Two friends of mine have been banned from our casino for cheating. The alleged offence is, one of the members would stand on the balcony and text the other the cards when, or if he sees them from the players sat in seat: 2, 3 and 4.

Someone reported the offence two weeks ago after a suspicious hand was played. Apparently the two people have been watched for two weeks and consequently banned.

I'm still 50/50 as to whether the cheating occurred or not, one of the alleged players is generally a good guy, he's a decent player and wouldn't need to cheat to beat the game in our casino. On the other hand, he's a smart guy, a pure gambler and perfectly capable of doing something like this.

Management have refused to give any information out. They will neither confirm or deny whether the offences actually took place.

Considering I've played this guy for months now, I think I, and the other players not just deserve, but have a right to know whether they have solid proof, or have just barred him over insufficient suspicious activity. He's a good friend to a lot of us, if he's done this I want him named and shamed so we can all know what a disgusting low life he is, and if they haven't got solid proof, I would like to know this also.

From what I have posted above, it sounds pretty clear that he's guilty, however there are certain things which don't add up in my opinion.

It's a large chain of casinos and I'm wondering if we have any right to know, as we're the ones who have been cheated, and whether it's worth complaining to higher management for answers.

Moved to a more appropriate forum.

It seems you know a lot of the allegations already, so this isn't a matter of not knowing why it happened. Casinos want to attract patrons, not kick them out. Therefore, they don't ban people lightly. It may not be for a reason you find justified, but for them it is by definition serious enough to take action.

No casino is going to let you know specially how they caught them. They don't want to teach others what to do to avoid getting caught. However, it isn't too hard to figure out what they saw. They saw was one guy standing on the balcony for a long time texting on his phone from time to time. They saw the other guy during a hand look at his phone during a hand and especially just after the first guy was texting. It isn't "beyond reasonable doubt" proof, but a casino doesn't need that to ban people. It is like card counting in blackjack. It doesn't matter if they know you are counting cards, it matters that you are varying your bets along with the count.

Appearing to be a good friend is just part of a successful con. Just accept they were probably cheating you, got caught and move on.

Here's what you should reasonably expect from the casino:

1. Were x and y perma-banned?
2. I have heard that they were caught cheating. If they were caught cheating, have you notified the other casinos in the area?
3. Let's put this another way. Given the information you have available to you, would YOU play against player x or y? (ask bluntly, but don't try to commit the supervisor to specifics).

Note: On number 2, you are giving the information YOU have, not looking for confirmation -- the casino doesn't owe you that information and imagine the liability of slander if it could be proven that the casino was giving incorrect information.

On question 1, they may refuse to answer. You can shift the question to "Should I ever expect to see them back in this poker room".

(The story is...) A regular in my home casino was banned for 6 months (I think) for an incident in the hotel where he had hired a female for services, she demanded more than the agreed upon payment saying that she'd tell the cops he raped her if he didn't pay her more. He grabbed the money, ran out, and went to security. The cops were called. The female and her pimp (who also played poker) were perma-banned and the "victim" got 6 months. Whether true or not, if you were the player and someone went to the supervisor and asked about the situation, how would you feel if the details were given out?

Short answer: No, you don't.

To what purpose?

I don't think the casino has any obligation to tell you anything at all. In fact, I'm not sure if they could even legally disclose actions like that without violating some sort of privacy law or another. While people are naturally curious about what happened, they have no right to the info. Sort of like when people file a complaint against an employee, and then expect to be told what happened. But companies can't publically discuss personnel matters. They just tell the public "it was handled".

OP, you say these guys are good friends to a lot of you. So what did they say when you asked them about it? What did they say when you asked them why one guy was often in the balcony when the other was playing? What did they say when they denied cheating and you said "that's BS, you should sue the casino!"?

Good luck having some 1/2 grinders get a stake for lawsuit services vs a casino
My question is this balcony ? Is it like 1 foot above the play area or what we use to have a card room like that but the cards being visible would be pretty hard to do

Also since this is posted and a thread is probably floating aroud is it not the players job to cover his cards and not expose them to the table.
I understand some places are set up where someone could see your cards from the right spot but is think thT is obvious if they are doing it constantly from the same spot with the same friend