Reporting Casino Cheaters
Catching Online Cheaters
Scams in the online casino world can develop with surprising speed. Many sites experience regular incidents of casino cheaters scamming people, mostly in the forms of collusion and bot play. One of the main casino cheaters is a bogus poker site operator, who uses software and casino bonuses to scam unsuspecting players.
There have been cases where websites have fixed their random number generator, the pre-programmed mechanism that ensures fair play among an online casino's slot machines, blackjack deals and rolls of the dice, manipulating it to payoff less than that casino's advertised slot payout rate, and of course to not deal decks of cards randomly, perhaps loading decks with small cards that give the online casino the advantage.
Players cheating online is less prevalent than in brick and mortar casinos, but it does happen. This occurs mainly in the form of poker cheats, where players use sophisticated programs, called bots, to keep tabs on the profiles of different players. Many of the larger online poker houses can detect bot activity, and rogue players are immediately banned and their accounts frozen. For this reason it's best to play only in well-established online poker rooms.
Tokwiro Enterprises, the parent company of UltimateBet, recently implemented a range of security measures in response to a 2008 cheating scandal. These measures include a complete corporate reorganization, new policies, and the development of a high-tech Security Center that uses statistical analysis and real-time monitoring to catch cheating, including collusion, chip dumping, bots and other illicit activities.
How to avoid Casino Cheaters
It's not always easy to tell if an online casino is reputable, but there are certain things you can look for. If the casino uses Microgaming or Playtech software, you're usually in safe hands, since these vendors are picky about who gets their licenses. The same goes for sites bearing seals from eCOGRA and auditing from PriceWaterhouseCoopers.
Most casinos are legitimate, with completely above-board operations, and if you follow the recommendations made here at Casino Maze, you'll be able to stay away from the ones that are illegitimate.
Offline Poker Cheats
Players can cheat in numerous ways at the casino. Collusion is a popular form of cheating and can be found online as well. The term describes when two or more players agree prior to the game that they're going to attempt to extort money from the opponents by playing as a team.
Here are some methods used by casino cheaters in offline and online casino settings:
- Pastposting: replacing smaller-denomination chips with large ones after a bet is won
- Hand Mucking: palming desirable cards, then swapping them for less desirable ones that the player holds
- Introducing previously marked decks into play: this usually involves the collusion of casino employees
- False deals: the ability to deal the bottom card of the deck, or the second card from the top
- False shuffles and cuts: ability to seemingly mix and cut the cards while keeping certain cards or the entire deck in a desired order
- Electronic aids: illicitly using a computer or related piece of equipment to assist in an otherwise legitimate strategy such as card counting.
Poker cheats come from all walks of life. Often they're the people you'd least suspect of cheating. Many start off as honest, but losing gamblers, then turn to cheating either to recover their losses or just to stay in action. Others are simply thrill-seekers. The smallest group of cheats is made up of employees who have grievances against the gambling establishments they work for.
