Regional news

The Hollywood Park poker room in Los Angeles has implemented a ban on electronic devices at its tables following cheating allegations, and Station Casinos in Las Vegas is following suit. The cheaters are accused of using hidden cameras to collaborate with outside accomplices and transmit hole card information in real time. The cheating allegations have led one Los Angeles poker room to take a strict stance on electronic devices at its tables, and Station Casinos in Las Vegas is following suit. A listener on Bart Hanson's Crush Live Poker YouTube channel claimed that multiple cash game players at the popular Southern California poker room, Hollywood Park, had been colluding to cheat. These allegations forced the poker room to implement a ban on all electronic devices at its tables. PokerNews confirmed that staff regularly patrol the tables and ask players to remove their phones. Cell phones, iPads, laptops, and all electronic devices are completely prohibited from being placed on the table during gameplay. Players are not allowed to text or check Instagram during their hands, and must leave the table if they need to use their phones. The Station Casinos Red Rock Casino in the Summerlin area of Las Vegas has also implemented a partial cell phone ban. Players are prohibited from making phone calls at the poker table, and cell phone use is completely forbidden during a hand. The caller "Joe" in the initial video, who is suspected of using technology to team up and cheat, explained that he suspects some Las Vegas poker rooms are using technological advantages to cheat. He claims one player has a camera installed inside their hat that can identify the hole cards dealt by the dealer and then transmit the information to another player. "Usually this is a two-person team. What happens is that one person sits at the edge of the table in seat 1, 2, 8, or 9 so they can capture the angle at which the dealer deals the cards. They have a camera that transmits the image to an external location where someone can see and identify what cards the players are dealt, and then transmits it back to the players sitting at the table," Joe claims. South Point in Las Vegas recently implemented a new technology common in Europe, where dealers slide cards on a cloth instead of the standard dealing method, which could be a way to counter the cheating method described by Joe. In Los Angeles, local professional player Peter O'Neill shared his experience of a similar cheating scandal on Twitter. This Southern California poker player shared some observations he and others made during games at Hollywood Park Casino and Gardens Casino. The tweet was posted on July 31, but Hollywood Park has since banned electronic devices at the tables. O'Neill replied to his post...