Gambling dens hidden behind closed doors in New York City saw a staggering $7 million siphoned from unsuspecting high-rollers through a blend of modern gadgets and old-school mob methods, prosecutors revealed in a dramatic indictment Thursday.
The scheme reportedly relied on “advanced wireless technologies,” according to the charges, supported by a network of operators who watched games remotely and coordinated with planted insiders at the tables—all working in tandem to exploit their unsuspecting victims.
At the heart of the scam were card-shuffling machines that had been tampered with. According to the indictment, members of four of New York’s Five Families rigged the machines with card readers and computerized analyzers that relayed the strongest hands to an outside operator.
“At the Rigged Games, the members of the Cheating Teams … used card shuffling machines that were purportedly randomly shuffling the playing cards to ensure fairness,” the indictment read. “However, the Rigged Shuffling Machines were secretly altered to use concealed technology.”
Following that, an operator would dispatch a text or call to a teammate at the poker table, who would employ “secret signaling” to guide their co-conspirators on how to play and how to bet, effectively steering the target into losing.
At times, even the poker table itself played a role: the players allegedly used tables fitted with X-ray cameras capable of reading cards face-down on the felt.
Prosecutors also described the deployment of “decoy cellular telephones” that could read and analyze cards—another means to tilt the game unfairly against the mark.
One of the most audacious features of the racket: the physical playing cards were sometimes marked in a way imperceptible to ordinary players but visible to participants wearing special glasses or contact lenses—allowing the cheaters to dominate the game while victims remained completely unaware, prosecutors say.
As troubling as the illicit tech may sound, much of it is reportedly easy to find online, with websites peddling cheating devices for a few hundred thousand dollars.
Still, the tech was only part of the setup—the con began well before the cards were dealt, and grew darker as the game progressed.
The mobsters lured their “fish”—the high-roller targets—by using former NBA players placed as “face cards” in the scheme. Among the names cited in the indictment: Hall of Famer and head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, Chauncey Billups. These players allegedly helped attract targets and received a portion of the ill-gotten gains.
In some games, every participant—save the mark—was in on the scam, winning and losing hands strategically to encourage the target to keep betting more and more until the losses piled up.
After one particularly egregious summer 2023 game, a single victim reportedly lost $1.8 million in one series. Once the chips were down, the mobsters allegedly enforced payment by wielding “threats and intimidation.”
“Through the Rigged Poker Scheme, the defendants and their co-conspirators defrauded Victims of millions of dollars,” the indictment from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York said.
“Victims of the Rigger Poker Scheme believed they were participating in ‘straight’ illegal poker games and that they were gambling against other participants on equal footing,” it added. “In reality, however, the defendants and their co-conspirators, who constituted the remaining participants purportedly playing in the poker games, worked together on cheating teams.”
Prosecutors allege the scheme dates back to at least 2019, with the illicit games taking place not only in Manhattan but also in the Hamptons, Las Vegas, and Miami, and involving the Lucchese crime family, Genovese crime family, Gambino crime family and Bonanno crime family.
More than 30 people have been charged in connection with this elaborate poker ring, according to the indictment.
{Matzav.com}
Thank God they didn’t bring casinos to Coney Island.