Are You a Banned Facebook Texas Hold'em Poker Cheat? Read This!

Source: gather.com

The explosive growth of online social gaming in the last few years has lead to the meteoric rise of popular games like Facebook Texas Holdem Poker on social networks like Facebook and Myspace where players join their friends to play in tournaments and sit and go games. As with any other type of online game, arguments and misunderstandings that result in heated attitudes and inappropriate words at the tables are certain to spill over into this realm as well. Quite often this may end up in a player's account getting banned from the game or their zynga poker chips becoming frozen or totally reset. Since facebook poker participants regularly spend hours and hours playing and competing with each other to win facebook poker chips, nobody likes it when they log into their account one day only to find that they've been banned for inappropriate conduct. But fear not, you don't have to punch your computer or huff and pout and kick the cat though, there are simple steps you can take to restore your account and get back to playing with your facebook poker chips.

Because there a wide range of facebook texas holdem applications from several different game makers and developers, you need to find your way to the applicable game developers website that allows you to get in touch with the right administrators in charge of suspending and unbanning accounts. Competitors in Zynga's Poker application will have to pay a visit to Zynga's homepage, online players in Playdom's Poker Palace need to take a look at Playdom's page, and participants of Playfish's Poker Rivals application must stop by Playfish's home page so they can ensure that the correct administrators are receiving their emails and support tickets.

As soon as you choose the correct site for the application designer, find the corresponding "Support" section of their website. That's where they post replies to commonly asked queries, document notices about game glitches and updates, and allow users with game issues to contact them. Sometimes getting your account back is as easy as filling out a ticket and waiting a few days, other times it may involve investigating the reason you were suspended in the first place and you might end up waiting a week or longer, but it's best to get the process rolling as soon as possible.

And what can you do to prevent it from happening again? Players in these online games can have their facebook poker chips frozen for a variety of reasons. They might have their facebook chips frozen for swearing too much in the chat window, racist remarks, colluding with other players to user poker cheats, or using offensive pictures in their profiles. The programmers count on a system of reports where they are able to evaluate a gamer's bad behavior in the game depending on the number of other players that report them. This enables them to observe everyone in the game without being in every single room of the game at all times of the day.

Whether your facebook poker chips are given back to a player is dependent upon the severity of that players individual infractions. Sometimes a player who dropped a few stray swear words in the game will get their chips back by agreeing to improve their behavior once they're notified of what rules they broke. Many times players simply aren't aware that they violated the rules or crossed the line and so most game developers are willing to give them a second chance once they're made aware of what they did wrong.

Other sorts of violations might not be pardoned so readily or may well hold a longer penalty. For example, your zynga poker chips may remain banned for a few weeks or in some instances only a portion of your chips may be refunded to you as punishment. You can of course, appeal this and ask that the complete sum be refunded, but if you really misbehaved in the game then the odds of this happening are quite slim. Whichever you choose to do, it's generally best to write them an email quickly after you discover that your facebook or myspace poker account has become frozen. The sooner you fill out a support ticket, the earlier your issue will be checked and the sooner you can get back to playing facebook poker with your friends and family. Best of luck!

Pennsylvania Casinos to Employ RFID "Smart Chips" to Thwart Chip Counterfeiting, Pastposting and Bet-Capping

The article below gives you Pennsylvania's anti-casino- and poker-cheating strategy. My take on it follows.

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

The chips you'll get in Pennsylvania casinos when table games arrive next month aren't the kind you toss around during penny-ante poker games. To the contrary, they might rival anything you'll find in the U.S. Mint.

From ultraviolet images to micro printing, casino chips contain a host of security features designed to deter counterfeiting, just as U.S. currency has similar characteristics embedded within it for the same purpose.

"The ultimate goal of these counter measures is to defeat counterfeiters," said Michael Cruz, director of gaming laboratory operations for the state Gaming Control Board. "If you're able to counterfeit the chips and not be detected, basically you're playing for free at that point."

The technology was in full bloom Monday at The Meadows Racetrack and Casino, which received 184,500 "smart" chips that seem to be designed to do everything but play the game for you. Each chip contains a microchip that allows a sensor to validate its authenticity and value and can even track a player's wagering, much like slot machines are able to do.

