What Really Went on at the Crown Casino in Australia?

Everyone has heard about it by now. A few months back, someone supposedly hacked into the casino's video surveillance cameras and used them to obtain information to cheat the Crown Casino out of $33 million. Well, this all sounds great and might be reminiscent of certain exciting action films like the "Ocean" series, but there is definitely something wrong here. I mean, stop and think about this. Okay, let's say that someone really did hack into the surveillance cameras. Now what? What do you see by hacking surveillance cameras? As far as I know, only things that are happening in the present or in the past. Current hands or hands already dealt. Nothing...ABSOLUTELY nothing concerning future hands and future outcomes. So what's the purpose of hacking into surveillance cameras in a casino? Where's the scam? So, maybe the Crown Casino has laid down a massive bullshit story. Maybe they don't want anyone to know what really happened and how the $33 million disappeared from the casino's coffers. Could this be a big coverup from a massive employee theft? It's surely a possibility. One thing I do know is that hacking surveillance cameras serves absolutely no purpose to cheaters. Why? Because what they would see has nothing to do with FUTURE outcomes. What's the difference between seeing the hands played out live or seeing them played out on video tape? There is none.

My Invited Talk at the 2013 Usenix Security Symposium--A Great Experience!

I spoke at the 2013 USENIX security symposiun on August 16 in Washington D.C. What is USENIX? As I found out, it is probably the most important Advanced Computing Systems Association in the world. It sponsors several conferences and workshops each year, most notably the USENIX Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI), the USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI), the USENIX Annual Technical Conference, the USENIX Security Symposium, the USENIX Conference on File and Storage Technologies (FAST), and with SAGE, the Large Installation System Administration Conference (LISA). So what does USENIX have to do with me? Well, really nothing, but surprisingly I received an invitation to speak at this year's USENIX security symposium. And what an experience it was! Going in, I thought the association was a minor one and that whatever attendees listened to my talk would be thoroughly uninterested. In fact, I didn't think anybody would show up at my presentation while another one more germain to comoputer and systems security was taking place. I was wrong on all fronts. The first thing that threw me for a loop was the sheer upper echelon quality of both the speakers and the attendees. I mean we are not talking about a roomfull of common computer geeks. We are talking about some serious intelligent and insightful people. The first session I stumbled upon was a talk given by a senior program manager for Windows Core Security Microsoft. The next was given by a former chief technologist of the Federal Trade Commission. Then there were several high-ups from Google, Google Chrome, Bloomberg, and--now get this--the current senior director for cybersecurity at the White House! So what the hell was Richard Marcus, a little ex-casino cheat doing there? True, I have spoken at several major casino industry conferences in three different languages and in front of a thousand people, but this, for the first time in my post-cheating life, was not in my bailiwick, and after watching these guys speak with their razor-sharp PowerPoint presentations, I realized that I was gonna be in for a rough one trying to interest these same guys in my presentation, which was a combination of video demonstrations and verbal imput covering some high and low-tech clashing between casinos and casino cheats. I really was a bit nervous. To quell my nervousness, I began with a few jokes about how out of place I was, I even said, "you know, I think I got off the bus at the wrong Washington. I was supposed to get off in Washington State, not Washington D.C. Guess what, these guys do have a sense of humor! They went for it! And I followed up with a few more jokes and then eased into the NBC Today Show video of me demonstrating my world class Savannah cheat-move to the show's then-host Meredith Vieira. I explained the move in detail, and they seemed to love the David vs Goliath aspect of it all. I hadn't expected this high brain-powered grouop to be taken in by such a KISS (keep it simple stupid) casino cheat move, but they were. Next I showed a sexy 6-minute video of RFID technology in casino chips to prevent pastposting and other forms of cheating, and then I demonstrated how I bypassed that. They liked that too. I spoke about the huge online poker scams at UltimateBet and Absolute Poker, and I spoke about some of the supposed hacking that went on in the Crown Casino in Australia to the tune of more than $30 million, which, by the way, I don't believe happened the way the Crown is saying it happened. So by now all these cyber and cryptic geniuses listening to me were asleep, right? Wrong! Their eyes were glued to mine from their seats! In short, they seemed to like everything during my hour-long presentation, and I really got into doing it. Maybe they were just ready to see something different. Every other speaker during the 3-day symposium remained glued to the podium focused on the PowerPoint displays on the big screen. I, however, never stood still. I walked around the large room talking, spending much of the time in the back or in the center between aisles, really interacting with the crowd who wanted to be interacted with. Now, I am not knocking the stoic and stationary integralness of this type of presentation; I know it gets the job done on a high-level conference of this nature. I was only different, and I knew I had to be in order to avoid getting yanked right out of the room. I finished up, received my applause, and was ready to leave when a dozen or so attendees approached me with questions or comments. The questions were what you'd expect from this group: intelligent and sharply keened-in to their subjects. The comments, however, surprised me. One guy said," I've never been to a casino in my life, but your talk was the best I heard during this entire symposium." Well, that surely made me feel good. Then another guy, albeit quite young, came up to me and said, "Mr. Marcus, can I have your autograph?" All in all, a great experience!

