Top Three Worldwide Casino and Poker Cheating Scandals
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Poker rooms and casinos handle enormous quantities of cash. Whenever there’s a lot of money, someone always wants to acquire it. Casinos throughout the globe devote a great deal of time, money, and effort to security. They normally manage to keep everything safe and secure. Still, occasionally events occur that the casino security staff could not have anticipated. Here are the Top Three Worldwide Casino and Poker Cheating Scandals.
This article will examine some of the most egregious casino and poker room cheating scandals in recent years.
1. Fake Chips at the Borgata Winter Open
Typically, security scandals involve casino games, which makes the Borgata tale all the more intriguing. A poker player called Christian Lusardi was arrested in 2014 for inserting fraudulent chips into the Borgata Winter Open.
According to sources, Lusardi utilized the counterfeit chips to increase his stack in the first tournament of the festival, which had a prize pool of $372,000 for the winner.
Unsurprisingly, he entered the event’s second day with the most chips.
However, Lusardi’s deception was brief. While the event was still in progress, tournament authorities promptly spotted the overabundance of chips and initiated an investigation.
In complete panic, Lusardi attempted to dispose of the counterfeits by flushing them down the toilet. The pipes are clogged naturally, and the source was quickly tracked back to Lusardi’s room.
In the pipes, investigators discovered $2.7 million worth of chips. The competition had to be halted due to 5,000-denomination counterfeit chips. Lusardi was detained at a neighboring hotel, admitting to entering $800,000 worth of counterfeit chips into the event.
Lusardi was then charged with a different crime and sentenced to five years. It seems he’ll never face the trial for the Borgata affair.
2. An Inside Scheme That Cost Bellagio Over $1 million
Bellagio is one of the most famous casinos in Las Vegas and is adored by all types of players, from low-stakes casuals to high-stakes professionals.
Despite employing the greatest security professionals in the region, the venue fell prey to an elaborate scam in 2016 despite these precautions.
Marc William Branco, a craps dealer, and two friends perpetrated this scam.
The fraud itself was fairly elementary. The accomplices of Branco would approach their friend’s table and announce high-stakes (hop) wagers on specific roll combinations.
However, they did so in a way that made it impossible to determine their wager. They would murmur something that sounded like a wager on hops.
After the dice roll, Branco would honor their wager regardless of the numbers rolled.
It continued to occur for over two years.
The casino eventually caught on after the duo defrauded them of more than a million dollars by predicting correctly 76 times over this period. The probability of this occurring is 452 billion to one, so alarm bells sounded.
They were each sentenced to at least four years in prison and ordered to make reparations to the casino totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars.
If they had known how to deal with their emotions, it’s possible that their scam would have never been exposed.
3. Poker Cheating Scandal Involving Mike Postle
In 2018 and 2019, one of the largest security crises to shake the poker world occurred at Stones Gambling Hall, calling into question the use of RFID cards and live streaming.
Mike Postle, who won game after game, pulled in large pots and made fantastic plays. It left other players and observers scratching their heads and was the central figure in this story.
The Stones Gambling Hall’s games were live-streamed on YouTube and other media outlets, letting people see the action as it transpired.
To live broadcast the games, the organizers employed RFID-enabled cards to detect players’ hole cards and display them to the audience.
As is typical in poker, the Stones Gambling Hall played host to many players, both regulars and visitors, with various outcomes.
Only Postle continued to win, with almost no losing sessions.
At first, some people felt he was simply on a hot streak. In contrast, others speculated that the poker world had discovered yet another exceptional player.
As time passed, however, it became increasingly apparent that something nefarious was occurring behind the scenes. Eventually, Veronica Brill, who had provided commentary for the live broadcast and participated in games herself, accused Mike Postle of cheating in public.
She accused him of having access to RFID data, which would allow him to see the whole cards of other players and explain his great performance. What followed could be considered one of the greatest disputes in the contemporary history of poker.
Postle naturally disputed the accusations, and there was no substantial evidence to support them.
His performance was significantly better than expected, and his manner at the tables was suspect. He would frequently look down at his hands as if attempting to read his phone.
The poker community had great fun with the latter, speculating that he probably just liked looking at his crotch. The case was brought to court, but charges were ultimately dropped. Although most participants were certain that cheating was occurring, no one could locate actual proof.
All the evidence was circumstantial, at least as far as the courts were concerned.
Postle appeared to have gotten away with it. Still, he then decided to bring defamation against everybody who had said anything negative about him, including some of the initial defendants, seeking millions in damages.
These lawsuits were dismissed as frivolous, but Veronica Brill and Todd Witteles (another player Postle pursued) sued again, seeking reimbursement for their legal bills.
Postle appeared to be on the brink of financial devastation and the approach of involuntary bankruptcy since his debt totaled over $50,000. He may have owed money to his legal team (who had also abandoned him in the process).
In December 2021, a secret deal was reached, ending the entire legal process of the casino and poker cheating scandals.