Cruz said the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology behind the chips is similar to that used in the Pennsylvania Turnpike's E-ZPass system.

At The Meadows, blackjack tables as well as those for mini-baccarat and three-card poker each will have a RFID reader to verify and keep track of chips. A disc-shaped antenna will be placed under the felt at each position on each table to "read" the chips and transmit information. The technology, Cruz said, makes it very difficult to counterfeit chips. It also makes it next to impossible to cheat by trying to add to your bet if you think you have a winning hand at, for example, blackjack. The casino would know instantaneously that the wager had been increased, he said.

Sean Sullivan, The Meadows general manager, said counterfeiting is a "huge issue" in the industry. A counterfeit chip that slips into play can shut down a casino and force it to remove chips for a new set, a costly endeavor. "People do counterfeit chips. It's absolutely a sophisticated crime that does happen on occasion in our industry," he said.

The Meadows invested $360,000 in chips it received Monday, plus another $275,000 in readers and other equipment. Sullivan said the casino spent $2.50 for every "smart" chip compared to the $1.25 a regular chip costs. But he believes the investment will pay off. For one, The Meadows is hoping the technology will enable it to get a waiver of a gaming board requirement to stock a second set of chips in the case of counterfeiting.

"We don't want to scare anybody to think [counterfeiting] happens every day, but we surely want to do everything we can do to discourage it from happening here," he said. "At The Meadows, we're going the full way. We don't want to have any issues with this."

Sullivan said the other advantage to the "smart" chip technology is that it allows the casino to track a player's wagering and to award complimentary gifts like free dinners or other perks, just as it does with slot machine players. It also makes for easy accounting, since the system can count the value of a stack of chips.

At this point, the gaming board has approved the use of the "smart" chips for security and accounting purposes, but has yet to give the go ahead for The Meadows to use them to track wagering, Cruz said. Sullivan said the casino is hoping to get that approval before table games start July 8.

If you don't think casino chips are serious business, think again. At The Meadows Monday, the chips, equal to about $11.5 million in value, arrived under armed guard. Those who handled them wore jumpsuits without pockets and were subjected to wand searches to make sure they weren't hauling any away. The Meadows will be the only casino in Western Pennsylvania and only one of two in the state to employ the "smart" chip technology when table game play begins in July. But that doesn't mean chips at the other casinos, including the Rivers in Pittsburgh, will be easy marks for counterfeiters.

Cruz said manufacturers employ a variety of measures to thwart counterfeiting. Some chips will have images embedded in them that can be seen only by ultraviolet light. Others will contain tiny printing that requires a magnifying glass to read. "To the naked eye, it looks like a dot. Under magnification, it is text," Cruz said.

Many chips in Pennsylvania will be uniform in terms of the denomination color. Generally speaking, for most card games, white will denote $1 and green $25, for instance, although shades may vary from casino to casino. But at the same time, those at each casino will be different. Typically, individual casinos will add colors to the edges of the chips, both as a security feature and to mark them as their own. The chips usually will have a logo identifying the casino as well.

"No property in Pennsylvania would have the same edge spots," said Todd Moyer, Rivers general manager. "They're pretty intricate and that's what uniquely identifies them to a particular property."

The Rivers expects to receive its 212,000 chips, valued at more than $25 million, sometime next week. They won't be "smart" chips, but will contain security features Moyer declined to detail. At The Meadows, the highest denomination will be $5,000. At the Rivers, it will be a whopping $25,000 (That's insane! This casino will never need chips that big.)

Sullivan said it's okay for a player to walk out the door with some of The Meadows' fancy casino chips once they've paid for them. The casino also will be selling for $25 a collector's chip it paid $2.50 to manufacture to commemorate the launch of table games.

As the saying goes, the house always wins.

My take: Well, the old RFID effectiveness question comes up again. I have never been a big fan of this as RFID technology, although technologically sound, always runs into problems, especially in roulette games when people innocently put their chips on the table layout when they're not supposed to. As for RFID technology in chips as an anti-counterfeiting device: it's sound...until someone counterfeits the RFID chips within the casino chips! LOL

Would Legalizing Online Poker in the US Really Give The US Justice Department Powers to Reduce Online Poker Cheating?

