button in SafariAre Phone Bans the Answer to Major Poker Cheating Allegations?
Cheating allegations have led one Los Angeles poker room to take a strict stance on electronics at the table, and Station Casinos in Las Vegas is beginning to do the same.
A caller to Bart Hanson's Crush Live Poker YouTube channel claimed multiple cash game players at Hollywood Park, a popular SoCal card room, have been working together to cheat the games.
The accusations have forced the room to implement a ban on all electronics at the table. PokerNews confirmed that a floor person comes by the tables every so often to tell players to remove their phones from the table. Phones, iPads, laptops, and all electronic devices are no longer permitted to be on the table at all during play. No texting while in a hand, no checking Instagram, and if a player needs to access their phone, they must step away from the table.
Red Rock Casino, a Station Casinos resort in the Summerlin area of Las Vegas, also implemented a partial ban on cell phones. Players can't make calls while seated at the table, and phones are completely prohibited while in a hand.
What the Cheaters are Allegedly Doing
"Joe," the caller in the initial video, explained that he's suspected players in certain Las Vegas card rooms of teaming together to cheat the games by using technology to their advantage. He alleges one player had a camera inside their hat that could decipher hole cards being pitched from the dealer and then relays that information to another player.
"Usually this is a two-person team. What would happen is one person would be sitting at the table, usually in Seats 1, 2, 8, or 9, on the edges where they can catch the dealer pitching cards, and they have a camera, and that camera relays it to somewhere off-site, somewhere where someone can view the footage in real-time, see and figure out what cards people are being passed, and then relay it back to the person playing at the table," Joe claims.
South Point in Las Vegas recently implemented a new technique that is common in Europe where dealers slide the cards on the felt instead of the standard pitch, one way to potentially combat the cheating techniques Joe described.
Over in Los Angeles, local pro Peter O'Neill, tweeted a similar cheating scandal that he experienced. The SoCal poker player shared some brief information about what he and others noticed in games at Hollywood Park Casino and Gardens Casino.
The tweet is from July 31, but Hollywood Park has since banned electronics at the table. O'Neill, in response to a comment on his post, said the cheaters go after $5/$10 and lower games, and that they had previously played at Commerce Casino.
O'Neill called into the Crush Live Poker show recently and shared a similar story about players working in teams, always sitting in specific seats. Cheating isn't exclusive to Las Vegas and Los Angeles card rooms. It can and has happened all around the world. So, how should poker rooms react to modern technology making it easier for players to cheat games?
