Poker Pro Matt Marafioti linked to Online Poker Cheat by Hacking Scam!

With over $2 million in live poker tournament winnings and an impressive online poker resume, Matt Marafioti is widely considered one of the better pro players out there. However, the Canadian’s name has been dragged through the mud over the past couple of days after an alleged Skype conversation between him and another player was leaked on the TwoPlusTwo forums.

The 2p2 thread begins with a posted Skype conversation (sent to poster via email) between Marafioti and a Swedish online poker player named Samar Rahman. This already leads people to jump to conclusions because Rahman has been accused of cheating players such as Patrik Antonius in the past through elaborately-placed computer viruses. But things get worse when the conversation alludes to hacking into other players’ accounts so Marafioti and Rahman can see opponents’ hole cards.

Seeing as how it’s possible to manipulate a Skype conversation before posting it to the internet, it’s tough to verify 100% accuracy in this matter. However, most people in the TwoPlusTwo thread feel Marafioti and Rahman’s conversation about cheating other players follows a realistic flow for an IM conversation.

Perhaps more damning are the character issues here because both Marafioti and Rahman are pretty questionable people. Marafioti has gained quite a bit of attention for his melodramatic twitter posts and incessant cursing while Rahman is rumored to be a skilled computer hacker – as mentioned before.

Of course, none of this is evidence that these two online poker pros definitely conspired to cheat people. However, it is worth mentioning that the TwoPlusTwo thread has been kept up, which means they either feel there is some validity behind the accusations or – at the very least – they believe the topic is worthy of discussion.
  My take: Every since I wrote the book "Dirty Poker" back in '06, I've been reporting and blogging about all the various online poker cheating scandals that I originally predicted in the book. One of the things I did write about back then was hacking accounts to cheat online poker players. This is nothing new, and despite the article's mention that "of course, none of this is evidence that these two online poker pros definitely conspired to cheat people," it's pretty good evidence for me.

Pastposting Cheats Attack Pennsylvania Casinos' Bonus Bets

I have been getting reports that pastposters are managing to pastpost bonus bets on Pennsylvania's blackjack tables, which is a pretty profitable move if you can get it off. Some of these bets pay up to 200 to 1, and casino cheats working the tables have been popping in $5 chips after the winning outcome is determined, netting a cool grand for each move.

I have previously noted casinos' vulnerability to pastposting and other forms of cheating on bonus bets due to the sheer volume of them placed on the tables, especially the Panda and Dragon Bets on the EZ baccarat tables. I saw an epidemic of this type of cheating and confusion in Canadian casinos.

Expect to see more of this in the near future, even if the occasional casino cheating arrests are made.

Hot-looking "Cooler" Specialist Inducted into Poker and Casino Cheats Hall of Fame!

Her name is Ida Summers, and perhaps you've seen her on one of the History Channel's "Breaking Vegas" episodes. Now she's in the poker and casino cheats Hall of Fame.

Most woman casino cheats are used as diversions to get the attention of male pit bosses away from the table layout where the cheat move goes down, but With Ida Summers, who was one hot babe in her day, the male attention could be right on her when she made those cheat moves. Later known as the Vegas Vixen, she was a master at cunning, quickness (at the casino blackjack table, I don't know about in bed) and getting the money off the table. She was one of the early Nevada female pioneer casino cheats.

Her cheat gig was first "hand-mucking" cards at blackjack tables and then later switching in entire "coolers" (blackjack shoes filled with prearranged cards to cheat the house) at those same blackjack tables. Hand mucking is the art of hiding a card (usually by palming) that has been snuck to the table before the play of a hand or taken off the table after it had been put into play by the dealer. Then with a quick sleight-of-hand movement the mucked card is either returned to play or taken off the table by the card-mucker, all in accordance with whether the cheat needs the card in his or her hand or back in the deck.

Ida Summers used all her beauty and talent to pull of these card swithces.
In addition to her good-looks, she was very flirtatious and very socialable, much like fellow Hall of "Famestress" Ruthie Berin. She was also quite petite, five-feet-two and less than a hundred pounds. This petiteness appealed greatly to the macho pit bosses of her day. She played them on her charm as she expertly and effortlessly switched cards in and out of decks.

