I still think you're witch hunting a bit.

The only thing that you told us that makes him look suspicious is that he was a big chip leader early on when the chips were supposedly introduced.

This is all fairly moot, the casino should have far better cameras in a situation like this, especially without better on the floor training (dealers, procedures).

Hopefully I'm speaking premature and it's just not public yet that they are going after the individuals involved.

Edit: If you're sure he took down his fb page after the tourney was suspended, and not after you published his name in this thread, then that would also be worth looking into as well. The gambling house thing I think is irrelevant, even if the house took rake (Unless he was accused of stealing from players or something along those lines).

Although the discussion of RFID chips and RFID readers at tables is interesting from a technical perspective and something that should continue to be explored, it's probably not feasible yet.

Reading every chip throughout all transactions during a tournament would be expensive, complicated and prone to error. Might as well just get rid of chips completely.

A better short term solution might be to use RFID chips to supplement/verify human chip counts at end of day and table changes as well as counting all chips in play. It would also help identify counterfeit chips. RFID tags aren't that expensive. The biggest expense would be the chips themselves.

Additionally access points to the tournament area can have exit scanners like most retailers do to minimize chips leaving and entering the tournament area. Bags would have to be prohibited. Maybe coats checked if something seems bulky. Women with large breasts would have to pass through topless. No. Not really. But how awesome would that be? Well, if you're not a woman that is.

People would still be able to smuggle out chips but not in large quantities and casinos can be made aware of how many and which chips are missing.

It's not foolproof but it minimizes some risk at a reasonable cost. Dealer, floor and even players would also need to be vigilant and able to report suspicious activity.

yes I do get it and will defer to you on RFID tech because you obv know this stuff.

But remember this is licensed, regulated casino industry. that .15/tag once integrated with casino chip and then delivered through a licensed provider in a regulated market adds a lot of costs. I have no idea how much the readers cost.

As you or someone else said above, you would not have to RFID all chips, just maybe larger denoms???

So the system you envision would be more preventive measure to quickly identify any fake chips, more than a system that tracks movement of chips hand by hand, correct?

This should be the death of re-entry tournaments with this travesty that happened at the Borgata. I've been in the poker industry for 7 years as a player, dealer, and floor manager.

Ultimately the cheaters and the Borgata are to blame for this. We all basically know why the cheaters are to blame, but there are some interesting points to bring to why the Borgata is to blame.

A lot of this is really redundant, but first off, the staffing process needs to change. I chose not to play this year at the open mainly for the reason of incompetent dealers at the event. The horror stories of dealers not knowing how to put out a board or know what a winning hand is is ridiculous. Is it really that hard to have a few days for small auditions just to prove you know what you're doing?

Second, the re-entry process needs an overhaul. I would say if you have multiple starting days and you start day 1A for example and you want to play in day 1B, your stack for day 1A becomes null and void.

Small things such as verifying chips at the end of a day, accurately keeping an inventory of the chips you use in a business day can go a long way to maintain the integrity of a tournament. Also, switch the chip sets when the fields are consolidated. These small jobs go a long way.

I read a lot about using RFID technology in chip sets, which sounds good in a vacuum, but I'm afraid that the capitalistic mindset of casinos, who want that profit margin on the rise all the time, will prevent that. If that happens, or any added security functions come, expect a rise in rake.

Basically I'm saying that the cheaters are scumbags and the true justice will never be done, yet Borgata was very very lazy in doing basic daily functions to protect the integrity of the game, especially in a tournament of this magnitude.
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I'm surprised with the cameras lacking there hasn't been any big problems in the event center two guys all in dealer puts flop out and thinks hand is over and mucks flop and no one can remember flop or dealer over pays someone. I dunno I feel like in cash game cameras are called once a day on something.

