So Are Casinos Harder to Cheat These Days? Read This and....

...then ask me! Article: Casinos Tap Intelligence Networks to Catch Cheaters The man at the poker table had a ball cap pulled down almost to his nose, but his glance up at a television screen revealed a familiar face to Mohegan Sun's surveillance cameras: A photograph of the known card cheater had been sent by bulletin to casinos around the country. Within hours, the bettor was arrested, accused of marking cards with invisible ink. "The officer who identified him, basically she had a `Holy crap!' moment," said Jay Lindroos, the casino's surveillance director. "She saw the face and said, `I recognize that guy!'" Casinos from the U.S. to Australia use their own intelligence network to warn one another about cheaters. As table games spread across the Northeast, resorts are using it more than ever to stay ahead of suspect players - professional thieves and card counters - who can easily hit multiple casinos in the span of a few days. Mohegan Sun, one of the world's largest casinos, began sharing intelligence a decade ago with its giant, next-door rival in southeastern Connecticut, the Foxwoods Resort Casino. Although it was once less common for casinos to talk with competitors, the online network has evolved through mutual self-interest. "If something happens at Foxwoods at 1 o'clock, we'll be aware of it no later than 2, 2:30," said Joseph Lavin, director of public safety for the Mohegan Tribe, which owns and operates the casino. "It won't take more than a day or so before that information goes to Atlantic City, goes to Pennsylvania, goes out to upstate New York." The element of luck makes it impossible to know exactly how much revenue is lost to cheaters, but 100 percent casino surveillance coverage is a security standard for a U.S. industry that generates tens of billions of dollars annually. Workers at Mohegan Sun monitor feeds from roughly 4,000 cameras, scrutinizing the dealers as closely as they do the players. On a given day, they could be on the lookout for as many as hundreds of faces, some pointed out by other casinos, others by law enforcement agencies seeking criminals who might be trying to launder money. If a camera picks up somebody who's been flagged for possible cheating, security officials said they'll watch the person play before taking any action. The man arrested Sept. 15, Bruce Koloshi, 54, was the subject of a security bulletin issued two weeks earlier by officials in Louisiana. He had cheating convictions in Iowa and Nevada and was facing charges in Louisiana that he marked cards last month at the L'Auberge Casino in Baton Rouge. After the surveillance officer spotted him, Koloshi was seen moving his hands away from the Mississippi Stud poker table, allegedly for the marking substance, and cameras detected the ink that wasn't visible to the naked eye. Koloshi wore special contact lenses to see the ink, authorities said. He was arrested and charged with cheating, conspiracy to commit larceny and being a fugitive from justice. His bond was set at $300,000. When he was questioned in Louisiana, he surrendered $3,300 in winnings though authorities did not have enough evidence to charge him at the time, according to Capt. Doug Cain, a spokesman for Louisiana State Police. Mohegan Sun officials said Koloshi was arrested at their casino before winning a significant amount. A person who answered the phone at Koloshi's home in Summit, N.J., declined to speak with a reporter. His defense attorney was not available for comment. The warning about Koloshi was relayed by the Division of Gaming Enforcement in Delaware, where table games were introduced in 2010. The division's director, Daniel Kelly, said information sharing has increased as Northeastern states have legalized more types of gambling. It also has become more important, he said, because cheaters have so many potential targets in a small geographic area. "Within an hour, they can be in three or four different states," Kelly said. High-level casino cheats are considered rare, but Mohegan Sun officials say they frequently see card counters and other "advantage players," people who are not breaking the law but have skills that bend the odds in their favor. Lavin said card-counting techniques were glamorized by the story of a group of MIT students who scored big wins at casinos, including his, in the 1990s. One tell-tale sign for surveillance workers is gamblers placing higher bets than might be expected with the hands they're dealt. When card counters are discovered, Lindroos says, the casino will restrict their play by keeping them to betting the minimum or suggest they try a different game. "The professionals, as soon as they see somebody walking over toward them, they'll say, `OK, I'm out of here,'" Lindroos said. Well, now that you read it, my answer is NO. Don't forget: you only read about the cheats who get caught!

