Part I: Card Game Cheating · Card Switching
Mechanical Holdout
How it works
A mechanical holdout is a device worn on the person. It keeps one or more cards out of the game and brings them back when wanted. The hand looks empty. The cards are not in it. This is not hand mucking, which hides cards in the palm. The machine does the hiding.
Where it appears
Poker, and other games in which a player handles cards
On the record
John Nevil Maskelyne describes mechanical holdouts in Sharps and Flats (1894). This entry uses that book. It does not attach a modern case.
Detection & preventionADVISORY
The paid halfHow a monitoring room catches mechanical holdout, and what stops it recurring, written for the desk, not the reader.
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Published as a detection reference for surveillance, compliance and gaming-operations professionals. Thresholds and tuning are set by the property. Nothing here is instruction: the method is described so it can be recognised.