But Ida took her cheating to the hilt. Uninspired by the ease of hand-mucking cards, she stepped up her craft to switching entire coolers into play. These are also called "cold decks" that are already prearranged to make the involved players at the table winners on as many hands they want. Some losing hands may be placed between the winners just to make the scam look more believable. After all, a player winning every hand, even if it be a beautiful woman, would surely raise suspicions in even the most distracted pit boss.

What made this move so bold was that the original card show on the table had to be physically lifted off the layout while the cooler was slipped into its spot, all in a split second. AND the shoe taken off the table had to be hidden from everyone's view. Ida managed this by placing that original shoe on her lap and then passing it off to a male cohort standing behind her at the first opportune moment. Then she would leave the table herself while other cohorts would begin playing the hands the dealer dealt from the cooler. The idea was that if they were caught, they would never catch Ida with the removed card shoe at the table.

In spite of this, gaming commission officials in Las Vegas, working in conjunction with the FBI, eventually caught Ida and her casino cheat partners, but they must have been very impressed with her skills and looks as well: she received but probation for her trouble.

At the time of her exploits and arrest, Ida Summers was the only known professional female casino cheat, which made her a true legend in casino cheating and underworld lore.

Blackjack Computer King Cheat Inducted into Poker and Casino Cheats Hall of Fame!

"George" Inventor

His name is Keith Taft...Congratulations, Keith!

Keith Taft was a real-life "Inspector Gadget" character, a true genius who spent three decades developing and perfecting electronic devices to cheat US casinos. He began working with casino computers with his son, Marty Taft, back in the late 60s. Today he is believed to be the first casino or poker cheat to develop a computer that captured digital video the way today's microcomputers are processing data filmed in false-shuffle and other baccarat and blackjack cheat scams.

While vacationing in the Bahamas in the 60s, Taft got interested in Edward O. Thorp's famous blackjack card-counting book "Beat the Dealer." In fact, he quickly became obsessed by it. However, he did not make any money counting cards at blackjack using Thorp's plus-minus count system.

Thus he turned his attention to developing computers to beat the blackjack tables. His first and now famous invention was a 5-kilo computer that he called "George." He used it to enter data while counting cards at blackjack, using his toes to enter the data to the prototype computer he had tucked underneath his baggy shirt. He later decided that George was a bit unwieldy and developed a lighter device that he called "David."

Taft had immediate success with David, beating Vegas casinos out of fifty grand in the first two weeks of operation. made $40,000 the first week he used it. After taking some heat in casinos, Taft decided he would do better by selling his minicomputers based on the David prototype for ten or fifteen grand apiece, which included his training of the buyers.

This decision Taft made after being grabbed up in a casino and taken to the back room, where he was interrogated by Nevada Gaming Control Board agents as well as the FBI. But neither law enforcement agency had the slightest idea of what the microcomputer actually was and failed to make any legal connection to casino cheating that they could use in court, therefore Taft was releaed.

Another casino.cheating computer deeloped by Taft´s sons Marty and Keith was called the "belly-telly." This was a small video camera they fitted into their belts and could film the dealer's hole-card at blackjack. The image was then transmitted to their cheating partners sitting in a van at the casino's parking lot. These cohorts would then send a signal back to the cheating blackjack players at the table, identifying the value of the hole card.

Yet another electronic gismo invented by Taft and his sons was the "Thor" computer, which could track the positions of cards in a multiple-deck shuffle. This was the first casino-cheat invention that directly led to today's high-tech video-reader devices that are used in blackjack and baccarat shuffle-tracking scams, which are currently costing casinos worldwide millions, especially in Macau.

In 1986, the Nevada Gaming Commission created a law making it illegal to use any electronic devices whatsoever in gaming casinos, which today is a felony punishable by up to ten years in prison.

A true casino-cheating pioneer, Keith Taft was also inducted into the Blackjack Hall of Fame in 2004.

