the scam has claimed colleagues played poker inside Buckingham Palace and cheated by swapping cards and playing in collusion. What this basically means is that British cops protecting Queen Elizabeth and the royal family in Buckingham Palace were moonlighting as poker cheats! Gotta love it!

Paul Page, the 38 year-old guy on trial, allegedly cheated investors out of life savings. He testified that police officers were running the poker cheat scams and that a lot of them were even involved in online poker collusion cheating together during their down time. He also said that the same officers could earn up to £60,000 a year with overtime "for doing very little," which can be translated "for playing crooked poker."

Anyone interested in a crooked royal poker game?

Why Rehash "60 Minutes" Online Poker Cheating Scandal Story?

I reported yesterday that CBS and the Washington Post both re-released their stories on the huge UltimateBet online poker cheating scandal. But some people want to know, is there any good to this? Or is it just the media grabbing at poker straws to keep a good story going?

Well, my opinion is that it is a good thing to re-release this story of an insidious poker cheating scam. But for only one reason. That being that absolutely nothing has become of it in terms of the online poker sites doing something to prevent a scam of this nature from happening again. Sure, they may have beefed up their security protection for software source codes and things like that. But the only real effective measure in the aim of future deterrence that can be taken is to see some prosecution for the UltimateBet scam. By all accounts, Russ Hamilton, the alleged mastermind behind it, is guilty as sin. But to date there is no sign that he will ever be prosecuted, depsite the tens of millions of dollars players lost to the scam. I know it is difficult to prosecute online poker fraud in the murky jurisdictions of online poker and online gambling, but unless it is figured out how and where to prosecute people like Hamilton and others who have initiated huge online poker and gambling cheat frauds, more poker cheat masterminds will continue to develop online poker scams to cheat the online poker-playing public out of millions.

Perhaps regulation of online poker in the US is the only first step to the solution of curbing cheating in online gambling.

You can see the rerun of CBS' online poker cheating segment on "60 Minutes" this Sunday in the US and of course on YouTube shortly thereafter.

CBS, Washington Post Update on UltimateBet Online Poker Scandal

Back in November, as most of you know, the American network CBS in conjunction with the newspaper The Washington Post featured the huge online poker scam at UltimateBet in both TV segments and newspaper articles. They have now updated the story. To read it click here.

Raised-Limits Colorado Casinos Sweating The Cheats

The cheaters have refined and jettisoned their tricks over the years. And casinos, in turn, have honed their methods for detecting them. Colorado regulators don't see it much anymore, but they remember the old "monkey wand" — a long wire with a small light bulb attached to its end. Rogue slot-machine players would slip it into the game to fool the money counter, triggering a gusher of coins.

In recent years, card sharks across the country have inserted tiny cameras into cigarette cases or shirt buttons so they can glimpse the card at the bottom of a deck during blackjack. Both cheats have been exposed, leading to monkey-proof slot machines and more-sophisticated camera systems to sweep casino floors. With betting limits rising from $5 to $100 in Colorado and business going 24 hours starting July 2, casino operators say it's a sure bet that the number of cheaters with newer gambits will rise too, prompting the casinos to take extra precautions.

Owners of The Lodge and Gilpin casinos in Black Hawk have hired new security officers, added cameras and brought in a cheat expert from Harrah's in Las Vegas to help train dealers on how to shrewdly watch behavior during craps and other games.

"What happens is that the trick gets identified and people will stop," said Ed Weisel, the Vegas veteran and new director of table games for the two casinos. "But they will just go on to do something else."

The eyes are seemingly everywhere at The Lodge. Between it and the Gilpin, 1,500 cameras dangle in the shadows, linked to a new digital computer monitoring system.

But the eyes, and experience, of the 52-year-old Weisel may pose the most powerful deterrent. He's helped spot 100 suspected cheaters in his 30-plus years working in the gaming business. He knows how they usually work in groups, using partners to distract dealers while one "slides" dice instead of rolling. And how they "pinch" bets by quickly pulling half their chips back.

Colorado gaming communities don't appear to have a cheating problem — of 13 complaints, only two tricksters have been arrested in the past three years, and those were casino employees, according to the Colorado Division of Gaming. But the introduction of craps and its variety of bets is certain to invite more monkey business, according to Donald Burmania, communications director for the Division of Gaming, which added 13 new investigators to increase scrutiny as the rules change.

"We feel like we're prepared," Burmania said.

Are they really? I doubt it.

