Poker Cheats Busted In Cannes As WSOPE Underway

While the most skilled poker professionals in the world compete at the World Series of Poker Europe in Cannes, a gang of card cheats were using rather less savoury methods to win money playing the game while at the picturesque French resort.
The 2011 WSOP Europe is currently underway at the Majestic Barrière Cannes and the Le Croisette Casino Barrière, but just down the road at Les Princes Casino Barrière a gang consisting of three Italian men alerted the attention of security staff after winning around $90,000 from the casino.
Casino staff at the casino first became suspicious of the Italian men after they won €44,000 ($60,665) playing stud poker against the casino croupier, only to return the following week and win a further €20,000 ($27,573). Further confounding the casino was the fact the men always seemed to fold whenever the croupier had a good hand, and bet big if he had a bad hand.
Analysing their play, detectives soon dismissed the possibility of the men using hidden cameras before finally discovering the gangs cunning scam involving marked cards and the use of contact lenses/and or infra-red glasses. As a spokesman for the French police explains:
“The casino was baffled at how these men could beat the dealer so easily again and again. It was only after they were arrested and their glasses were analysed that we realised they knew what every card was just by looking at the back of it.”
As more details came to light, it is believed the three Italian men were aided by a French casino employee who marked the cards with invisible ink, including using an X to signify a king and a horizontal line to denote an ace.
In addition, French authorities now believe the Italian men are linked to organized crime, and more specifically the mafia. If found guilty of cheating the casino, the men could face up to ten years in prison.