Firstly, I wish you all a very happy Valentine's Day, and if you've been lucky enough to make a score in casinos, whether by cheating or honest play, don't forget to share some of the booty with that special person in your life. If you don't, I will be very offended, especially if my blog has been directly or indirectly responsible for your score!
Now to POKER BOTS:
Since my book Dirty Poker was published in March, 2006, there's been lots happening with poker bots. It remains the second most common form of cheating online, if we consider collusion cheating. Virtually all the bots you see for sale online are NOT effective enough to get you over the hump and give you a consistent percentage advantage that overcomes both solid honest players and the sites' rakes; don't waste your money on them as they are not even as good as Mark Howe's roulette computers. However, there are purveyors of non-commercial bots that really have the goods! Over the past month I have seen several demos of these good ones in action. They win at a rate of 2.5 percent, which is very strong. Most of these are selling for around $5,000 US, however, the people making them are not advertising them online, preferring to deal through intermediaries and contacts. In addition to this, there have been improvements to "artibots," which are bots that actually have artificial intelligence, able to maneuver and change their play, invoke bluffing and fake steaming! These give an advantage of 5 percent or better, but are quite expensive.
Naturally online poker rooms are going to tell you that their security programs can detect all of these new innovations in play, but don't believe a word they say. The fact is that their use has no effect on their bottom line, so just as land-based casinos trump up their protestations of watching out for poker cheaters and colluders but in fact do virtually nothing, so do the spokesman for online poker rooms. In short, the bots are getting better, harder to detect and bringing in heaps of cash to those using them. I will have more on poker bots in the upcoming posts, in addition to some very special information that no one out there wants to miss, the most exciting revelation since the inception of this website!
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Monday, February 05, 2007
Hi-Tech Team Felled by Greed Again!
If you've been reading my blog, you've noticed how I constantly talk about how it takes more than just the sophisticated equipment to get the money out of casinos without ending up busted. And here once again is living proof of what I've been talking about. Read the story below about a hi-tech camera scam that beat Uk casinos out of several hundred grand only to get the perpetrators busted because they wanted too much too fast. I can tell you that I'm personally aware of just about every electronic-video-audio scam in existence, and believe me, this was a good one! If these three scammers had practiced better internal security and less greed, no telling how much casino cash they would have made. In any event, kudos to them for their efforts, and as in the UK cheating at gambling is not deemed so serious by the courts, they'll be back scamming the casinos in no time!
ARTICLE:
A team of gamblers used James Bond-style spy equipment to beat the odds in a highly sophisticated casino swindle, a court heard yesterday. The two men and a woman wired themselves with miniature cameras and communication devices during games of three-card poker in order to cheat casinos owners out of more than £250,000. In what was described as a "virtually foolproof" system, one of the team would secretly film the cards being dealt, another, in a van outside, would establish their identity and a third make bets based on the information.
The only flaw in their scam was that the trio, all of Chinese descent, were too successful. Casino managers realised that they must be cheating because they were winning too many hands.
The leader of the gang, Yau Lam, 45, a chef and experienced poker player, was jailed yesterday for nine months. His accomplices Fa Tsang, 41, and Bit Wong, 39, were also sentenced to nine months but their jail terms were suspended. They must complete 150 hours of community work. The sentencing judge said: "Between you, you constructed a sophisticated and unusual system. The result was a virtually foolproof advantage over the dealer which enabled you to walk away with thousands of pounds. But you were not so clever as you thought because eventually you were caught. (This is because of their greed) Southwark Crown Court heard that both Tsang and Wong would sit at the poker table while Lam was outside in a van. Tsang then used a micro-camera hidden up a sleeve or in a handbag to record the croupier dealing the cards. The images were beamed to Lam who, using hi-tech video equipment, slowed down the film and was able to identify the cards as they flew through the air on to the table. He then instructed Wong via a tiny transmitter in her ear on how to bet. Scotland Yard believes they may have netted more than £250,000 from casinos across the country. They were rumbled on Sept 13, 2005, when managers at the Mint Casino, in South Kensington, became suspicious of Wong's apparently extraordinary run of luck. Out of 44 "plays", she lost just 10 - well above statistical odds. In just 50 minutes she had amassed more than £6,000. The Metropolitan Police's Gaming Unit was called in and discovered the hidden devices the team were using. Tsang, 41, of Paddington, Lam, 45, of Edgware, and Wong, 39, of Swiss Cottage, all north-west London, pleaded guilty on Dec 12 to one count each of cheating at gaming. Derek Mather, prosecuting, said: "The use of such equipment is clearly an ill practice, which subverts the whole element of gambling and indeed skill within the game. All three were handed an "exclusion requirement" order which prohibits them from entering any casino for two years. Michael Hoskins, the director of security for Stanley Casinos, which owns the Mint, said: "I am pleased that our crime prevention systems were tested and were successful in detecting what for the UK casino industry was the first success against this type of electronic theft." What he didn't say was that had the three not been so greedy, they never would have caught them.
