Exposing high-end poker cheating devices
elie.net
elie.net
"Right now there is some scary technology coming out of China that incorporates IR marked cards, concealed cameras and computer analyzers. Combined to create a high-tech card marking system, I must say that this device could do for cheats what silicon did for the cosmetic surgery business. The devices are being marketed as poker analyzers."
"The technology works like this. The long edge of every card in the deck is marked with an invisible IR marking. Each mark identifies an individual card. In collusion with a poker dealer, the special marked deck is swapped into play. The player sits opposite the dealer on the table. He positions a concealed camera on the table (usually disguised as a cell phone). The camera has an IR lens that is used to transmit an image of the edge of the deck of cards to a small computer located in a smart phone (the poker analyzer) in his pocket. The image is transmitted during the period after the dealer has shuffled the cards and the deck is resting in front of the dealer before cards are dealt to the players. The IR snapshot of the cards looks like a barcode. The poker analyzer identifies every card in the order that they will be dealt to the players in less than a second. A computer-generated voice message is sent to the player via a Bluetooth mini earpiece communicating the rankings of all the hands on the table."
And the countermeasures:
"Most surveillance cameras, in their natural state, actually have infrared viewing capabilities. The problem is the picture is not so good, so manufacturers add a cut filter over the CCD chip to block out infrared light. ... A number of major surveillance camera systems provide end users the ability to remotely change the IR status of the camera via the operator’s keyboard. This allows the operator who suspects someone is marking cards at a table to use a PTZ camera assigned to the table to switch to IR mode so the cards can be checked live on the game. If you currently don’t have this feature, speak to your manufacturer."
[1] http://ggbmagazine.com/issue/vol-13-no-2-february-2014/artic...
Some will organize with a group of 5-6 people. They basically come in and collude with a lot of cash to rob the other 4-5 sitting at the table. Once I realized how pervasive cheaters were I stopped playing and hosting games. I was trusted by the cheats and could have worked with them. I didn't think it was worth losing morals over nor the risk. Soon the higher end games started getting straight up robbed at gunpoint.
The story around that is really fun, recounted in this paper: https://www.cs.virginia.edu/~evans/thorp.pdf
Versions of the same device from this century use lasers to get a more accurate read on the ball's location, with one group using the system to net £1m from London's Casinos: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4069629.stm
Thorp was also involved in developing the Blackjack system that was showcased in the film 21 and later ran a hedge fund, details on which were recounted in his interview for this book https://www.amazon.com/Hedge-Fund-Market-Wizards-Winning/dp/.... Very interesting guy.
Although as I recall the EP version used a shoe with toe switches for input and buzzers for haptic feedback, it also used a 6502 so it must have been a later effort either invented in parallel or reinventing Mr. Shannon's work.
This is more for backroom games (which are still lucrative), but get caught cheating in those and you'll regret it quickly.
Otherwise, people don't care that much, as long as the conversations are pretty short. "Hey man, I'll be done in half an hour" wouldn't raise an eyebrow.
The article did mention that some anonymous sources claim to be using these devices in Vegas casinos, so I wonder of there are some corrupt dealers in cahoots with the cheaters.
There is a list of manufacturers and all are different almost like money from different countries we have a PDF of card types we program into the shufflers. We're lucky if we get it working well with genuine cards lol
edit: cards not cars
In one of their most brazen scams, they gathered a crew to swap the card shoe at a casino table. It's amazing how much damage nerves of steel, team work, and a split second distraction can lead to.
This particular scam starts at about 22 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixUvZjIK_Ms
The expert at the end does mention it is likely bribing dealers and camera operators would be the most likely scenario since the payout is large enough to make it affordable to do.
I have to laugh at all the card manipulation half the time the cards warp and bend due to humidity so they are replaced often.
Dealers have so many eyes and cameras on them I can't see anyone trying this unless they were desperate.
Completely, unabashedly unrelated, but I honestly can't remember the last time I saw dieresis in the wild. Is this a regional thing?
That being said, casinos are very strict about not letting you have a phone at BJ tables.
You know, the kind of place where your alcohol is mostly water (or floor cleaner) and clothing is optional for the wait staff.
But I guess that's how good they are at selling the myth of Vegas. They want you to believe it's wild, sexy, out of control, and naughty. In reality, it's all highly regulated, calculated, and completely under control by large corporations.
A few generations back it was different, since if you were cheating you were stealing from organized criminals instead of nameless shareholders. It was their money and they took it personally.
Or where a dealer would collude with players for the right price.
> the kind of place where your alcohol is mostly water
The less reputable places would typically have a vested interest in decreasing your judgment and inhibitions, not in keeping you clear-headed. Remember that many casinos will reward high-rollers with free drinks, among other perks.
I know rooms rotate through decks, but how often?
Not for this device, but in general.
But they don't care if your phone is on the table.
I think this is more to keep the game moving than any concern about cheating.
This isn't about the house-run, house-edged table games you find in the middle of casinos; it's about Texas Hold 'em poker rooms. Most poker rooms I've been to let me keep my phone on the table next to my cards. I doubt that'll be the case now.
Takes quite a bit of practice, though.
I wonder how long this has been around. I would be very interested to hear from anyone who knows how long these have been available/prevalent. My apologies if this is somewhere in the video, I have not been able to watch it yet.
My guess: this device is used to rip off players in backroom games. Marked cards are nothing new. The only novelty here is that the system is hard to detect if you don't know about it. This thing could be completely stealthy though, I suspect that you only have to turn on the infrared LEDs if the environment not lit well. And even that can probably be solved by using a more expensive camera module...
I don't know the inner workings of casinos in the modern day, but back then we had a lot of ways to deal with cheating. I'm sure there were pros that we never noticed, but the people who read how to count cards and decided to try it out were easy to spot and deal with. I remember one time the pit boss telling me over my shoulder "that's enough, bring it in" and I said "I'm trying!" because I actually was. I had dumped most of my tray of chips (not all that much on a $25 table) and it was very obvious we had 2 people at the table working on the rookie dealer.
He pushed me out for my twenty minute break twenty minutes early and when I came back the tray was full and the players were surly. I commented "what happened to all your chips?" and the guy on third base stood up, pointed to the dealer that replaced me, and said "that bitch took it all". Cue security and the table cleared out just about instantly.
A few of the things we could do to change things up on a blackjack table:
- burn extra cards
- change the shuffle
- new deck of cards
- prematurely end a hand
- encourage non-standard play from the other players
- encourage a player to walk away
When I ran into the players I mentioned above, I only knew about burning extra cards. You pick up other ways from other dealers who've been around longer and want you to pull your weight by bringing in better tips.
For roulette, there were just the two ways (changing the ball, stop and start the wheel), but it was pretty rare for me to deal that game, so who knows.
Starts at 3 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH2FAZqScxM
Still, it's discouraged. The casinos would much rather a weekend tourist walk away with a day of winnings than a pro. Tourists tell their friends and inspire them to visit.
Apparantly they did some consulting to the gambling industry afterwards and that is the origin of the diamond-shaped obstacles which add more unpredictability to the ball.
Though given the Real Hustle video posted by another commenter, the same idea still works today, but the calculations involved must be more significantly complex to compensate.
https://www.amazon.com/Eudaemonic-Pie-Thomas-Bass/dp/0595142...
I suspect that most casinos are set up with surveillance designed to catch point source IR LED illumination these days.
I would accept that at a given magnification, every card is unique (including when viewed from the side), and can be uniquely identified.
But without a marked deck, it would need one (probably more than one) run through the deck, to see the value of a card and associate it with an image of the side of the card. Bear in mind you only get to record cards that are shown, so it could potentially take many games to record the full deck, and that's assuming the deck stays consistent.
But even with multiple run-throughs of the deck, I don't think we have the technology to produce that high resolution a camera in a small enough form-factor. Even putting aside expense, the trick here is pre-marked decks, with markings visible only to IR.
