Part I: Card Game Cheating · Collusion & Electronic Cheating at Card Games · #2.28
Hidden Camera Card Reading System
How it works
A cheater conceals a miniature camera on their person (in clothing pockets with holes, on the table disguised as a phone/power bank/hat, or in accessories like watches or jewelry) positioned to capture card faces as they are dealt from the shoe. The camera feed is transmitted to an accomplice outside the game area who can read the cards and relay information back via earpiece or vibration device. In some cases, the camera connects directly to a smartphone with image recognition software. Modern spy cameras can be hidden in pens, lighters, buttons, and glasses.
Where it appears
Poker, blackjack, baccarat, any dealt card game
On the record
In July 2024, two men were arrested at a casino just outside Paris, at blackjack and poker. One phone, lying flat on the table, had a camera built into its side, angled slightly upward to catch the cards as they were dealt; an accomplice in a car in the car park called the cards back through an earpiece. Investigators put their winnings at more than EUR 200,000 at that one casino. The earpiece was so small that it had to be removed with a magnet.
Detection & preventionADVISORY
The paid halfHow a monitoring room catches hidden camera card reading system, 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.