ONLINE POKER BOTS
I am currently gathering data for my next post on improvements to online poker bots, which have been quite substantial since the release of my book "Dirty Poker." It should be up within two weeks.
Keep on pluggin'!
ARTICLE:
A team of gamblers used James Bond-style spy equipment to beat the odds in a highly sophisticated casino swindle, a court heard yesterday. The two men and a woman wired themselves with miniature cameras and communication devices during games of three-card poker in order to cheat casinos owners out of more than £250,000. In what was described as a "virtually foolproof" system, one of the team would secretly film the cards being dealt, another, in a van outside, would establish their identity and a third make bets based on the information.
The only flaw in their scam was that the trio, all of Chinese descent, were too successful. Casino managers realised that they must be cheating because they were winning too many hands.
The leader of the gang, Yau Lam, 45, a chef and experienced poker player, was jailed yesterday for nine months. His accomplices Fa Tsang, 41, and Bit Wong, 39, were also sentenced to nine months but their jail terms were suspended. They must complete 150 hours of community work. The sentencing judge said: "Between you, you constructed a sophisticated and unusual system. The result was a virtually foolproof advantage over the dealer which enabled you to walk away with thousands of pounds. But you were not so clever as you thought because eventually you were caught. (This is because of their greed) Southwark Crown Court heard that both Tsang and Wong would sit at the poker table while Lam was outside in a van. Tsang then used a micro-camera hidden up a sleeve or in a handbag to record the croupier dealing the cards. The images were beamed to Lam who, using hi-tech video equipment, slowed down the film and was able to identify the cards as they flew through the air on to the table. He then instructed Wong via a tiny transmitter in her ear on how to bet. Scotland Yard believes they may have netted more than £250,000 from casinos across the country. They were rumbled on Sept 13, 2005, when managers at the Mint Casino, in South Kensington, became suspicious of Wong's apparently extraordinary run of luck. Out of 44 "plays", she lost just 10 - well above statistical odds. In just 50 minutes she had amassed more than £6,000. The Metropolitan Police's Gaming Unit was called in and discovered the hidden devices the team were using. Tsang, 41, of Paddington, Lam, 45, of Edgware, and Wong, 39, of Swiss Cottage, all north-west London, pleaded guilty on Dec 12 to one count each of cheating at gaming. Derek Mather, prosecuting, said: "The use of such equipment is clearly an ill practice, which subverts the whole element of gambling and indeed skill within the game. All three were handed an "exclusion requirement" order which prohibits them from entering any casino for two years. Michael Hoskins, the director of security for Stanley Casinos, which owns the Mint, said: "I am pleased that our crime prevention systems were tested and were successful in detecting what for the UK casino industry was the first success against this type of electronic theft." What he didn't say was that had the three not been so greedy, they never would have caught them.
ONLINE POKER BOTS
I am currently gathering data for my next post on improvements to online poker bots, which have been quite substantial since the release of my book "Dirty Poker." It should be up within two weeks.
Keep on pluggin'!
Monday, January 29, 2007
Why some casinos deserve to get cheated
If casinos don't already make enough money! Read this article, then tell me after doing so if you could feel sorry for casinos getting ripped off?
More Casinos Realize They Can Blame Software Glitch
And Not Pay Out Big Prizes
Last summer, we suggested a new business model for
casinos, after hearing the story of one casino blaming
a software glitch in order to not pay out a jackpot a
player had supposedly won. In that case, the guy was
supposedly hiring a lawyer, but we haven't heard an
update. However, it appears that others are picking up
on the trick. A new casino in Pennsylvania had a slot
machine tell a player that he had won $102,000,
supposedly "the big jackpot" of the day. Various
casino staff came up and congratulated him, until
someone else came over and offered him two free meal
coupons, saying that the jackpot message (which even
stated his name) was a software glitch on their
internal computer system, and was due to some internal
testing that never should have reached the actual
machine. Specifically, they claim it was "a
communications error." The article does note that the
slot machines have a disclaimer that the casino is not
liable for machine malfunctions, but there are
questions about whether or not that covers this
situation, since it wasn't technically the slot
machine that malfunctioned, but the casino's computer
system. Either way, it seems pretty sleazy, and
probably isn't particularly good publicity for a new
casino trying to drum up business.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
Some Clever Early Gadget Cheaters
Check out these articles about some crafty early gadget cheaters who worked the casinos when Vegas went legal in the early 1930s. You'll see that today's modern cheaters had some very cool ancestors!
Cheating gambler technology roundup from 1933
This Popular Science expose on crooked gambling
technology from November, 1933 is a maker's dream --
these con artists were genius tinkerers, it seems:
Even so simple a gambling proposition as spinning or
flipping a coin is made crooked by relatively common
alterations now being made in underworld workshops.
There are on the market coins with beveled edges sure
to stop spinning and fall with the high side
uppermost. Again, dollars are sometimes sawed in half
and the two heads and the two tails sweated together
in such a way that the line of joining is practically
invisible. They are substituted for genuine coins by
the cheaters during play. Whichever side comes up, the
result is the same.
Not long ago, in a western city, police raided a
gambling joint and confiscated, among other thmgs, a
crap stick that had won thousands of dollars for the
house. Such sticks, made of rattan and curved at the
end, are used to rake the dice back after they have
been thrown upon the table. When an officer
accidentally twisted the handle of this stick, the
secret of the players’ ill luck at this table became
apparent and very simple to explain to the victims.
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/01/09/cheating_gambler_tec.html
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2007/01/09/strange-inventions-used-by-crooked-gamblers/
Cheating gambler technology roundup from 1933
This Popular Science expose on crooked gambling
technology from November, 1933 is a maker's dream --
these con artists were genius tinkerers, it seems:
Even so simple a gambling proposition as spinning or
flipping a coin is made crooked by relatively common
alterations now being made in underworld workshops.
There are on the market coins with beveled edges sure
to stop spinning and fall with the high side
uppermost. Again, dollars are sometimes sawed in half
and the two heads and the two tails sweated together
in such a way that the line of joining is practically
invisible. They are substituted for genuine coins by
the cheaters during play. Whichever side comes up, the
result is the same.
Not long ago, in a western city, police raided a
gambling joint and confiscated, among other thmgs, a
crap stick that had won thousands of dollars for the
house. Such sticks, made of rattan and curved at the
end, are used to rake the dice back after they have
been thrown upon the table. When an officer
accidentally twisted the handle of this stick, the
secret of the players’ ill luck at this table became
apparent and very simple to explain to the victims.
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/01/09/cheating_gambler_tec.html
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2007/01/09/strange-inventions-used-by-crooked-gamblers/
Saturday, December 30, 2006
More on Roulette Computers and Chess Cheats
Happy New Year, everyone. I hope that 2007 brings big profits for all you gamblers, cheaters and whoeverelsers trying to beat the casinos!
It has recently come to my knowledge that the situation concerning the legality of using roulette computers in the UK is even more murky than before. Apparently, depending on who you ask, or which barrister you seek out, there is some degree of illegality to using roulette computers or other devices to predict where the ball will land. However, it is still my opinion and that of most people involved in the practice of UK law that anyone caught using these devices will not be prosecuted to the extent that there is a risk of jail time or serious fine. As the famous (not infamous) Ritz team proved, UK law is not very interested in prosecuting those who simply monitor where the ball will land without affecting that landing. However, if you try to manipulate the ball itself, as that ballsy French team so successfully did at Casino Deauville, you will face harsher penalties in UK courts. As I am told now, sometime in 2007 computers will be declared officially legal--but it won't last. Legislation to illegalize it will then follow. How long this "grace period" will be, I'm not sure. But it will give you enough time to make a killing!
