People have a fascination with cheaters, especially if those cheaters are particularly good. Of course, these days trying to cheat in a real casino is virtually impossible, while at online casinos it is very literally impossible. At least it is virtually impossible to cheat an online casinos today, after security measures were stepped up.

Regardless,there have been a fair share of Poker cheats that terrorised casinos both online and land based, with interesting gadgets, multiple account manipulation, and even tainted chips.

These are some recent Poker cheaters that paid for their crimes.

Darren Woods

Woods is the first schemer that alerted leading iGaming sites to the possibility of online manipulation. From 2007 to 2012 Woods used a tactic called Gnoming. The fraud involves creating multiple online accounts using a VPN service, then carefully manipulating a game in a certain direction.

Most fascinating is that Woods blew his own cover after he created a Poker tutorial video using his illegal setup. Players quickly noticed what was occurring, alerted authorities, and brought down a multi-year fraud network. Authorities allowed woods to avoid a 6 year jail sentence if he paid £1 million in restitution. Even after restitution he spent a year and a half in jail.

Nowadays, at sites where you can claim an online casino welcome bonus, Gnomingis detected by an automated system designed to pick up if players are behaving suspiciously. If certain patterns are recognised administrators are alerted.

Russ Hamilton

Going back to 2008, Russ Hamilton was involved in the biggest online Poker scandal in history. Hamilton was a World Series of Poker (WSOP) celebrity after winning a cool $1 million in 1994, only to be disgraced in 2008.

Hamilton was the manager at Ultimate Bet, at the time the biggest online Poker site in the world. In an elaborate scheme Hamilton used operator software that was capable of revealing players online cards. The Kahnawake Gaming Commission caught wind of what was happening, revealing that Hamilton had indirectly walked away with around $22 million. The once widely respected WSOP was disgraced. As a direct result of his actions security measures at online casino around the world were bumped up dramatically.

Christian Lusardi

Perhaps the biggest scandal the world of Poker has ever experienced, we have Christian Lusardi. In 2014 the Borgata Winter Open was awash in scandal due to tainted Poker chips. It turns out that Lusardi was trying to launder counterfeit chips, with around $800,000 being passed during the course of the tournament. Lusardi was caught after attempting to flush a further $2.7 million counterfeit chips down the toilet.

Most fascinating is that after having to pay $500,000 in restitution, he got off relatively lightly. He was, however, later convicted and sentenced to 6 years in jail. Though this wasn’t for Poker cheating, it was for DVD piracy. It just goes to show that when the law wants you, they’ll find a reason to eventually get you. It’s probably best to not try pass off fake chips at an international tournament.