Ever Hear of Google Glass? Casinos Surely Have!...

...And they're scared shit of it!

Google Glass Cheat?

With technology rapidly changing on an almost daily basis, casinos have to be aware of new products that might hurt their business. The “eye in the sky” and casino personnel are always on the lookout for certain electronics that could cause a detrimental swing against the house.

Many devices such as digital cameras and mobile camera phones are already banned from certain areas of Vegas casinos in order to avoid card counting or any other type of cheating. Try whipping out your smartphone to snap a pic during a game of craps or roulette and you’ll be instantly warned and/or kicked out of the gaming area very quickly.

The most recent item that may be added to the banned list at casinos in Las Vegas is Google Glass.

Google Glass is the newest invention by Google, and although innovative, it may be banned from the gaming floors of casinos in the state of Nevada according to a recent NBC report. The product itself is a type of eyewear that allows the wearer to do a number of things including take video as well as photos. This could potentially be used to cheat the casino and casino operators are strongly against the new product in their casinos.

NBC spoke with MGM Resorts International and they commented on the new product by stating:

“Picture-taking is frowned upon, and security officers on duty ask individuals not to take pictures for the privacy of others in the casino. This new product is nothing new in terms of a challenge for us, because for so many years, the very tiniest of portable lipstick and pinpoint cameras have been around.”

It is not uncommon for restrictions to be placed on certain forms of technology on the gaming floor, especially when it comes to poker tournament play. Google Glass would most certain fall under these restrictions.

While the new technology has yet to be released to the public as it is still in the testing phase but it is believed the product will be ready later on this year. In the meantime, we will have to wait and see if casinos in Las Vegas (and of course, abroad) decide to put a ban in place for the item.

My take: Well, if it isn't one thing the casinos are paronoid about these days, it's another. I really wouldn't be popping many bricks about Google Glass if I were a casino boss.

Cheating at Poker attack on Mississippi Stud Poker!

Mississippi Stud Poker is being cheated by professional card-marking poker cheat teams in several casinos, mostly on the east cost. The card-markers are marking the cards on the table and using their advantage to decided when to stay in the hands and make the maximum 3-bet wager.

This is nothing surprising to me since all these poker derivative games have always been right for those skilled at cheating at poker games in casinos. The poker cheats take advantage of the lax attitude that casino bosses and supervisors have toward these games. They just never seem to watch the action on the derivative poker tables as intensely as they do the other gaming tables.

My advice for casino staffs is to watch out for players on the Mississippi Stud Poker tables who seeming make foolish decisions to stay or fold hands that end up being right too much of the time. I will have more on this new cheating at poker endemic shortly.

Why Cheating at Poker is Endemic

Cheating at Poker is endemic for a few very simple reasons. First off, it offers the cheats at poker the best opportunity for cheating with the least risk. Since cheating at poker is mostly done through collusion techniques where two or more players secretly trade information at the poker tables and use that information to control pots by forcing opponents to put more money into pots when one of the poker cheats has the best hand. This is done by raising and re-raising pots to draw more money into the pot for the eventual winner.

The second part of the cheating at poker endemic, and by far the most enviable for those who cheat at poker, is cheating at poker online. Since there is virtually no governing body, those who cheat at poker can virtually cheat however they want without any risk at all. This has been well proved by perhaps the most notorious poker cheat ever, Russ Hamilton (the 1994 WSOP main event champion), who engineered the infamous Ultimate Bet online poker scandal through which online poker players around the world lost some $20 million. Hamilton, despite very incriminating evidence against him, has never been charged with any crime and most certainly never will. This is because with the mumble-jumble of insecure online poker governing and regulation, no one knows really who should prosecute what...and where. It's a lot more complicated than when an Italian man kills a Japanese man aboard a Norwegian cruise liner in South African territorial waters.

So for these two principal reasons, cheating at poker will continue to grow much more than cheating at any other gambling entity. 

Does Card Counting Really Effect the Casino's Bottom Line?

