Technology has once again raised alarms at the Las Vegas tables
Players will still be able to use their phones, but they must keep them off the felt when not in use. At Boulder Station, management even wrote the new rule on a chalkboard: “Cell phones and other electronic devices are not allowed on the table. Card protectors neither.”
The company operates 17 properties in southern Nevada and maintains poker rooms at Red Rock Resort, Boulder Station, Santa Fe Station, and Green Valley Ranch.
The reason behind it?
A cheating method that seems taken from a crime movie. In 2024, European authorities arrested two people accused of using a sophisticated system to compromise high stakes games. One of those involved participated directly in the game and placed his phone sideways on the table. A microscopic camera installed in the device managed to capture the cards from below as the dealer dealt them.
The transmission reached an accomplice located outside the casino, who could identify the dealt cards and then send the information to the player via a small earpiece.
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The fear later crossed the Atlantic. The professional and host of Crush Live Poker, Bart Hanson
The Station Chain Prefers to Prevent Rather Than Regret a Cheating Accident in Poker.
Casinos on alert
Station Casinos is not the only one taking precautions. South Point Casino recently changed the way its dealers deal cards: it abandoned the traditional card throw to use the European system of sliding them directly on the felt.
The logic is simple: if the card never leaves the felt, a hidden camera has much less chance of identifying it.
For now, however, there are no recent confirmed cases of this type of cheating in Las Vegas. But casinos seem to have decided to act before finding the suspect sitting at the table.
