Poker, Ethics, and the Law: What’s Considered Cheating in Poker?
Cheaters are as unwelcome to the poker community as a juggler at a funeral. But there are different shades of cheating, from the downright criminal to the only slightly scummy.
In fact, the latter variety – let’s call it angle shooting — exists precisely because it never quite crosses the line into criminality or fraud. While it may break house rules, it is also difficult to prove an infraction has taken place because its techniques often ape the mistakes made by absent-minded or inexperienced players. Angle-shooters essentially exploit the ambiguity around the meaning of their actions to explore loopholes in the rules.
Angles with Dirty Faces
The fake fold is perhaps the most common example of this – an attempt to gain a reaction from an opponent by performing a folding motion that does not follow through.
Likewise, the string bet, so often an innocent mistake practiced by inexperienced players, can be deliberately employed by angle-shooters in the hope of eliciting a tell. Mis-declaring your hand in the hope that your opponent will fold without checking is another unprincipled classic.
While these types of moves may not violate the laws of the land, they are unethical — dirty tactics that will quickly get you a bad reputation in the poker community. In unregulated environments – who knows? – you may be threatened with defenestration.
If you believe an opponent is angle shooting, ask the floor manager or tournament director to intervene.
Hard to Prove
Generally, tournament directors are given a certain amount of discretion in these situations and will make a value judgment based on their experience and understanding of the move within the context of the game.
World Series of Poker rules, for example, do not include a specific definition of “cheating,” leaving room for interpretation:
“Anyone found to have engaged in or attempted to engage in any act that WSOP officials believe in their sole and absolute discretion compromises or could compromise the competitive integrity of the WSOP will be subject to sanctions,” they state.
Penalties range from forfeiture of chips or prize money to exclusion from the host property and all affiliated properties. For further reading, check out the Tournament Directors’ Association (TDA) rulebook, which has become the worldwide standard for tournament rules and is now used in most major tournaments, including the WSOP.
But the truth is players are rarely penalized for angle-shooting at major tournaments. That’s probably because intent is hard to prove. There’s too much gray area. Entrants have paid a lot of money to be there, which exposes organizers to potential legal liability if they get it wrong. At the WSOP, you’re much more likely to be banned for outrageous behavior, like the guy in 2019 who exposed his genitals and threw his shoe at an opponent. Yep, that’ll do it.
So, when do dirty tactics cross the line into downright illegality?
Felony Cheating
Not all US jurisdictions have laws against cheating, although all have laws against fraud. But states that have large casino industries to protect generally make it a crime to cheat in a casino. Chief among these, of course, is Nevada.
Under Nevada law, cheating means to “alter the elements of chance, method of selection or criteria which determine: (a) the result of a game; (b) the amount or frequency of payment in a game; (c) the value of a wagering instrument; or the value of a wagering credit.”
Punishment can be severe. A first-time conviction for cheating at gambling is a category C felony, carrying up to five years in prison, restitution, and up to $10,000 in fines.
Other states may not have specific laws called “cheating at gambling,” but that doesn’t mean it’s not illegal. In California, for example, it’s theft, pure and simple.
Every person who by the game of “three card monte,” so-called, or any other game, device, sleight of hand, pretensions to fortune telling, trick, or other means whatever, by use of cards or other implements or instruments, or while betting on sides or hands of any play or game, fraudulently obtains from another person money or property of any description, shall be punished as in the case of larceny of property,” states California Penal Code 332.
Nevada’s laws make it clear that using cheating devices, marking or crimping cards, or counterfeiting chips will get you in a world of trouble. These types of cases are easier to prosecute, too, because they include physical evidence – said cheating device, marked cards, fake chips, etc. — that will increase the chances of a conviction.
Note that your cheating does not have to be successful for you to have committed a criminal offense. Inept cheats are still cheats.
Chips and Dip
Perhaps the most cut-and-dried example of criminal cheating occurred at the 2014 Borgata Poker Open when North Carolina man Christian Lusardi surreptitiously introduced $2.7 million in fake tournament chips into the event.
After busting the tournament for $6,814, Lusardi became worried his scheme was about to be uncovered, and so he attempted to flush his remaining fake chips down the toilet in his room at nearby Harrah’s.
But this clogged the pipes, causing guests on the floor below to complain that water was dripping into their rooms.
The Borgata was forced to cancel the tournament with 27 players left. All entrants were refunded, and the prize money was redistributed among the remaining 27.
Lusardi pleaded guilty to trademark counterfeiting and criminal mischief and was sentenced to five years in prison. He was also ordered to pay the Borgata $463,540 in restitution, plus $10K to fix the plumbing at Harrah’s. We guess that’s what they call a busted flush.
Collusion Course
Collusion is probably the most common form of cheating in poker, both live and online. Here, two or more players conspire to soft-play one another or communicate information about their hands using signals, allowing accomplices to fold or raise hands when it is advantageous to the conspiracy.
However, convictions for collusion in poker are almost unheard of, again because it’s difficult to prove. Even if signaling is spotted, it remains subject to interpretation. In such cases, the issue is usually dealt with by casino supervisors who have final say on the matter.
In his 2006 essay, the Legal Consequences of Cheating at Poker, lawyer and poker player Richard Hannegan suggests that the best option for a player who feels he has been cheated in a land-based casino, poker club, or home game is through civil action. He notes that some such cases have been successful, but also that meeting the burden of proof that cheating occurred can be difficult for the plaintiff.
Acts of the Postle
Such was the case in the best known of recent cheating scandals at Stones Gambling Hall in California, where a bang-average poker player, Mike Postle, went on an extraordinary winning streak while playing in the live-streamed cash game.
It was so remarkable, in fact, that the online poker community began analyzing his play in forensic detail. Players concluded that Postle was either receiving information about other players’ hole cards from an accomplice via his cell phone or via a device embedded in his baseball cap.
While the evidence was strikingly convincing, it was all circumstantial, hard to prove beyond reasonable doubt, and possibly difficult for non-poker players to grasp. Criminal charges were not brought, and a civil case joined by dozens of poker players was dismissed.
The judge determined that the matter was “not cognizable under California law because California public policy bars judicial intervention in gambling disputes, in part because the asserted damages are inherently speculative.”
However, the door was left open for players to file an amended complaint against Stones, which the casino settled out of court.
Cheating in online poker can involve everything from sophisticated bot rings to multi-accounting, to the use of banned real-time assistance software. Online poker sites do employ anti-cheating software to weed out the bad apples, but its efficiency is a matter of debate.
‘God Mode’
From a legal point of view, online poker creates jurisdictional issues, as was the case in one of the most notorious cheating scandals of all time.
Back 2008, UltimateBet was one of the biggest online poker sites in the US. But that year, the existence became known of a so-called “God-Mode,” or “super-user” account, which allowed a user to see their opponents’ cards in real-time.
Someone at UB had been using it to cheat players out of an estimated $20 million. UB’s regulator, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, found “clear and convincing evidence” that UB shareholder and former WSOP champion Russ Hamilton “was the main person responsible.”
But at the time, online poker was unregulated in the US, leaving those who were cheated with little legal recourse. The state-by-state legalization of online poker in America will improve this situation, but only for players located in the handful of states with regulated markets.
Online Cheat Convicted
Convictions of online poker cheats are extremely rare, but not unprecedented. In 2016, in the UK, WSOP bracelet winner Darren Woods was handed a 15-month prison sentence for fraud, having cheated high-stakes players out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Woods colluded against his victims, using multiple accounts controlled by himself.
The judge ordered him to repay £1 million to those he had defrauded or face an additional six years in prison.