Will Hacking Casino Security Cameras Become the New Casino-Cheat Fad?

You have all heard by now how the Crown casino in Australia was beat a few months back for some $33 Million by a crafty cheat who partnered up with someone who gained unauthorized access to the casino's surveillance system and used it to pass on information concerning the order of the cards being dealt from the card shoe.

This event has certainly shaken up the casino industry worldwide and injected a fair share of paranoia into casino company`s heads that another remake of the "Oceans" films is going to be shot for real in their casinos. It happened because an unauthorised person was given remote access to the casino's surveillance systems and was able to relay information about the cards in play to the gambler.

But how real is this threat?

Well, despite the fact that it is relatively easy to intercept sensitive CCTV signals from casinos that don't adhere to strict precautions, I do not believe that this will become a trend like other high-tech cheating methods in the past using microcameras and minicomputers. To my knowledge, a scam quite like this one has not occurred before, and the chances of it occurring again are small, unless, of course, another casino somewhere allows security practices to be breached.

In the end, it's all about safeguards to protect your systems. The problem is that human error safeguarding equipment can not be saved by the equipment itself. By having your casino follow simple procedures such as separate videocamera and workstation networks, secured clients, and patchable Internet access, you should be able to avoid becoming the next movie set for all the high-tech casino cheats who want to become the glitter capital's new stars.

Casinos worldwide rushing to ban Google Glass for fear of its use as casino-cheating device.

Casinos in the United States are forbidding gamblers from wearing Google Glass, the tiny spectacles-mounted device capable of shooting photos, filming video and surfing the internet. Regulators say the gadgets could be used to cheat at card games.

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement issued a directive on Monday ordering Atlantic City's 12 casinos to bar casino patrons from using the device. Similar bans are already in place at casinos in Las Vegas and Ohio, among other places.

"If these eyeglasses were worn during a poker game, they could be used to broadcast a patron's hand to a confederate or otherwise be used in a collusive manner," David Rebuck, the division's director wrote in a memo to the casinos. That type of use would constitute a crime in New Jersey. But it would be difficult to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the glasses were actually being used to cheat, Rebuck wrote. For that and other reasons, he decided to ban the glasses on the casino floor and anywhere else gambling is taking place.

"Even if the glasses had not been used for cheating ... their presence at a gaming table would lead to the perception that something untoward could be occurring, thereby undermining public confidence in the integrity of gaming," Rebuck wrote in the directive.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Google said: "We are thinking very carefully about how we design Glass because new technology always raises new issues."
In Las Vegas, Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts have directed security workers to ask patrons to remove the devices before beginning to gamble.

My take: Well, casinos could just watch the behavior of people wearing the Google Glass instead of forcing them to remove them, but I guess just banning them makes it a whole lot easier for them.

Russ Hamilton UltimateBet Online Poker Mega Cheat Scam Audio Tape!!!