Online Bots Poker Cheating Update

If you're wondering what is going on in the online poker cheating bot world these days, here is the latest trend information I have on online players cheating with bots:

Bot cheating is still on the rise. It hasn't been getting the press the past two years that it once had, but that's mainly because reporting on the online poker cheating world has been dominated by the huge insider hole-card-reading scandals and financial and banking problems online poker sites are having with the United States Justice Department. Highly skilled computer people are continually out there designing and putting bots into play. The ones with artificial intelligence will certainly beat the majority of human players, though there are not too many of these around. They are very expensive and writers of these highly sophisticated cheat programs are keeping them amongst themselves and cheating online poker with their creations.

I suspect we may hear more about this online toward the end of this year and into next. As far as which sites are hosting the most bots or are vulnerable to them, the best is to check with my online poker safety rankings, which heavily takes bot play into consideration.

Indian Casino Indicted For Cheating!!!

Wait! Don't get too excited reading this. I mean an Indian casino in India, not a reservation casino in the US. However, this is the first time in twenty years I've heard about any legitimate casino getting indicted for cheating. It happened in Goa, India...

Goa police’s crime branch on Friday registered case against a five star hotel’s casino management for failing to cough up Rs 1.25 crore to state tourism minister Fransisco Pacheco which he had won in gaming. The Crime Branch which is probing the case has filed first information report against staff and management of the in-house casino of Majorda Beach resort under section 420 read with 34 of Indian Penal Code.

The minister earlier had complained to the state police accusing the casino management of duping him to the tune of Rs 1.25 crore. The casino management, on the other hand, had alleged that the minister along with his aide had threatened to kill him. (Wow! This might make a good Bollywood movie!)

The state government had transferred the case to Crime branch, which is now investigating it. The FIR filed with the Crime Branch implicates that the accused persons who are staff and management of the in house casino at Majorda beach resort had fraudulently and dishonestly induced the complainant to play in the casino.

The minister had complained that he had won Rs 1.53 crore during his gaming from May 15 to May 22, 2009. He informed the police that the casino management had repaid him Rs 28 lakh. “They induced the complainant to purchase gaming coins with the promise to repay the prize money if the complainant wins,” the crime branch’s FIR reads.

Police Inspector S U Shirodkar, who is investigating the case, has said that the accused persons dishonestly failed to make available the payment of Rs 1.25 crore to the complainant, which he won as a prize money.

Online Poker Cheating Via Seeing Your Opponents Hole Cards

Ever since the Hole Card Online Poker Cheat Scam at UltimateBet broke, we've been seeing poker and casino cheating websites pitching software that you can put on your computer and see your opponents' hole cards and therefore cheat their pants off.

But the reality of this is that if you buy any of this so-called hole card online poker cheating software, you will be cheating your own pants off. This is because all this mass-market online poker cheating software for sale is a BIG SCAM designed to rip you off. I am not saying that "outside" online poker cheating software to see your opponents' hole cards does not exist (it does). I am only telling you, or better yet, warning you, that you are not going to find it online by searching "online poker cheating" or "online poker cheating software." Don't be fooled that the sites offering this stuff for sale are very highly ranked by Google for these types of searches. The reason they are is that they convince enough suckers to buy their poker cheat software and then refunnel some of their profits into search engine optimization.

So please, DO NOT FALL FOR THESE ONLINE POKER CHEATING SOFTWARE SCAMS!

Online Poker Cheat Headed To 2009 WSOP Main Event!

Move over Russ Hamilton! One of your online poker cheating peers is going to join you at the main event! His name is Dan Martin, known to online poker players as "Wretchy." Wretchy received a three month ban from the world’s biggest online poker site, Pokerstars, when he was caught playing poker under two names, in addition to playing poker in the same tournaments as his girlfriends.

Martin has admitted to most of these allegations, but attests that this level of cheating in online poker is the equivalent to smoking weed. He said about cheating in online poker: "Everybody does it, everybody knows it, it’s against the rules, and everyone knows that too, but nobody cares. I don't understand what I need to apologize for. I feel that having a cash game account is sort of the same thing as smoking weed. Everyone knows that it's illegal and yet it's a common thing.

According to online poker news reports the poker player was banned by PokerStars for a period of three months, ending on August 6th. In addition to the punishment handed down by PokerStars, Wretchy’s girlfriend will no longer be able to play at the same poker tables as him. Wretchy received similar bans from Full Tilt Poker, where he was banned for a period of thirty days, more a statement than an actual punishment some say.