In the vast majority of casinos across the world, the effect would be minimal, simply because counters operate with less than a 2% advantage with optimum play and conditions. If you take into consideration what percentage of high rollers (let's say $50 or more avg bet) there are in the total clientele base, and then take the percentage of those that are true winning card counters, you come up with a small number, and their total dollar amount put into play would be a small percentage of the casinos' drop. So even if your casino was being hit consistently with pro counting teams, it would barely show up in the bottom line, unless, of course, a professional card counting convention happened to land inside your casino!!!

The example where card counters could effect a bottom line signifcantly would be a small but high stakes casino, much more seen in Europe than in the US. There, card counting teams can cause casinos losing days or even several days running.

Another thing worth mentioning is that other types of advantage play, although much less common than basic card couting, would effect the bottom line much more, given there was an ample volume of these sort of plays.

High Rolling Cheat Supposedly Cheats Aussie Casino Out of $32 Million!...I Am Not Buying It

A high rolling fraudster in Melbourne went high tech for his latest scam, cheating a casino out of more than $40 million. According to the Herald Sun, the man checked in to the Crown Casino as a foreigner and stayed with his family in a VIP 'villa' at the luxury Crown Towers hotel, attached to the casino. He then infiltrated the venue's security system, allowing the cheat's accomplices to monitor the gaming floor surveillance cameras, and passing on signals as to which way he should bet.

 It is believed more than A$32 million ($40.3 million) were stolen before the man and his family were kicked out in the middle of the night by casino management. A staff member, who was assigned to look after the 'high roller' during his stay, has apparently been sacked in connection with the incident. Crown Casino has said it is in a good position to recover much of the stolen funds, working with Victorian police and gambling authorities. The scam is said to be the biggest in the casino's 19-year history.

How the scam worked:

The fraudster checks in as a 'foreign high-roller' at Crown Towers, a luxury hotel attached to the casino. Access is gained to the casino's security system, possibly through an unauthorised staff member. The fraudster's accomplices watch the high-resolution security feeds from the VIP gaming floor, able to see the tables where the man is playing. The information that the accomplice sees is relayed to the fraudster somehow, giving him indications on which way to bet.

Finally, the fraudster is hit with a 'withdrawal of licence' in the middle of the night - a legal document disallowing him on casino property; essentially a trespass from the venue.

My take: This seems to me awfully dubious. I mean, just because someone infiltrates a casino's security system doesn't mean he can cheat or sway the odds in his favor. If you are watching what the casino is watching, how does their money get into your pockets? You still have to cheat, and watching what the casinos watches has nothing to do with prearranging cards or rigging roulette wheels. So unless something more comes to light here, I will remain skeptical about this "huge" scam.

Denver Broncos Football Player Charged With Casino Cheating!!!

Do you believe this!!!

Denver Broncos safety Quinton Carter was charged with three felonies over the weekend after authorities alleged he cheated at craps in a casino near Las Vegas.The 24-year-old safety was arrested at the Texas Station casino on Saturday night. Security officials say they have tape of Carter adding $5 chips to three bet stacks after the dice had been rolled. He denied any wrongdoing to police.

According to the Associated Press, Carter faces three counts of committing a fraudulent act in a gaming establishment, a felony that can bring a prison sentence of one to six years. Is it just me, or does that penalty sound a tad excessive? I don't mean to diminish the seriousness of the charges, defend any potential thief or support someone who'd be dumb enough to allegedly cheat in a place where there's more cameras than a paparazzi convention.

Still, it's three $5 bets. That's $15.Vegas has to defend itself against cheaters, of course, but the movies said they did that by having Don Rickles stand guard while Robert De Niro bashes your hand with a hammer, not by pursuing excessive charges against someone playing cheap craps tables.
Carter said he was confident he'd be cleared. On Twitter, he wrote he was "truly sorry for any negative attention this has brought to the Broncos, our fans and the league,"

My take: The guy just had to be drunk or high or something. I mean, come on, he's gotta be making at least a few million a year. Why would he be cheating casinos outta anything, let alone $5 chips???