Poker cheaters have a long history, from the days of the Wild West all the way to the modern online game.
Here’s a rundown of those who were caught, as well as a few pointers on what to watch out for:
Mafia-Linked High-Tech Poker Rigging Scandal (2025)
One of the most shocking scandals in recent poker history has come from illegal high-stakes private games using rigged using sophisticated technology. The tech itself would have seemed almost unthinkable years ago, but now the infamous x-ray tables used at these high-stakes NY poker games are being flogged in Ebay (and they’re not even very expensive.)
In late 2025, federal prosecutors unsealed indictments against 31 defendants tied to organized crime families in New York, accusing them of running rigged poker games that defrauded victims of at least $7 million. These schemes allegedly took place in Manhattan, the Hamptons, and other U.S. cities, enticing wealthy gamblers to high-stakes games.
The alleged cheating methods were highly advanced. Altered shuffling machines that could read cards before they were dealt, then X-ray tables capable of identifying face-down card. Chip tray analyzers and hidden cameras were also built into gaming equipment, and then players in on the scam were equipped with special contact lenses or glasses that could detect pre-marked cards.
Information was passed to a designated player (“quarterback”), who signaled co-conspirators at the table how to bet.
The indictment also revealed that organized crime families (Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese, and others) and sports notables were involved, allegedly using celebrity participants to attract victims.
Chris Skinner: Chip Smuggling in Australia (2026)
While Chris Skinner’s method of cheating has none of the high-tech touches, or high-stakes involved in the New York scandal, for pure gall Skinner’s scam is in the top tanks of poker cheating.
Australian player Chris Skinner was banned and dropped as a tour ambassador after admitting he smuggled extra chips into a live tournament.
Skinner was employed by the distributor of the poker chips, of which he would enter the casino with his own stash, building his stack with extras throughout the tournament.
During a A$125 buy-in event at the Grand Central Hotel in Cobram, Victoria, a fellow player noticed an unusual chip count. Security footage showed Skinner slipping chips from his pocket into play, a blatant breach of game integrity.
Skinner initially denied wrongdoing but later publicly wrote, “I cheated… I brought chips into play that I had no right to bring into the game.”
He was banned from all future events by the Southern Poker Tour and lost his ambassador role.
The scam resembles Christian Lusardi’s counterfeit chips, though Skinner had access the the genuine article, and the temptation got the better of him.
Though a low-stakes event compared to major tournaments, the case sent shockwaves through the Australian poker community because of the reputation cost and questions about whether other chip counts had ever been tampered with.
Collusion – Jean-Paul Pasqualini and Cedric Rossi Partouche Poker Tour 2009
Two or more players working together is the stuff of legend. The iconic movie Rounders actually showed a version of how the cheaters work, and the painful results it can bring.
In real-life, of course, such cheating isn’t going to crop up in, say, a huge tournament…is it? Well it did back in 2009! French poker players Jean-Paul Pasqualini and Cedric Rossi took over $2 million for employing some elaborate poker cheats.
A code of hand and body signals saw them scoop the lion’s share of the prizes at the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event. This is how they did it. See if you can work out their winning code…
Counterfeit chips – Christian Lusardi
Running low on chips during a tournament? No problem – just introduce your own counterfeited chips!
That’s what poker cheat Christian Lusardi did back in 2014 at the Borgata Winter Poker Open. But, it all came crashing down when an extra 2.7 million chips were discovered in play.
Suspicion fell on Lusardi almost immediately. When police raided his hotel room they discovered him flushing the rogue chips down his toilet. According to a CBS news report, “Investigators said he purchased the chips online from a Chinese manufacturer and then put a counterfeit Borgata logo on them”.
The tournament, at that point down to just 27 players, was ruined. As Lusardi’s life should have been considering he was also convicted for bootlegging DVD’s among other offences.
The end result, however, was that the cheat only served 6 months of a total 8 year jail sentence. The serial scammer was released last year, leading to an outcry in the poker community.
The card marker – Valeriu Coca
One of the oldest cheating methods in poker, marking the cards crops up regularly around the world. From China to the Czech Republic to the World Series of Poker.
Moldovan Valeriu Coca ticked two of those countries off his list in 2015, a deep and suspicious run in the WSOP $10k bracelet event triggering an investigation.
Although cleared by the WSOP itself and allowed to keep his $54,545 winnings, revelations that he was banned from casinos in Prague for marking cards – aces and kings only according to reports – appeared.
Electronic CardReader – Billy the Egyptian
A recent case in Scotland showed that old-school cheating ideas and modern technology are alive and well, with a player known as Billy the Egyptian outed for a poker scam this year.
Glasgow poker scam update:
Poker players furious about getting fleeced by the cheat they call “Billy the Egyptian.” https://t.co/684hZT98Le pic.twitter.com/3EM1xpxYaO— Willy Allison (@WillyJAllison) 2 August 2018
Police were called when fellow players raised suspicions that the inept Billy was using some form of electronic card reader – with the dealer in on the scam.
The kind of technology required has been on sale on EBay and other sites for several years now, although only a few cases of it being used – and the cheaters caught in the act – have surfaced.
Russ Hamilton: Poker’s Biggest Cheat?
The biggest and scariest of all poker cheaters was the 2007 Ultimate Bet scandal which erupted when players discovered that someone had access to all the cards being dealt on the site.
The Ultimate Bet superuser account with the name “Potripper” – or perhaps several accounts, with Absolute Poker also mired in a similar scandal – was eventually traced back to 1994 WSOP Main Event champ Russ Hamilton.
An estimated $22.1million was the final figure put on Hamilton’s cheating gains, and he even admitted to much of it back in 2013…
Watch this insane video of Ultimate Bet superuser account “Potripper” and Russ Hamilton admit cheating below:
