In the wake of a number of main dishonest scandals during the last couple of years, the South Point Casino in Las Vegas has now carried out slide dealing to distribute playing cards.
Dealers slide playing cards to gamers slightly than pitching them, stopping different gamers from seeing them.
In 2024, authorities arrested “casino gangsters” who used cell telephones to secretly movie playing cards as sellers dealt them at varied casinos throughout Europe. Concerns about that form of expertise apparently led to the adjustments at South Point.
“After seeing so much discussion online about game protection and the advent of AI and Meta Glasses, cameras, and hearing devices, it made me think about what we can do as operators to provide the best protection to the game possible,” South Point Poker Room Manager Jason Sanborn informed journalist Christina Bradfield.
European Casinos, Tours Make Security Changes
In latest months, some poker collection and casinos have restricted mobile phone use on the desk. In 2025, together with restrictions creating new guidelines in opposition to outdoors teaching, the World Series of Poker banned digital gadgets at remaining tables.
Many European casinos now not permit telephones on a desk’s rail. PokerStars carried out slide dealing at European Poker Tour occasions final yr. South Point selected the latter path to keep away from a much bigger crackdown on mobile phone utilization.
“I don’t think it is reasonable to ban electronics at the table,” Sanborn informed Bradfield. “Going to the slide pitch provides the best protection against exposed cards that we can currently do as operators.”
Sanborn mentioned he thinks the slide methodology will unfold to different components of the nation.
Concerns About Cheating Grow
French authorities mentioned the suspects used a mobile phone on the desk throughout blackjack and poker video games. They took low-angle photographs of the cardboard faces throughout dealing.
The second participant additionally had a mobile phone taped to his abdomen. He recorded pictures of the playing cards through tiny holes in his shirt. The pair additionally used microscopic earpieces so small that police mentioned they might take away them solely with a magnet. The two gamers’ cohorts, who stayed away from the on line casino, then obtained the pictures and informed the gamers which playing cards the sellers had been dealing.
Police declare the lads used the dishonest scheme at a number of European casinos. They allegedly scored €200,000 from one French on line casino after a number of visits.
South Point doesn’t function high-stakes motion; it caters to Las Vegas locals. Even so, the property seems to be getting out in entrance of the dishonest challenge.
Supporters consider “European” slide dealing is a simple solution to stop the kind of dishonest that has occurred at video games on either side of the Atlantic Ocean.
Poker professional Andy Bloch posted that a few of the finest sellers can pitch playing cards excessive sufficient the place some gamers could make out a card.
One of the most effective poker sellers on this planet nonetheless can’t pitch the playing cards flat, with $10 million on the road. @wsop @JackEffel @SavagePoker if a seller has bother dealing flat, educate them to deal flat, or to slip. pic.twitter.com/CTDHdRvsaO
— Andy Bloch (@Andy_Bloch) August 4, 2026
Bloch added: “Dealing by sliding cards like this helps to avoid flashing cards.”
Opponents level out that sliding the playing cards slows down the motion on the desk.
High-Tech Cheating In The U.S.
Similar dishonest strategies as these seen in Europe have additionally been reported in some U.S. casinos, in line with poker professional Bart Hanson. In a Crush Live Poker podcast, he pointed to alleged dishonest rings at cardrooms in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and different components of the nation.
Hanson additionally mentioned it’s tough to carry the problem to mild except a cheater is caught red-handed.
“It’s just very, very hard for the general population, and I’m sort of including casino management into the general population. People that don’t really play very, very seriously and don’t understand numbers, for somebody to convince someone that someone’s cheating based upon play or based upon statistics,” Hanson mentioned.
Beyond dishonest in conventional cardrooms and casinos, high-stakes execs have extra considerations to take into consideration when taking part in in underground and residential video games. Last October, former Portland Trail Blazers Head Coach Chauncey Billups was arrested as a part of a federal investigation into working rigged video games backed by the New York mafia.
Investigators claimed the operation used rigged shuffle machines, particular glasses, or contact lenses to learn marked playing cards, and “x-ray tables” to make sure successful classes.
At the identical time, the FBI revealed a rigged sports activities betting operation. The two schemes reportedly generated tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} for organizers {and professional} athletes who took half.
