The Department of Justice detailed the technology allegedly used by NBA stars, organized crime members and their associates to rig high-stakes poker games and cheat victims out of millions of dollars.
A range of sophisticated equipment, including altered shuffling machines, wireless communication, a chip tray analyzer and an X-ray table were allegedly used by the individuals indicted for their roles in the rigged games at various locations in New York City, East Hampton, New York and throughout the U.S., the Justice Department said.
“For years, these individuals allegedly hosted illegal poker games where they used sophisticated technology and enlisted current and former NBA players to cheat people out of millions of dollars,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a statement. “This complex scheme was so far reaching that it included members from four of the organized crime families, and when people refused to pay because they were cheated, these defendants did what organized crime has always done: they used threats, intimidation, and violence.”
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The tools and how they were allegedly used to rig games, according to the DOJ’s indictment:
Altered Shuffling Machines
While they appeared normal, these machines had hidden components that gave the members of this scheme an advantage.
In a typical legitimate poker game, according to the indictment, a dealer uses a shuffling machine to shuffle the cards randomly before dealing them to all the players in a particular order. But in the rigged games, the shuffling machines contained hidden technology allowing them to read all the cards in the deck before dealing them.
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Wireless Communication
Since the cards were always dealt in a particular order to the players, the machines could effectively determine which player would have the winning hand. That information was then allegedly transmitted to someone off-site, who then transmitted that information through a cellphone back to the player at the table. The player who was programmed to win was referred to as the “Quarterback” or “Driver.”
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Chip tray analyzer
The defendants also allegedly used a chip tray analyzer. It looks like an ordinary poker chip tray, which holds the dealer’s chips during a game, but it was modified with hidden cameras, giving it the ability to secretly read all cards.
X-ray Table
The X-ray table could read cards face down on the table. However, the conspirators also allegedly used special contact lenses or eyeglasses that could read pre-marked cards.
All the devices allegedly allowed the cheating team to know which player would win each hand, allowing them to bet accordingly. In turn, the unsuspecting players would lose a significant amount of money, sometimes tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in a single game that was allegedly funneled to organized crime families, according to the indictment.
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