Currently in California, there's a big push to legalize and regulate online poker, as well as getting the ball rolling for online gaming and online casinos in general. Proponents of this legalization and regulation claim that the California Attorney General would be able to police online poker sites for cheating and enforce international anti-poker cheating laws as they pertain to California. They also claim that even though there have not been many reports of offshore online poker sites themselves cheating US players out of money by not paying or refunding deposits, US citizens might be online poker cheat victims to such practices as collusion and bot play. They say that the state justice system can help protect California players against this type of online poker cheating.

Do I agree? Absolutely. And if California gets statewide legalization and regulation of online poker, it would be a great boost to get US legislation going for the entire country.

Noted Poker Pro Roy Winston Challenges Negreanu's Poker Cheating By Sunglasses Claims!

If you haven't heard, Daniel Negreanu, who I personally think is full of you-know-what, wrote on his blog that wearing sunglasses in live poker games is nothing less than a form of poker cheating. This sparked some outcry amongst fellow poker pros, who do not agree with the PokerStars Baby-Brat.

In his blog about the TV poker show "The Big Game," Negreanu wrote, "One thing I love about our show is that FINALLY there is a rule in place where you can’t hide like a chicken behind sunglasses! I swear every TV producer should ban sunglasses entirely from any televised event. They are so bad for poker on so many levels. Let’s just say that guys like Russ Hamilton would oppose such a ban. I’m not making this up, it’s just a fact. Banning sunglasses helps to protect the integrity of the game against cheating."

Roy Winston challenged Negreanu's view with "A certain well-known player/blogger (doesn't name Negreanu but we all it's him) compared wearing sunglasses to cheating. What about players like Phil Hellmuth, Greg Raymer, or John Phan, all of who wear sunglasses and all of who have honor beyond reproach? Where do you draw the line if you do ban sunglasses? What about those of us wearing prescription glasses, some of which are tinted? Comparing sunglasses to performance enhancing drugs or outright cheating is nothing short of ridiculous."

My take: I imagine with the punches and counter punches coming from both sides of this debate (I'm sure there are some pleyers who agree with Negreanu), we will likely hear much more about this, and it should continue to be a lingering online poker cheating topic with about the same repetition rate as the subject: Is Men the Master Nguyen a poker cheat? Stay tuned!

Delaware Nabs its First Casino Cheat--An Amateur Bet-Capper

New table games casinos are popping up all over the Eastern Seaboard and the casino cheats, both the amateurs and professionals, are showing up at the tables to give these casinos a very warm cheating-welcome. I'm not sure what the table maximum bets are (I think they're $100), but even at low-limit casinos the cheats come in hordes to take advantage of the "green" casino staffs. I remember when Colorado opened their blackjack tables with $5 limits, the cheats bombarded them. One blackjack cheat I saw capping his bet from $2 to $5 told me that he could make a day's pay.

And if you're wondering what I was doing there, it was not to cheat $5 blackjack tables! LOL. I was passing thru during a ski trip.

The amateur blackjack bet-capper (bet-capping is simply adding chips to the original bet when it wins, not switching chips in and out or laying down chips where there were none before the winning outcome) has been identified as a 25 year-old guy from Philadelphia named Maurice A. Thomas, who capped his bet at least four different times and was seen on surveillance cameras. I imagine he was capping bets a lot longer than that before the rookie surveillance staff got on to him. He was arrested by the Delaware Division of Gaming Enforcement at the Delaware Park Casino, where he was caught cheating.

Thomas was released at his arraignment after posting $4,000 bond. I don't know how stiff penalties are going to be for casino cheats in Delaware, but if their table limits are not at least $500, the good pro cheat teams will ignore Delaware and we will see only the run-of-the-mill amateur cheats getting busted there.

High-Tech Casino Cheats Scoring Big in Macau By Scanning Electronic Baccarat Card Chips!

Macau pit supervisors and surveillance operators are double- and triple-checking high-rolling gamblers who are spotted in the VIP high-stakes gambling areas wearing lots of thick jewelry. Why?...Because this type of flashly jewelry can be housing very sensitive scanners that can cheat the casinos out of millions!

