“If there is a digital camera that is aware of the playing cards, there may be at all times some type of underlying menace. Prospects are gonna be primarily on the mercy of the individual organising the machine,” poker participant and card home proprietor Doug Polk beforehand informed WIRED. “In case you’re exhibiting up in a non-public recreation and there is a shuffler, I might say it is best to run for the hills.”
Hacking the Deckmate 2, based on prosecutors, was solely one in all a number of dishonest strategies the mobsters allegedly used, albeit the one which’s described in probably the most element within the indictment. The charging doc additionally claims that they used invisibly marked playing cards, digital poker chip trays, telephones that might secretly learn playing cards’ markings, and even specifically designed glasses and get in touch with lenses.
Whereas the small print of these schemes weren’t spelled out by prosecutors, they’re all well-known within the on line casino safety world, says Sal Piacente, knowledgeable dishonest guide and the president of UniverSal Recreation Safety. Playing cards can, for example, have hidden bar codes on their edges—printed invisibly, similar to with infrared ink—that may be deciphered by a reader hidden in a chip tray or in a cellphone case laid on the desk. In different circumstances, playing cards are equally marked on their backs with ink that is solely seen with particular glasses or contacts.
“This sort of tools is getting used greater than you’d suppose,” Piacente says. “If you go to a non-public recreation, there is not any regulation, no fee, no guidelines. Something goes.”