An audio tape secretly recorded by disgraced UltimateBet cheater Russ Hamilton was released on Friday by Hamilton’s former computer expert, exposing the roles played by Hamilton, Greg Pierson and others in the insider cheating at the site, which was at one time the third-largest US-facing online poker room.

“Hamilton, Pierson and the attorneys also discussed ways to not issue refunds to some of the players, if reasons could be found to not pay them.”

The long-term cheating at UltimateBet, which was done through special software that allowed Hamilton and others to view the hole cards of opponents at the UB tables, occurred from 2003-07. Hamilton was later named by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission as the sole perpetrator of the cheating, for which UltimateBet later refunded more than $20 million to cheated players.

The release of a three-hour recording, secretly made in 2008 by Hamilton himself, features an extended conversation between Hamilton, UB founder and current iovation CEO Greg Pierson, and two UltimateBet attorneys, Daniel Friedberg and Sanford “Sandy” Millar. The men discuss both the specifics of the cheating and proposed ways for covering it up, refunding some affected players, and otherwise minimizing the impact of the cheating. Hamilton, Pierson and the attorneys also discussed ways to not issue refunds to some of the players, if reasons could be found to not pay them.

The recording’s apparent genesis, from the early 2008 timespan when the scope and nature of the cheating became apparent to independent investigators and players, reflects the realization by UB execs that simply ignoring complaints about the cheating was no longer an option.

“Among those specifically mentioned on the tape as being cheated, whether by name or by their UB screen names, were Prahlad “Mahatma” Friedman, Mike Matusow, Mike “trambopoline” Fosco and Robert Williamson III.”

In addition to Hamilton admitting responsibility for the majority of the cheating, the tape also confirms a handful of players previously reported to be among the victims of the long-term theft, which occurred largely at UB’s high-stakes cash-game tables. Among those specifically mentioned on the tape as being cheated, whether by name or by their UB screen names, were Prahlad “Mahatma” Friedman, Mike Matusow, Mike “trambopoline” Fosco and Robert Williamson III.

At one point, Hamilton admitted even paying taxes on money that he stole from other players and later withdrew from the site.

The recording was released as part of a large data dump by Travis Makar, who for years worked for Hamilton as his personal computer expert. Much of the other data published by Makar has previously been released,including screen grabs of account information for various UB insiders and a collection of photos showing some of the cheating accounts used by Hamilton and a computer rig assembled by Makar to allow Hamilton to evade UltimateBet’s and iovation’s own fraud-prevention software.

Makar, in a private e-mail to this reporter, cited the reemergence of iovation in connection with Nevada’s new online-poker industry as one of his motivations for the latest data release. Iovation has contracted, through CAMS/Verifi, to provide player-identification services to Ultimate Poker. Ultimate Poker (unrelated to UltimateBet), is the online site launched by Fertitta Interactive last week, the first fully legal, Nevada-based online poker site.

My take: Russ Hamilton, the accused mastermind of this humongus online poker cheat scam, releasing a self-incriminating audio tape??? I don't get it. What did he, make some kind of deal or something to avoid any possible future prosecutions? I highly doubt his being prosecuted was possible anyway. If anyone can enlighten me on this, please do!

Are Ohio Casinos Overreacting a bit to Casino Cheating?

Read this, and you be the judge:

Source:  cardplayer.com

Five people who have been accused of cheating at the new casino in Cincinnati, Ohio could face up to two years in prison, according to startling reporting from the Associated Press.

In a move to further condemn alleged casino cheats, the AP stated that “state officials say cheaters not only steal from the house, but also Ohio’s counties, cities and schools because the state collects 33 percent in gross revenue taxes from the casinos.” You got that? Ohio thinks you are screwing over kids by breaking the rules at blackjack.

The cheating apparently was such a mammoth crime in Ohio that a news conference was held to go over the case. A prosecutor used the forum to called the defendants “idiotic.”