Macau casinos have been using electronic, or cards with embedded computer chips inside them, at their baccarat tables. They have been doing this in order to protect their games from the widespread cheating that has been plaguing the peninsula's casinos, especially to protect their baccarat games from card-switches. But they didn´t count on high-tech cheaters being able to read the cards with sensitive scanners. And the baccarat cheats doing it are hiding the scanners in their expensive jewelry, be it bracelets, necklaces or rings.

So what is Macau surveillance MO to combat cheating by scanning?...simply be on the lookout for gamblers winning big who are wearing lots of expensive bling.

Although no one has been caught with a scanner, Macau casino operators say they have lost more than HK$30 million. Now that's not as much as American dollars but it's still a heck of a lot!

How can these operators find the scanners?...well, it seems they cannot conduct efficient debugging operations to uncover them, and they can't very well risk the embarrassment of searching all their high rollers wearing expensive, bulky jewelry, so about the only thing they can do is make changes to their electronic card devices for which they have already invested huge money. Until this is done, surveillance will simply have to watch with their eyes what is going on in the VIP high-betting areas. They will have to pick up on strange behavior and perhaps body language telling them that scanners may be in use.

According to one casino manager, "The casino where I work requires all service assistants in the VIP hall and big-bet areas to pay special attention to customers wearing big rings and report to security if anything suspicious is seen." She added that other casinos have instituted the same policy.

The "security-smart" chips are supposed to combat cheaters by keeping track of all the bets being made electronically, which effectively combats scams ranging from pastposting to money laundering at the casino cages. But the scanners are permitting the cheaters to scam the value of the baccarat cards before they're dealt, by cracking the inner codes in the chips.

Another casino manager said, "About three weeks ago there appeared to be some extremely lucky customers in the VIP hall and big-bet areas. All of them played baccarat. They lost when the bet was small but won every time a game was heavily backed. Someone even won more than 100 games non-stop and collected a few million dollars."

The electronic cards work by having chip-codes for all the face values of the cards in the deck. They are connected to the dealer's electronic dealing shoe, each card recorded as it is dealt. A central computer calculates the results at the end of each shoe. The dealer does the same, entering the cards dealt each hand manually. If there's a deviance on any hand, an alarm goes off and the words "scanner-scam" ring in the casino's ears.

How did the Macau casinos pick up on this high-tech cheating?

According to the second casino manager, "We have not found evidence of cheating, but in all games when the casino dropped big money the cards had been cut by customers with big rings or bracelets. One was holding a black cigarette case-size box when cutting the cards. We cannot exclude the possibility there are scanners in the customers' accessories. The scanner can read the code when cards are being cut, so gamblers know the order of the cards and can bet heavily on a game they are sure to win."

So, can a scanner encased in a diamond ring or any other piece of glittering jewelry really beat a casino out of millions? According to Tsang Kim-fung, a professor of electronic engineering at Hong Kong's City University, it most definitely can:

"The principle of the electronic card is the same as the Octopus card. A scanner can read the data of the chip within the card very easily. Some advanced countries are able to produce mini scanners that can be put in a ring, but it must be expensive."

How it works:

First the scanners reads the cards. Then a computer analyzes the code to determine the order of the cards. Since electronic shoes deal eight decks of cards, the cheats using the scanners have sufficient time to depart the table and analyze the results before returning and taking down the money via their bets made with advance knowledge of how the cards will turn out.

The casino manager said, "A cheat can bet small on the first few games and then go out to use a computer to analyze the order. After the order is memorized, they go back and bet heavily."

A casino owner spoke about the repercussions of suspecting prominent and legitimate high rollers:

"Our customers are rich. They wear multi-carat diamond jewelry, luxury watches. Most are superstitious and want to cut the cards before placing a bet. We've allowed them to do so in the past, and it would be hard for us to suddenly stop them from doing so now."

Allowing them to cut the cards appears to ease the function of getting a scanner into optimum position...if they have one.

Anti-cheating experts, those with high-tech know-how, say that Macau's casinos should replace the electronic cards immediately, even if they have to lose a few days of business doing so. This means improving the technology of the chips in the cards, not replacing the electronic cards with regular cards.

