In Las Vegas, a bad beat jackpot has been finally paid after seven months. While it was good news for Avinoam Shamir that the NGCB had ruled he is legitimately entitled to his bad beat jackpot reward of $62,126, another bad beat jackpot story emerged a few days after that, and this time, unfortunately it was found to be rigged. The conspirators were then arrested and charged.
At a poker room in a Louisiana casino, a poker dealer and a player allegedly attempted to rig a bad beat jackpot which totals $160,000+.
Cops say the poker dealer Ashley Solomon, age 66, had fixed the deck so it would show a favorable outcome in a cash game that happened at Harvey's Boomtown Casino near New Orleans. He then performed two false shuffles so that others would think and see he was properly shuffling the cards like normal.
The player Dale Foret, age 51, was dealt a bad beat jackpot hand that would result to him being rewarded the largest share of the $166,471 reward split on the table (approx. between $66,000 and $83,000, or between 40% to 50%).
It is a custom/tradition that whenever a bad beat jackpot appears on the table, the casino watches a video surveillance of it to make sure that it is indeed genuine. Since the casino noticed some inconsistencies, they then gave a copy of the video on January 19, 2018 to investigators from the Louisiana State Police Bureau of Investigations Gaming Enforcement Division and it was them who discovered the phony shuffles and determined that cheating had transpired.
Warrants for both men were acquired on February 5. They were then arrested and charged on February 9 with conspiracy to commit theft of over $25,000 as well as attempted theft of over $25,000.
There were no other players at the table who were arrested as police believe they have no knowledge of the alleged crime. Also, nobody was paid the bad beat prize, and the money remains in the pot for other players to win, legally.
The suspects were sent at the Jefferson Parrish Correctional Center. It is not known if they have already posted bond or are still in custody.
Source:
https://www.pokernews.com/news/2018/02/louisiana-men-charged-rigging-the-deck-bad-beat-jackpot-29978.htm