Ohio’s four new casinos — in addition to a property in Cincinnati there are also carpet joints in Toldeo, Cleveland and Columbus — were designed to help the state’s economy — i.e. make it a better place to live — but the Buckeye State thinks boosting its prison population also makes it a more welcoming place. Ohio is also home to the horrors for-profit cages

According to the AP, prosecutors allege that the individuals either added or removed chips from their bets after the outcome of the game was apparent. Clearly wrong, but worthy of such a reaction? The AP story was picked up by news outlets around the nation.

While two years and a $5,000 fine are the maximum penalties, probation is also possible.

My take: "screwing over kids by cheating at casino blackjack??? Give me a break!!

Did Phil Ivey´s Foxy Cheat Partner Engineer their Edge-Sorting Baccarat Scam?

Note the difference

Now that all the juicy details are in, it may be so, but I still don't think so. Chung Yin Sun, the beautiful Asian baccarat cheat partner that Ivey escorted into London's Crockfords casino, has fallen under suspicion as being the actual leader of baccarat-cheat duo. This is primarily because she has a history of being denied payments by UK casinos after gambling wins, and was seen holding a suspicious baccarat chart during the play where they won $12 million.

The scam centered around a new advantage-play  technique called edge-sorting. This can occur in many different forms, but the main gig is that the back-designs of the playing cards are assymmetrical, although in tiny detail but enough for the sharpest baccarat-cheat teams to turn a huge advantage to their side.  Casino cheats spotting the flawed cards and then using them to their advantage are not guilty of cheating, only performing an advantage play. However, when the advantage players arrange for the defective cards to either get into play or stay in play once on the table, then we are talking about pre-meditated casino cheating, which overwhelmingly seems to be the case with Phil Ivey and Chung Yin sun, who appears to be of Korean descent.

I personally think Ivey put it all together, but it is very possible that the foxy Oriental beauty had the flawed-card connection. In either case, you can bet your last baccarat chip, or any chip for that matter, that the dynamic baccarat cheat duo are not gonna profit beyond some negative publicity and maybe even some widespread banning from certain if not all UK casinos.   

Who Really is Phil Ivey? Poker Phenom, Casino Cheat...or Both?

Hatching Poker Cheat Scam? 

I, for one, think it's time to take a good look at Phil Ivey, and try to answer these questions. First of all, I want to remind everyone how I tried to expose the vast cheating that goes on in the professional poker world, especially in tournament play including the World Series of Poker. I wrote about this extensively in my   2006 book "Dirty Poker," and was severely criticized for it. In the book I wrote about huge and powerful poker tournament syndicates that were controlled by Men Nguyen and other highly visible and successful poker pros.

Which leads us to two questions: 1) Was or Is Phil Ivey a leader or member of one of these tournament syndicates that specialize in touornament collusion play, chip-dumping, slow-playing, chip-passing and other dirty tactics to bully their ways to final tables? And 2: Did Phil Ivey actually plan and design the huge baccarat cheat coup that he carried out at Crockfords Casino in London?

Let's start with  the second question. It is highly probable in my mind that Ivey saw a huge chance to capitalize on his celebrity to take this free shot at Crockfords without any risk of actually getting busted or charged with a crime (and to boot the UK goes very light on even convicted casino cheats). He also figured that even if Crockfords was suspicious after the cheating play went down, they would have a tough time trying to renege payment to Phil Ivey. On that point he clearly miscalculated the Brits' hatred of being conned.

So what could've happened? How did the defective cards make their way into Crockfords? Did Ivey approach someone who knew someone working for the card-supplier or manufacturer? Did someone working there know someone who knew Ivey? All this is tough to speculate, but I can tell you this: I get hundreds of emails each year from people who want to get me involved in lots of poker cheat and casino cheat scams, and some of them are so good they're even tempting! So Ivey probably found this irresistible if it was indeed brought to him by someone else.

However, I gotta believe that Ivey knew some key people with connections to the card-supplier (probably someone who used defective cards from the same company before in other casino scams) and laid it all down himself.