My Take: This high-tech threat is real and could be deadly for the casinos! If I were them, I'd go back to the regular cards without the computer chips. In that case, they'd only have to worry about "low-tech" cheating!

Casino Cheating in Uzbekistan Leads to Violence, Death and Burning Down the Casino!

It started when a rowdy group of Uzbeks decided to play blackjack at the Kyrgyz casino. When they lost their money, they accused the blackjack dealer of cheating. Now, I am not saying that blackjack cheating by the dealer was not happening, but I wasn't there to say yes or no. In any event, push led to shove, shove led to fisticuffs, fisticuffs led to bullets, and bullets led to deaths and burning down the casino.

Before the shooting started, police had managed to chase the unruly gamblers, but they returned to the casino with more of their friends plus their families to boot. About four hundred people were involved in the shooting and setting the casino ablaze. Several people were killed, but it's difficult to say how many died in or near the casino because of the general unrest and violence in the country.

Another Roulette Cheat Pastposter Falls in Singapore!

This time the busted roulette cheat is a Pakistani but I believe he is part of the Tanzanian or African team that has already had two of its members arrested for roulette cheating in Singapore's casinos and imprisoned in Sinapore jails. The latest thirty-five year-old man has been identified as Ashraf Zohaib. He tried to pastpost a $1,000 chip straight-up on number 29. But his mechanics seem a bit strange to me. His original bet on the number was a $25 chip. After the number came in and the dealer placed the marker over his winning $25 chip, Zohaib picked up the marker and $25 chip with one hand and laid down a $1,000 chip with the other, before replacing the $25 chip and marker atop the pastposted $1,000 chip. He did the move while the dealer was preparing the $875 payoff for the $25 chip, at 35 to 1. The move was a bit clumsy and should not have been laid and claimed by one person. And what made his case worse was that after the suspicious dealer told his supervisor, who alerted surveillance, Zohaib claimed that his friend coerced him into doing the move, which only opened up the door to a conspiracy charge because more than one person was involved in the commission of the cheat move.

All in all, he got off cheap: four months in prison

My Take: These roulette cheats are falling like bowling pins over there in Singapore. It's hard for me to believe that they're going for such big moves and payoffs. In conclusion, I have to believe that there are better, more professional teams over there really taking down some big money via the cheat moves!

Why Can't Aussies Figure Out Why Their Casinos Have Such a High Cheat Rate?

Well, it comes down to two reasons. The first is that they hire magicians instead of real knowledgeable people to wise them up in the areas of game- and slot-machine protection. Apparently casino officials down under still believe that magicians calling themselves game protection consultants really know something about cheating casinos. I have been telling casino people for years that magic has nothing to do with real casino cheating. But unfortunately these people fall in love with magicians' card tricks and hire them to protect their casinos from card-counters and cheats.

The second reason Australia's casinos are constantly being bombed by a variety of cheats is that there penalties upon casino-cheating convictions are very light. Whereas in the US organized casino cheats can get a decade behind bars, those caught down under rarely receive more than a three-figure fine. If the casinos are going to continue slapping the wrists of cheaters, they will be back as soon as the sting wears off, which is pretty quick.

This article in Gambling911 sums up pretty well what is going on in Australia's casinos:
"Down under in Australia, land of the convicts, seems some of those criminal tendencies keep coming to the surface at land based casinos and pubs. As the "Friendly Casino War" continues between James Packer owned Crown Casino in Melbourne and Star City in Sydney, its seems apparent that Sin City's Star have more of a cheating clientele, or at least that's what the official numbers are showing. Media Man and Gambling911 put on our private detective coats and load up the plastic handcuffs and batons with this special report.

Aussie's seem to have quite the cheating casino type make up according to information obtained by Media Man. Just as compulsive gambling may be in the genes as recently reported by Gambling911, so might be cheating and straight out stealing. The number of cheaters at Sydney's Star City Casino is alarming, and that's only the ones we know about.

Fines are being handed out left, right and centre, yet cheaters keep coming back for more. This may be linked to the face that Star City is Sydney's only land based casino, mind you, a $100 or so plane ticked will fly a punter down to Melbourne so they can try their luck at Crown Casino.
Fines issued to punters at Star are almost an every day occurrences we've learned. Cheats are trying every trick in the book, both old and new. Favorites include moving chips to winning numbers, underage teenagers showing fake IDs and banned patrons trying to worm into the casino.

Infringements at the Star volcanoed roughly 70% circa 2007-08, and this punting financial year is expected to further escalate. Cheaters caught totals 23 mongrel mug punters. The casino itself is not off the hook either. Tabcorp, the parent company of Star, has had its knuckles dusted by the casino regulator at least 4 times this punting year for breaches re responsible gaming requirements. Minors being located in gaming areas like slots, table games and the big wheel, are a major problem.

A source choosing to remain anonymous leaked "We understand the teens seem to like the Hollywood themed games and some of them see themselves at James Bond 007 types. Most of them also seem to know about Monopoly, Cleopatra, Queen Of The Nile, and of course poker. Gambling, gaming and poker is always in the news, the TV, the newspapers, magazines, associated with sports, so its just everywhere".

Media Man via News Limited secured figures that show that nine months to March 31 this year, 51 underage teens were busted trying to enter the casino using phony IDs.

Casino Penalties From Gaming Enforcer
20 breaches of responsible gaming rules, including:
* Teenage girl used fake ID to successfully get into the casino and busted drinking and gambling;
* Casino staff member who didn't immediately report a minor to a casino authority inspector;
* 17-year-old young bloke busted gambling on the premises; and
* 13 more kids, all aged under 14, busted in the casino area, however its understood it was accidental.

Star City's spokesman (casino) advised staff are being trained up to spot tech in fake IDs, which made up about 40% of the fines issued.

Sydney leading newspaper, The Daily Telegraph, reveled last week, there is a sophisticated operation run by teenagers that alters driver's licences for $80. It' a bit hit with teens who like casinos and exclusive clubs. Star City said the number of teens caught with fake IDs was fairly steady. They are reviewing its procedures and security staff were being trained to better identify phony cards.

A Star City spokesman "We review all breaches to see how we can improve our procedures to prevent minors gaining access to licensed areas. The numbers have remained pretty steady over the last few years but our security officers are constantly being trained to detect the latest style of fake IDs."

Daring excluded persons caught sneaking back into the casino rose significantly to 55. Anyone busted using a fake ID is fined $110, banned persons $550 and cheats $660.

Media Man is not a legal advisory service, but recommends Do We Cheatem & How. Just kidding!

Casino lovers, young and old, please obey the law. God knows we have enough serious casino crime to cover already, without listing you by name.
The rumour mill says Tony Clifton and Andy Kaufman are considering doing some jokes about casino cheats, so if you what to make the list, you know what it entails.

Pro Roulette-Cheat Teams Using My Old Ten-Oh-Five Blackjack Cheat-Move on Singapore's Wheels!

If you follow my blog, you're quite aware of the cheating onslaught going on in Singapore's two new giant casinos, Sentosa's Resorts World Casino and the Sands Marina Bay Casino. Their rookie surveillance crews are digging-in their trenches and fighting valliantly, and are indeed managing to catch a major cheat or two per week, but that is just a tiny tip of the casino-cheat iceberg freezing over Singapore's casinos.

Aside from professional roulette cheat-teams pastposting $100 and $1,000 chips straight-up or around inside numbers, I have heard about roulette cheats pastposting bets of $1,005, $1,010 and $1,505 on the outside proposition bets, especially the column bets at the bottom of the layout that pay 2 to 1. This is a version of my Blackjack Ten-Oh-Five move, which I also used on roulette tables on the column-bets and on the 2 to 1 section bets (or dozen bets) along the sides of the outside proposition bets. The key was covering the $500 or $1,000 chips with red $5 chips to camouflage the big chips underneath, thus convincing the dealer he didn't see those chips when he "errantly" paid the bets. This was always an effective move for me and my casino cheat-teams, and it is obviously one of those solid cheat moves that will never retire despite my own retirement from casino and poker cheating. To read the specifics of the Ten-Oh-Five move click here.