Roulette players are not the only ones using electronic equipment to gain the edge. Now some prospective "Kasparovs" have turned to artificial brainpower. I certainly don't have a problem with innovators using equipment to beat the casinos, but chess champions cheating doesn't sit quite well with me. Shame on them! Here's the article that toppled the king!
Chess Player Banned 10 Years For Cheating With
>Bluetooth, Computer
>
>>The All India Chess Federation slapped the 10-year
>sanction on a player who had been using a Bluetooth
>device stitched into a cap he typically pulled down
>over his ears.
>
>By Gregg Keizer
>InformationWeek
>
>Dec 27, 2006 11:34 AM
>
>An Indian chess player was banned Tuesday from
>competition for 10 years after he was caught using a
>Bluetooth headset sewn into a cap earlier this month
>to get help from a computer.
>
>The All India Chess Federation slapped the 10-year
>sanction on Umakant Sharma, who had been using a
>Bluetooth device stitched into a cap he typically
>pulled down over his ears. According to the
>federation, Sharma's accomplices relayed moves made by
>a computer chess program to him via the Bluetooth
>headset. Bharat Singh Chauhan, the AICF treasurer,
>showed the cap and Bluetooth device at a meeting
>convened Tuesday that decided Sharma's punishment.
>
>Sharma was found out during a random check at a New
>Delhi tournament Dec. 4; he had been seeded second in
>the tournament.
>
>The World Chess Federation (Federation Internationale
>des Echecs, or FIDE) bars the use of mobile devices
>during play. "It is strictly forbidden to bring mobile
>phones or other electronic means of communication, not
>authorized by the arbiter, into the playing venue,"
>the group's rules read. "If a player's mobile phone
>rings in the playing venue during play, that player
>shall lose the game."
It has recently come to my knowledge that the situation concerning the legality of using roulette computers in the UK is even more murky than before. Apparently, depending on who you ask, or which barrister you seek out, there is some degree of illegality to using roulette computers or other devices to predict where the ball will land. However, it is still my opinion and that of most people involved in the practice of UK law that anyone caught using these devices will not be prosecuted to the extent that there is a risk of jail time or serious fine. As the famous (not infamous) Ritz team proved, UK law is not very interested in prosecuting those who simply monitor where the ball will land without affecting that landing. However, if you try to manipulate the ball itself, as that ballsy French team so successfully did at Casino Deauville, you will face harsher penalties in UK courts. As I am told now, sometime in 2007 computers will be declared officially legal--but it won't last. Legislation to illegalize it will then follow. How long this "grace period" will be, I'm not sure. But it will give you enough time to make a killing!
Roulette players are not the only ones using electronic equipment to gain the edge. Now some prospective "Kasparovs" have turned to artificial brainpower. I certainly don't have a problem with innovators using equipment to beat the casinos, but chess champions cheating doesn't sit quite well with me. Shame on them! Here's the article that toppled the king!
Chess Player Banned 10 Years For Cheating With
>Bluetooth, Computer
>
>>The All India Chess Federation slapped the 10-year
>sanction on a player who had been using a Bluetooth
>device stitched into a cap he typically pulled down
>over his ears.
>
>By Gregg Keizer
>InformationWeek
>
>Dec 27, 2006 11:34 AM
>
>An Indian chess player was banned Tuesday from
>competition for 10 years after he was caught using a
>Bluetooth headset sewn into a cap earlier this month
>to get help from a computer.
>
>The All India Chess Federation slapped the 10-year
>sanction on Umakant Sharma, who had been using a
>Bluetooth device stitched into a cap he typically
>pulled down over his ears. According to the
>federation, Sharma's accomplices relayed moves made by
>a computer chess program to him via the Bluetooth
>headset. Bharat Singh Chauhan, the AICF treasurer,
>showed the cap and Bluetooth device at a meeting
>convened Tuesday that decided Sharma's punishment.
>
>Sharma was found out during a random check at a New
>Delhi tournament Dec. 4; he had been seeded second in
>the tournament.
>
>The World Chess Federation (Federation Internationale
>des Echecs, or FIDE) bars the use of mobile devices
>during play. "It is strictly forbidden to bring mobile
>phones or other electronic means of communication, not
>authorized by the arbiter, into the playing venue,"
>the group's rules read. "If a player's mobile phone
>rings in the playing venue during play, that player
>shall lose the game."
Monday, November 06, 2006
New Online Poker Room Anti-Cheating Rating Service!
I am currently compiling data to inform you which online poker rooms are the safest and which do the least to combat cheaters. I will be rating the TOP 10 and BOTTOM 10 sites every two weeks, beginning on November 15, 2006. Three types of anti-cheating measures will be evaluated: those against bots, colluders and hackers. As online poker rooms' security staffs are constantly fighting a war against cheaters, these ratings will be changing quite often, and I will stay on top of them for those of you who play online poker.
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Is Jamie Gold a bigger thief than me?
We've all heard by now that 2006 grand WSOP champion Jamie Gold has been sued for half his $12 million prize money, but I just saw him playing on TV for the first time, and this guy is OBNOXIOUS! Did you see all that trash talk and the psycho games he was playing on that final table? Man, I don't know the guy from Adam, but I'd bet my last wooden nickel that he's as guilty as the guy sueing him says he is, and that's just from looking at him. If it is indeed true and he gets away with it, then he will have pulled off the greatest con in poker history, better than anything I wrote about in Dirty Poker. So my advice to all you poker players getting involved in these pre-tournament deals that Dirty Poker cast in such a negative light is to get ALL of these arrangements in WRITING! If not, your GOLD could turn to CRAP! Pardon the pun.
I am busy these days working on my new book THE WORLD's GREATEST GAMBLING SCAMS, which should be out in the early spring, 2007. This book should highly entertain you as it will detail the top 10 greatest scams of all time. You will meet the people who pulled them off and see exactly how they did it, those with electronic gizmos and those with nothing more than wit and balls.
On the world cheating front, for some reason there seems to be a lot going on in Australia these past few weeks. I've heard that a new Italian roulette-pastposting team is on the loose Down Under. I'm wondering if they're descendants of the Italian wheelmasters I knew over the years. They have a really great sliding-chip move that is one of the best I've ever seen. I've also gotten word from surveillance people that my lovely Savannah (roulette move) waltzed through the same casinos. Again, she beat the pants off the wheels and those lucky guys escorting her had no problems. They were using $1,000 Aussie chips, not the $5,000 American chocolates I used, but certainly worth the trip.
Stay cool, and I'll be back with an update soon.
I am busy these days working on my new book THE WORLD's GREATEST GAMBLING SCAMS, which should be out in the early spring, 2007. This book should highly entertain you as it will detail the top 10 greatest scams of all time. You will meet the people who pulled them off and see exactly how they did it, those with electronic gizmos and those with nothing more than wit and balls.
On the world cheating front, for some reason there seems to be a lot going on in Australia these past few weeks. I've heard that a new Italian roulette-pastposting team is on the loose Down Under. I'm wondering if they're descendants of the Italian wheelmasters I knew over the years. They have a really great sliding-chip move that is one of the best I've ever seen. I've also gotten word from surveillance people that my lovely Savannah (roulette move) waltzed through the same casinos. Again, she beat the pants off the wheels and those lucky guys escorting her had no problems. They were using $1,000 Aussie chips, not the $5,000 American chocolates I used, but certainly worth the trip.
Stay cool, and I'll be back with an update soon.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Cheating at 2006 WSOP, Identity Theft, Inc., World's Greatest Gambling Scams
Has anyone heard about the chip-cheating incident just two tables from the final table at the championship event? I hadn't until a reader e-mailed me about it. I researched it, and apparently it was true, but I didn't get all the details. During a count of the chips it was found that there were several chips too many in play, but I don't know if particular players were accused. What I do know is that the WSOP chip-cheating I wrote about in Dirty Poker is going on all over. And with the WSOP, this makes two consecutive years chip-cheating was discovered. In 2005, it happened twice! If anyone has more details on this, I'd appreciate your letting me know.
My new book Identity Theft, Inc. should be in the stores this week. It's already available online for less.
I am also working on what will be my fourth book called "The World's Greatest Gambling Scams." You bet, it will be about exactly what the title says! The inside stories of the best ten gambling scams of all time.
Hope everyone had a great summer!
My new book Identity Theft, Inc. should be in the stores this week. It's already available online for less.
I am also working on what will be my fourth book called "The World's Greatest Gambling Scams." You bet, it will be about exactly what the title says! The inside stories of the best ten gambling scams of all time.
Hope everyone had a great summer!
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Identity Theft, Inc. My new book!
Hey, everyone, hope you've all had a great summer! I've been busy preparing for the release of my new book, "Identity Theft, Inc." It's available on Amazon now, and you will love the stories in it how I helped rip off casinos for big-time cash through identity theft. And there's a helluva lot more than casino rip-offs in this book! More about it soon.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
How a Simple Fart ruined a Million-Dollar Scam! You Gotta Love This!
THE POWER OF A FART
Can a fart spoil a million-dollar scam? Just ask Mumbles and Wheels, two elderly casino grifters who’d been grinding it out for fifty years in Vegas’s dingy downtown gambling joints before discovering the power of a fart. Mumbles had lost his voice to throat cancer and Wheels his legs to shrapnel in the Great War supposed to end all wars. But this did not hinder their old-age ingenuity. They came up with the greatest dice-switching scam in the history of craps, a perfect plan with each minutia examined the way the allies must have studied coordinates for Operation Overlord before their D-Day landing on Omaha Beach. At the precise moment, with all the diversions and distractions in place, the legitimate dice were switched out of play and replaced by their “tumblers.” But one distraction they didn’t count on during Mumbles’ first fateful throw of their crooked dice, on which they’d bet their entire bankroll, was that Wheels would blow a silent but deadly fart from his wheelchair at the crucial moment of release. Mumbles, overcome by the smell, threw the crooked dice too hard and they skidded over the table’s wall and out of play on the floor beyond. Amazingly enough, the dice retrieved by a craps shooter at the opposite end of the table from the two old-timers were not the ones Mumbles had tossed but his own crooked dice that worked on an entirely different principle from those of Mumbles and Wheels. He, too, was a professional dice-switcher and had capitalized on Mumbles’ errant throw to sneak his own crooked cubes into the game. Unfortunately for Mumbles and Wheels they did not notice this, and when Mumbles rolled the other guy’s crooked dice, expecting a seven, they came up “snake-eyes,” causing them to crap out and lose their entire bankroll on that very first roll of their scam. All because of a fart. Had Wheels been able to restrain himself they probably would have become millionaires instead of going to the grave broke.
Can a fart spoil a million-dollar scam? Just ask Mumbles and Wheels, two elderly casino grifters who’d been grinding it out for fifty years in Vegas’s dingy downtown gambling joints before discovering the power of a fart. Mumbles had lost his voice to throat cancer and Wheels his legs to shrapnel in the Great War supposed to end all wars. But this did not hinder their old-age ingenuity. They came up with the greatest dice-switching scam in the history of craps, a perfect plan with each minutia examined the way the allies must have studied coordinates for Operation Overlord before their D-Day landing on Omaha Beach. At the precise moment, with all the diversions and distractions in place, the legitimate dice were switched out of play and replaced by their “tumblers.” But one distraction they didn’t count on during Mumbles’ first fateful throw of their crooked dice, on which they’d bet their entire bankroll, was that Wheels would blow a silent but deadly fart from his wheelchair at the crucial moment of release. Mumbles, overcome by the smell, threw the crooked dice too hard and they skidded over the table’s wall and out of play on the floor beyond. Amazingly enough, the dice retrieved by a craps shooter at the opposite end of the table from the two old-timers were not the ones Mumbles had tossed but his own crooked dice that worked on an entirely different principle from those of Mumbles and Wheels. He, too, was a professional dice-switcher and had capitalized on Mumbles’ errant throw to sneak his own crooked cubes into the game. Unfortunately for Mumbles and Wheels they did not notice this, and when Mumbles rolled the other guy’s crooked dice, expecting a seven, they came up “snake-eyes,” causing them to crap out and lose their entire bankroll on that very first roll of their scam. All because of a fart. Had Wheels been able to restrain himself they probably would have become millionaires instead of going to the grave broke.
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