I think the Borgata is really the most likely culprit in this matter and inadvertantly introduced said chips into game. So far in reading this thread I have found no definitive proof that said chips are counterfeits. Lot's of pics of shonky looking chips but no proof they are actual counterfeits.
RFID chips for the most part would eliminate this sort of scam, or at least help to narrow down when they were introduced into play. Security at tournament site seems sketchy at best. Best of luck to all involved. I imagine this event will be a wake up call to the industry and can only hope something good will come out of it.

Getting close to the end of day and Player A has 300K in chips. Player B has 210K. Knowing that the end of day chip leader gets $2K cash, these players get it all in against each other and Player A wins and now has 510K. That's a 70% increase in total chips in one hand. Why is it so hard for people to think that's unreasonable for this Lusardi character?

I've posted this previously but my idea is to detect fake chips only as players join and leave a table using scales and scanners in tandem.

There is no need to do it on every bet, every hand. When you check in on day 1 you start with X chips that weigh a known amount. When you move to another table you check out of table 1 with Y chips, and check IN to table 2 with Y chips. At either point, if the # of chips you check out with (counted by scanner) don't match the weight (known by chip weight * scanner count) then we have to stop action and investigate the whole table. Otherwise you go to table 2 with Y chips.

At end of day, all players check out and the total # of chips on the table should be exactly known by the table.

It's a basic check register algorithm. Table balance = sum of all additions to the table - sum of all withdrawals from the table.

Golly gee if only someone had suggested that notion...

Is that factual?

Wtf! Check out event #49

like 500Kish too many chips. Imbroglio imo

Now when you change rooms your chips are bagged up and sealed at WSOP. Still doesn't mean you can't slip some chips out of your pocket into your stack while everyone is opening their bags.

i've mainly been scanning this thread to see if any news came out about suspects and haven't paid close attention to the RFiD conversation (if there's no reference to boobs people don't pay attention) but it sounded to me like you were talking about constantly monitoring chips at the table. Otherwise why would you need the scale too? it seems unnecessary. Someone could just count chips and verify it matches up with scan.

They tried a similar system to this at WSOP 2012. It failed miserably. Dealers couldn't be bothered to do anything and had no idea how to work the tablets they were given. In addition, the Internet connection they were using to keep track wasn't good enough to keep the whole thing online.

I think all of this talk about chip sensors and weighing bags etc. etc. is pretty unrealistic for all tournaments to do. I think there is a greater chance that players are going to catch players cheating and there should be a number that we could text/call to report any suspicious behavior. There also needs to be really stiff penalties to deter people from trying anything like this again... Hopefully the culprits here are made an example of

Thanks for the response, pninwin. It sounds like you kept a cool head together.

How long do you folks think the community should give the DGE to complete the investigation and pay the 27 and allow Borgata to make restitution to the rest of the field (if any) before some attorney files a class action suit for the benefit of the players? Another week, month, year?

.

Actually, it appears in that case to be more to do with the inaccuracy of the "Updates" on WSOP.com. It looks like one player's stack was wildly off.

I'll try to do some analysis on the "reports" which I think may be a little more "official".

Thanks for taking the time to compile this.

EXCELLENT QUESTION!

In my mind a swift resolution involves arrests in the next week, some sort of comprehensive DGE report in a month, some sort of resolution/ruling in 6 to 8 weeks, and a nice check from the Borgata in 3 months. Maybe I am in fantasyland to think things could move so quickly(and justly). right now not even thinking about getting a lawyer but i'll be watching keenly what the other players are up to and be willing to join in when the time is right

Does anyone have a picture of the fraudulent chip? I have seen the photo of the 3 gray ones against the silver one. I cannot fathom the silver is fake! I played on a table with at least 20 or 30 of these so called fraudulent chips.

i've got to say i've been depositing most of my poker winnings for the last year in a savings account for future home purchase. i live off my income from job as mail carrier. some of the other players (i don't know how many) were pros who simply needed to get paid. if they were irate and seeking an immediate resolution i do not view this as a character flaw on their part

These are the factors I think about. This is what a judge/jury can understand.

Again, thanks for putting this list together.

Here are the regular chips: