Carolina Casino Cheats Caught
The casino industry was quick to notice a new cheating bust in North Carolina, after a series of online cheating incidents; however, this time only the casino appears to have been a victim.
Players at Harrah's Cherokee Casino allegedly went into cahoots with an electronic card dealer to collect winnings even on hands that lost. The dealer received kickbacks as his incentive to participate in the scheme.
Casino management estimates as much as $286,000 was deliberately paid on losing plays. The FBI has been alerted, and arrests and prosecutions are expected, unlike the online poker scandals, in which no parties were ever prosecuted.
So far, authorities believe roughly eleven gamblers took part in the plot over a period of about three weeks. Computer programs matching winning paid with the record of winning hands on the floor alerted management to discrepancies that uncovered the scam.
Digital games at the casino supposedly make cheating more difficult by using screens to display cards rather than physically dealing.
The director of the casino went to great length to emphasize that no patrons were ever cheated, nor hurt in any way.
The quick and efficient addressing of the problem at Cherokee was in sharp contrast to the online casino cheating found at Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. Neither company revealed the names of suspects, police did not conduct arrests, and patrons were left with only the word of the operators that the cheating had been stopped.