The gaff?

Say it went something like this:

A Crown Casino VIP Host explained to upper management that a high roller client has some superstitions about the shuffle process because the cards were shuffled in a different room ahead of time. The player requested that someone they trust (the VIP Host) be allowed access into the shuffle room to verify that everything is on the up and up. Not wanting to deny this big money player his sense of security, rules were bent to accommodate the request.

This allowed the VIP Host to either record video from inside the shuffle room or somehow obtain recordings from the surveillance system. The specific shuffle machine referred to was the Shufflemaster Deck Checker pictured at left.

If you look at it, you can see the Ace of clubs right on top of the pile. I’m not familiar with the specifics of the machine, but I believe that once a set of cards is verified to all be present (up to 8 decks) a serial number is assigned to that shuffled set of cards. That number and the order of the cards were then passed on to the player and he would play in the high limit room.

All he’d have to do then is wait for that set of cards to show up or, if the casino wanted to be really generous, he could fall back on the superstitious act established earlier and say he’d like to pick the set of cards that felt lucky.

Apparently, the high limit room might have some of these pre-shuffled sets of cards locked in boxes just waiting to be used. A very knowledgeable surveillance expert pointed out to me that these shuffle rooms are ridiculous and should not be used by casinos. All of these pre-shuffles should be done inside the gaming pits where the games are being dealt and played.

Still Another Possible Explanation for Crown Casino Scam!

Now I am not obsessed with it! But this one I just heard might be it! It is certainly plausible. A high casino surveillance source told me he had heard that the Crown Casino video that was viewed by an “unauthorized” person was video from the pre-shuffle room. Supposedly the Crown used a pre-shuffle room and a deck counter that verifies all of the cards are present in a shoe of up to 8 decks. It does its thing and spits the cards out one by one and face up. If you record that video and make a note of the serial number for that shoe, you would then have all the information you need to make over $30 million. Well, this is by far the best explanation I have yet heard!!

Listen to My Usenix 2013 Presentation!

As I posted a few weeks ago, I was an invited speaker at the 2013 Usenix Security Symposium in Washington D.C. My talk, which dealt with many facets of high-tech and low-tech casino cheating, seemed to go over quite well with the attendees, mostly very high-level computer and Internet systems security people. Listen to it here.

Could Angel-Eye Surveillance Technology Explain What Happened in $33 Million Crown Casino Scam?

In my previous post about this huge casino scam that took place in Australia's Crown Casino, I wrote about my doubts about the whole thing. I presented the question: How can cheats intercepting video transmissions in the present use that info to gain an advantage. I stressed that what you need for a cheating-edge is information about the order of cards yet undealt, with enough time for the cheaters to process that information and turn it into winning bets. Well, one writer to me suggested that with Angel Eye technology in use in casinos, this could actually happen. Angel Eye is a tiny video scanner that casinos actually embed inside card shoes to film the cards as they come out of the shoe. So in theory, if the cheats can get this info before they have to bet, they can win with this future knowledge. But I still have problems with this explanation for the scam. Firstly, all bets have to be made on the baccarat table BEFORE the cards are dealt, which would mean the cheats would need to know the value of three cards underneath the first to be dealt before it is dealt. Knowledge of the top card alone would help but would not be sufficient to beat a casino out of $33 Million. Second, can the Angel Eye scanner film 4 cards one-on-top-of-the-other simultaneously? Truly, I don't know, but I don't think so. Thirdly, if any of this is possible, wouldn't the dealers have to be involved? Any mabye supervisors as well? I think the deal of the game would have to be vastly altered to make any of this even conceivalbe. And lastly, if this supposedly happened in blackjack (it was never release on which game this scam supposedly took place), the cheats would need information deeper down in the card shoe to make it work, with the exception of knowing that one of the first few cards off the shoe is an ace. All in all, I am still quite skeptical about this whole thing.

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!