Wretchy’s girlfriend received no punishment from Full Tilt. Wretchy said he’s off to play in the 2009 World Series of Poker, where he’ll have a little more time to focus on the Main Event. However, Wretchy should be able to play on both Full Tilt Poker and Ultimate Bet during this year’s WSOP.

"Both sites concluded this," Martin said. "That I played under WhatsLogic for an ample time period (6-9 months) but that I did not ever play both accounts that were in a tournament. The hand histories proved this because the style of play was completely different. They also concluded that I used WhatsLogic for cash games, but I do not know a pro that’s backed who doesn't have a separate name for cash games, but it's still against the TOS."

The poker community seems torn about Martin. There are those that wish him well, and can’t wait to see Wretchy get this behind him. Others demand an apology, no matter how hollow. They have labeled Wretchy a poker cheat and wish him all the worst.

Small Cheat Controversies Popping Up at WSOP

There are always arguments here and there between tournament players at the WSOP, but seldom does one player accuse another of cheating at the poker table. Yesterday at table 77 during the Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Event 46, a shouting match ensued when Fabio Coppola insisted he should have won the low half of the pot that was awarded to John Juanda. With four cards on the board Juanda had two pair with a bad low but was awarded the pot when Coppola mucked his cards. Coppola insisted he had Ace-deuce which would have given him the low and that half the pot was his.

The dealer, Juanda and most of the table argued that it did not matter what Coppola may have had in his hands, when he did not show his cards his hand was dead. Coppola refused to concede and the floor was called. “It’s real simple,” the floorman told Coppola. “If you don’t table your cards, you don’t have a live hand. You must table your cards. The whole pot goes to John.”

When moved to table 80 Coppola accused the dealer of cold-decking him. “It’s obvious you’re setting me up. I haven’t won a hand since you sat down,” he yelled. The dealer insisted he was not cold-decking or cheating in any other way but it was not enough. Coppola soon started mucking every hand dealt to him and did not let up until a new dealer took a seat at the table.

Later at table 72, the issue of tabling hands came up again. A player claimed he was entitled to half the pot, but the dealer insisted the hand was dead because the player did not table the cards. The floor was again called and this time took to reviewing the tapes to determine if the player had tabled the cards. In the end the floor ruled the cards had not been tabled and the hand was dead. Like Coppola, the player was not awarded half the pot he claimed to have won.

Russian Online Poker Cheat Mobs Screwing Around With Wimbledon Again?

There have been a handful of tennis betting scandals over the last few years and each of them had connections to certain Russian gamblers and gangsters with ties to Online Poker Cheating Scandals. The Russian cheats, who have also become the dominant force in worldwide brick and mortar poker cheating, may again be mixed up in the lastest Wimbledon tennis betting scandal that came to light yesterday.

Tennis authorities have launched an inquiry into insider trading after suspicious betting on a minor first-round match at Wimbledon that drew more than $1.5 million in wagers from online gamblers.

The Tennis Integrity Unit, an anti-corruption group set up by the international tennis authorities, was tipped off yesterday over "concerns" about a Wimbledon match involving Jürgen Melzer, an Austrian ranked No 30 in the world, and Wayne Odesnik, a South African-born American ranked 109. Melzer was the clear favourite to win, but bookies were alerted by the strength of betting on a proposition bet of a straight set victory. Melzer eventually won 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.

Betfair, the internet betting site, reported that around $1 million was bet before the match started, with another $600,000 flooding in during play, the vast majority of wagers on Melzer. Ladbrokes and Paddy Power were among High-Street bookies who suspended betting before the match, as did many online operators.

The Integrity Unit will focus on whether gamblers were privy to any insider information. Odesnik had suffered a minor muscle injury on Monday, although the player insisted that he was fit and well and that he had not told anyone of his injury, nor had he been approached by a potential match-fixer. But on Betfair alone, $500,000 was bet on a straight-set Melzer victory with odds falling as short as 1-9. This was a low profile match between relatively unknown players on an outside court with little public interest that would normally attract about $15,000 worth of bets.

News of the inquiry at the All England Championships came after UK newspapers revealed that the Tennis Integrity Unit was already investigating a match played in a pre-Wimbledon tournament involving Daniel Kollerer and Oscar Hernandez. Betting on the match was voided after bookies spotted suspicious betting patterns.

Hernandez crashed out of Wimbledon Tuesday, losing 6-0, 6-0, 6-4 to Argentinia's Leonardo Mayer. The Spaniard was clearly unhappy and refused to speak to reporters afterwards.

I will tell you one thing: The Russian online poker cheats are getting their dirty hands into everything!