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except poker, function between casino and player, allowing management to closely monitor and tightly
control the action. But in poker, the game functions between player and player (not between casino and
player), leaving the management unable to monitor and control the action. That uniquely uncontrollable
situation combined with the undetectability of professional collusion cheating makes poker the only
casino game in which management has no practical way to detect or eliminate such cheating. Also,
casino management and its employees are less motivated to ferret out poker cheating because in poker,
the players (not the casino) lose money to cheaters. But in other games, the casino (not the players) loses
money to cheaters.
The public view of casino cheating differs markedly from the actual situation. Several years ago, for
example, a major poker-cheating conspiracy was publicly exposed in the Las Vegas MGM Grand Hotel
and Casino, the world's largest gambling establishment. The police arrested the cardroom manager, the
floorman, two dealers, and five outside partners--all were charged with illegal conspiracy and felony
swindling. That publicized incident coincides with the public view of professional cheating in casino
poker. But the authorities caught those alleged "professional cheaters" only because they were
amateurish and crude in their techniques of culling, stacking, and peeking. Allegedly, they even resorted
to copping chips from pots. But the MGM cheating scandal did not involve or even touch on the real
professional cheating that flourishes with casual finesse in higher-stake poker games, unchecked by
casino management and unnoticed by the public.
Even if professional cheaters were eliminated from a high-stake game, a wave of new professionals and
cheaters would fill the vacuum in order to exploit the "easy pickings" inherent in any new or clean
public poker game. The financial incentive is too great to prevent professionals and cheaters from
quickly moving into high-stake poker games filled with tourists, losers, and other easy amateurs.
What will happen when management and the public become increasingly aware of this uncontrollable
professional cheating? Most casinos could simply drop poker from their operations (or at least eliminate
cheater-prone high-stake poker) with little lasting effect on their profits. But how will commercial poker
clubs handle undetectable professional cheating? Nearly their entire business depends on poker, which,
in turn, depends on the trust and confidence of their most important customers--the losers. Unless
management can stop the spread of professional cheating (especially Neocheating), the commercial
poker clubs could encounter business difficulties if the majority of their customers (the losers) began
discovering and understanding the extent of professional cheating in their games.[ 36 ]
Since many professional poker players depend on collusion for a living and since their cheating is
generally undetectable, management currently has no practical way to eliminate their cheating. One longrange
solution might be tamper-proof mechanical or electronic shuffling and dealing devices that would
not only eliminate undetectable dealer-player collusion, card flashing, and most card manipulations, but
could also reduce operating costs by eliminating dealers, accelerating the action, and automating house
collections. In turn, lower operating costs could result in lower-percentage house cuts. Also, elimination
of competition from professional cheaters would further increase the profits of good players and
independent professionals who win through their own skills rather than through cheating.
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