Part I: Card Game Cheating · ELECTRONIC AIDS AND HIGH-TECH DEVICES

Hidden Camera Card Scanning

How it works

Modern hidden cameras for card cheating have become miniaturized and are concealed in everyday objects. Common concealments include: power banks, watches, buttons on shirts, car keys, lighters, cigarette packs, and t-shirts with pinhole cameras. These cameras capture images of cards as they are dealt or rest on the table, and transmit the images to a remote accomplice or AI system. In a 2024 French casino case, cheaters used modified smartphone cameras with mirrors to capture lateral footage while phones lay flat on the table. The images are transmitted via WiFi or cellular to an off-site location where an accomplice analyzes the footage.

Where it appears

Poker, Blackjack, Baccarat, any card game

On the record

In July 2024, French police arrested cheaters who used modified smartphone cameras with mirrors to capture card faces from casino shoes. The footage was transmitted to an accomplice in the parking lot via a communication system. The hearing device recovered was “so small that you can’t take it off with your fingers - you need a magnet to pull it off.”

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.