Without that, we'd need serious advancements in lenses and sensors before we could have a tool that was discreet enough to pull out at a game.
Depending on what game you are playing, you don't need to mark anywhere near the full deck. In hold'em, you can get a definite edge if you manage to mark two aces.
The primary problem is optics. All optical devices are limited by the quantization of light. No matter how good your camera technology, if there are not enough photons bouncing off a target, you cannot see it accurately. Modern cameras (and even your eyes!) are much closer to the hard limits placed by physics than most people think. In the case of a side of a card in not very well lit indoors, I don't think you can discern enough detail without either a large lens or a long exposure, both of which could be hard to pull off inside a casino.
Even painted on markings, they need a bright IR light to pull this off at a close distance. Similarly, your camera would need a bright light source.
The way I understood the article, the manufacturer assumed the guy was a normal "legitimate" customer. They did not expect the guy to do a teardown of the device and write an exposé.
Read first, virtue signal second.
> Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait.
That aside, you need to have a special marked deck. People have tried something similar with flourescent ink and special glasses. I think professional shuffling devices have some kind of built in blacklight check now for this. IR is a bit better since its harder to detect without a camera. You would still need to have a tub of ink and manually mark the cards though.
You'd basically need to have the dealer in on it, and if that is the case you don't really need the device at all.
A more interesting method from a few decades ago that actually worked was "edge sorting". Because of printing/cutting one could determine certain cards. http://deadspin.com/how-phil-ivey-beat-or-maybe-cheated-a-ca...
I've played all over the US, and while I'm sure there exists a room that bans phones at a cash table, I can't name one.
That's simply not true. I'm not aware of a single cardroom that currently prohibits cellphones - indeed, several casinos have installed USB chargers in their gaming tables for customer use. Using an electronic device during a hand is prohibited, but this is primarily a matter of etiquette to speed up play.
These devices pose no threat to the integrity of games at casino cardrooms. Their surveillance systems are more than capable of detecting an unusual IR emitter. Their dealers are more than capable of preventing deck switches and detecting suspicious card handling. These devices only pose a serious threat to games played in unlicensed venues.
http://www.anteupmagazine.com/news/cell-phones-at-the-poker-... https://www.sitncharge.com/
This isn't true at all. I can't think of one casino, except for one in Amsterdam, where I couldn't have a phone at the table.
http://www.anteupmagazine.com/nevada/news/cell-phones-at-the...
Obviously this device wouldn't work in a casino though, so it's kind of a moot point.
still, you need specially made decks that the scanner can read. no casinos have that
Someone has gone to extreme lengths to build these things and people pay lots of money for them. And yet your first instinct is to declare it useless.
When you can't see the point of something, maybe it is because you are cleverer than all the other fools, or maybe it is because you don't know as much as you think you do. It is very telling when people automatically assume they are the smartest.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Chesterton%27s_fen...
This would never work in a casino/card room. The people who buy this would do so with the intention of scamming their small group/card game. Yes it is silly.
Isn't this sort of overly-long, overly-detailed, yet still totally vague blog post just a clever way to get people to transfer $2000 via Western Union to a stranger?
1) Work hard, become a chief of anti-abuse team at Google.
2) Work harder, publish several papers ranging from self published papers about hacking Heartstone to multi-author papers at conferences like WWW.
3) Create a scam device, describe it in detail.
4) Go present it with you own face and name to the DEFCON.
5) Write a blogpost about the said non-existent device.
Rake in the 2000 USD (which is reeeeally big fat reward for all your effort, risk and credibility) wired to a stranger in China who isn't even identified in the blog... You win a prize.
1/2) Hijack identity of someone reputable
3) Create scam device
4) Film a video that looks like a DEFCON speech. Some simple video editing should fix the face. Voice likely doesn't matter. Start speech by saying "oh this talk is not listed, we changed topic last second"
5) Hack blog and post bogus article
6) Profit
TLDR still not likely