According to multiple sources, some Vegas casinos have begun banning phones from being placed face down on the table. Many casinos have long had policies banning phone use during hands, and some have banned phones altogether in past years, and now these efforts are becoming more widespread. However, with the knowledge that today's miniature cameras can be built into lighters, pens, and other non-phone devices, is this a sufficient security measure? A true “no items on the table” rule seems more prudent, but would casinos consider it too aggressive towards their customers? Then there's an entirely separate conversation about placing equipment on the rail, where players rest their elbows and which sits a little higher than felt.
“There will be people who want to watch the game at the table and have their phone up,” says Berkey. “it should be OK. It's a fine line; It's a gray line.”
Berkey also suggested some kind of hybrid arrangement where phones or other devices are allowed as long as they sit behind the chips or some other object that blocks their view. However, these solutions also fail to account for rings or other jewelry that may contain hidden cameras.
The device removal strategy may have run into another major problem when arrests were made in France: One of the suspects had nothing on the table. He allegedly had a camera hidden in his clothes. If that scheme works for grabbing card faces out of a dealer's shoe, it will certainly work for the traditional dealer-pitch style used in Vegas.
The better long-term solution, one for Berkey and other support from the poker world, involves retraining dealers – a process that has already begun.
The European Poker Tour has introduced a new form of dealer pitch known as slide dealing, where the deck remains on the table and The dealer discards each top card Individually to greatly reduce or eliminate any risks. EPT Tournament Director Toby Stone quoted directly Camera fraud issues are the impetus behind this change, which took effect over the past few months.
Casinos can take this even further; Some have been breaking for years. For example, Australia has Star Casino used for a long time A modified version of the blackjack shoe for a single poker deck, which sits in the center of the table and allows cards to slide in and out of it. This obviously makes it more difficult to capture cards than a traditional blackjack shoe placed at the very edge of the table, close to potential cameras. Realistically, these tactics also seem to limit or eliminate other common risks such as bottom-dealing or getting turned over when dealing cards.
Although it may take time to retrain poker dealers around the world to take down these schemes, that may be the end result here.
“I've talked to some people [casino] Higher up, and it seems like they're all open to the idea of retraining the dealers,” says Berkey.
Perhaps even that last step won't completely eliminate mini camera fraud. As the suspects in France reportedly showed us, today's video technology is truly amazing. Would you have ever guessed that a mini camera could capture exactly which cards are being dealt during the split second that they are exposed when they are pulled from the blackjack shoe?
Anyone betting their money at a casino, especially at the higher end of the wagering spectrum, should at least be aware of the risk of bad actors – especially in a game like poker, where your opponent is the other casino rather than the other. There are guardians. Whether coping with this or any other possible plan, a dose of hard work goes a long way.
“As long as there is a fair game offered, there will be people who will try to corrupt it,” says Berkey. “The best we can do is continue to work hard to keep the game as fair as possible.”