A man from Whitfield, a suburb of Cairns in the Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia, has been allegedly caught on camera while cheating at a poker game in an Australian-based casino.
Earlier this month, the unnamed 63-year-old man has been playing Reef Routine, a card game resembling poker, at the Reef Hotel Casino when he was seen via surveillance video allegedly upping his ante to collect bigger winnings.
According to the Reef Casino website, Reef Routine is typically based on Draw Poker and its hierarchy, where players play individually against the ‘House' via placing an initial stake known as the ‘Ante'. Each player gets 5 cards face down while the dealer gets 4 cards face down and one card face up. If the player feels they have a hand that can beat the dealer's hand, they are free to make an additional wager simply called the ‘Bet' which should be exactly twice that of the ‘Ante'. If the player does not wish to continue, they must ‘Fold' and forfeit the ‘Ante'. After all players have either ‘Bet' or ‘Folded', the dealer shall arrange his cards face up to form the highest ranking poker hand.
The dealer's hand shall qualify only if the hand contains at least an Ace and King or One Pair or higher. If the dealer's hand does not qualify, the ‘Ante' wager shall be paid even money and the wager on the ‘Bet' shall be void. If the dealer's hand does qualify, your hand must be higher than the dealer's hand in order to win. If so, your ‘Ante' bet shall be paid even money and your ‘Bet' wager shall be paid according to the table below:
|
1 Pair
|
Even Money
|
|
2 Pairs
|
2 to 1 *
|
|
3 of a Kind
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3 to 1 *
|
|
Straight
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4 to 1 *
|
|
Flush
|
5 to 1 *
|
|
Full House
|
7 to 1 *
|
|
4 of a Kind
|
20 to 1 *
|
|
Straight Flush
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50 to 1 *
|
|
Royal Flush
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250 to 1 *
|
* Up to $2,500 maximum payout on a $5 minimum wager table, and up to $5,000 maximum payout on a $10 minimum wager table.
As described above, the card game is a versus match of a player and the dealer, and whoever holds the best hand is the winner, but it is unlike traditional poker as there's no bluffing and no flop involved.
After casino personnel reviewed the surveillance footage and saw the man committing a fraudulent tactic known in the casino industry as ‘capping', they contacted the Cairns police on the weekend.
Capping or capping a bet is a term used to describe the act of adding more chips to a game when the outcome of the game is already known to the player, by "sleight of hand", an act that cannot be done online. This lets the player increase the amount of their win, even if the player's original bet was low. When ‘capping a bet' a player will add one or more chips, which usually are of high value, to the original bet after the dealer has called "No more bets" and the winning hand has been shown. Capping is absolutely considered illegal, and most times the casino will just ban the player from the premises but also notify the relevant gaming commission authorities. In serious cases, police are also notified and the player caught doing this deed can be charged with illegal gambling.
The man has been charged with cheating by fraudulent trick and is scheduled to appear on December 12, 2017 in the Cairns Magistrates Court.
The man was performing the scam on November 18 in the casino. He was playing the game for around two hours already and police have calculated that he dishonestly collected over $100 in additional winnings.
Cairns Criminal Investigation Branch plain clothes Sen-Constable Carl Erhardt said casino officials have contacted them on November 25, Saturday after the man went back to the casino premises. The dispatched police reviewed the surveillance video at the casino before they have taken the trickster into custody.
The surveillance footage has been seized by detectives, who charged the man that Saturday eve.
Sen-Constable Carl Erhardt said this incident is uncommon, but it is still right to charge the man as this will serve as a warning for other would-be offenders. He said, "Casinos have surveillance in place to prevent these types of incidents occurring."
Under the Casino Control Act, the ‘capping' offense is treated as theft and carries a maximum sentence of two years behind bars. Anyone caught doing this must pay the casino all the money they illegally won as well as face criminal charges.
Source:
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/cairns-man-allegedly-caught-on-camera-in-casino-cheating-scandal/news-story/5c81bf1ae94b442267fcbfe83399b640
