After being in the news last week for an NFL poker punch-up, JokerStars in Houston, Texas, is back on the radar after a cheating scandal was uncovered. A scheme that involved cards implanted with RFID chips was caught on security cameras.
JokerStars owner Jerry Yen posted to Facebook on June 23 with the identifications of the three men involved, as well as screenshots from the security footage. It is evidence of a man, and a previous employee, called Carlito, swapping the house deck with a special set of cards. Using an RFID reader allowed the players to gain far more information than they would in poker.
According to Yen, the other two people, Ivan and Marcelo, were able to slip out during the confrontation between Carlito and General Manager Jason Marshall. The GM then found evidence of the trick in Carlito’s bag, and he was promptly banned for life from JokerStars.
Yen wrote further:
“We at JokerStars do not tolerate any behavior of the sort. All money lost from this incident was returned and given back to the players affected.
“We are deeply saddened by Carlito’s actions, as he is a former employee that represented the JokerStars name. This is a huge disappointment not just to us but the entire poker community.”
The business is currently working on getting its own custom cards made to avoid any future fraud from taking place.
JokerStars regulars react to poker RFID scheme
Yen and his team’s actions have been praised in the comments, with some praising Yen as a beacon of the Houston poker community:
“I haven’t known Jerry for long, but to me, first impressions are lasting impressions. Every time I’ve seen him, he’s gone out of his way to shake my hand and greet me — and he does that for every player.”
Others have lambasted the players for trying to swindle others out of a “few bucks”, but one user mentioned that it’s probably not the first time:
“For everyone saying that they risked all of it for a few bucks, y’all are crazy if y’all think this was the first time. Guaranteed they have done before and would continue if they didn’t get caught. They risked it all to try to win a big number.
“Props to Jokerstars for catching and for posting the whole story to stop all this before more people got hurt.”