Now, back to question 1. Was Phil Ivey involved in active poker cheating? Now, I have absolutely nothing against Phil Ivey the way I do against Daniel Negreanu, but I have to say that it is highly likely that Ivey, if cheating casinos, was also cheating poker tournaments...and then who knows what happened in some of his legendary high-stakes poker games where he took millions off billionaires? And then there is his participation in High Stakes Poker and other TV high stakes poker-game shows. I always believed that these shows were bullshit and nothing more than a con to get the participating stars more money and publicity, that all the huge pots were fake and that all monies won and lost were returned to the players at the end.

And remember that huge huge hundred-million dollar freeze-out that Ivey and seven other players were supposed to play under some dome in Las Vegas back in 2006? I can't remember the name of it, but I do remember clearly that soon after I badmouthed it, it fell apart and nevre came off.

So, final thought...Phil Ivey may be almost as vile as   Russ Hamilton, the ex WSOP champ who designed and carried out the Ultimate Bet online poker cheating scam. I am sure we will be hearing a lot more about Phil Ivey cheating at poker and cheating at casinos from people other than me!

Poker Star Phil Ivey Guilty of Massive Casino Cheat Scam if...

...what Crockfords casino in London says is true, and I think it is.

 Phil Ivey is now suing Crockfords to force them to pay him the $12 million he won playing baccarat with a superhot foxy companion. Of course he had to sue. If he didn´t, it would almost be an admission of guilt.  

Crockfords says that the cards used in the baccarat game were defective and that their values could be read from flaws on the backs of the cards when they were face-down...and, more importantly, Ivey and his pretty lady companion knew it.

 According to Crockfords, Ivey entered the casino, quickly got stuck for 800 hundred grand, then went on a multiple-play $13 million winning streak over a period of two days. They became suspicious when Ivey made some peculiar requests during his play. The first thing that bugged them (and it would bug me too) is Ivey's asking that the dealers hold the cards on the felt, in some cases lifting them in the air, before he made his bets. That would correspond with Ivey able to read the card markings on the backs of the cards. If the dealers dealt the game normally, it would not have mattered if the cards were defected or marked as the dealers hands and the card shoe would have protected them until well after Ivey and his gal-pal made their bets.

 The second self-incriminating action by Ivey was his insistence that the casino keep re-using the same baccarat cards after each shuffle. Casinos all across the world now trash the six or eight decks used in a baccarat shoe after every shoe to protect themselves against the now epidemic baccarat false-shuffling cheat scams as well as other baccarat scams. Ivey's insistence that the casino re-use cards is more evidence that these cards were marked by factory defect.

 So, you may wonder, why would Phil Ivey, international poker star with rock star status, and extremely wealthy, want to involve himself in a casino cheat scam such as this? Well, my answer to this would simply be: Why would Donald Trump want to build another building or casino? Get it? There never is enough money in the world for these guys.

 I have been asked how Ivey would have gotten in contact with someone supplying defective cards to the casino. Did someone contact him? Or did Phil Ivey himself design and orchestrate this huge casino cheat scam? Well, that one I cannot answer; I simply don't know, but the possibilities are endless. The only things I am sure about is that Phil Ivey knew those cards were defective, thus effectively marked, and Crockfords casino personnel did not know this. I am convinced that no one working for the casino was involved. 

Anything that convinces me of Ivey's guilt is that Crockfords simply refused to pay Ivey's winnings, only cashing out his original gambling stake. i mean, the last thing any casino in the world wants, let alone a posh British Londonian gaming club, is to be branded a casino that does not pay its big winners. So they really have to have the goods on Ivey, a hugely popular poker star who will surely have tons of sympathy from the majority of people reading about this story.

 So what will become of all this? It will simply go away. Ivey will either drop his lawsuit, or more probably the UK courts will drop it for him. No way is Ivey getting paid, and I'm pretty certain that Phil Ivey is now a major casino cheat... One more thing: I think I know who his lovely casino-cheating sidekick is; I once worked with her mother if I am right! And as I understand it, she has already been involved in two other incidents where high-rolling winning gamblers were refused payment in London casinos.

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.