A Las Vegas poker player is allegedly using wire communication technology to cheat at games, and he’s likely to face felony charges for his actions. Mike Postle used the wire communication to know his opponents’ hole cards in real time, and this information was relayed via screen on a smartphone or smartwatch, beeps, or voice-actuated commands.
High-tech poker tables and cards use RFID chips to transmit this information, but the signals are encrypted and require specialized software to decipher them. RFID readers placed in specific places on the table can read the chips, and the data is then relayed to computers used for TV production or tournaments. The RFID readers are placed less than one inch below the surface where the cards are laid. Each card has its own unique tag. Matt Berkey, local poker expert says: “Think of it as a bar code.” “They’re all different, and they all have a special identification code that goes through the reader and into the motherboard.”
The cards are then displayed on a graphics display system in the table and the results can be seen by the viewers. This allows players to view the cards, even though they are hidden. It also helps TV broadcasters keep track of each game as it happens.
But the technology hasn’t stopped there. Some cheaters in poker are now using an advanced type of RFID. These cards contain a chip that has an antenna embedded in it. An RFID device can read this chip. The chip can be programmed to respond to an electromagnetic field and contain any information needed by the poker analyzer to read the card.
These RFID chips can also be found in casino chips. They are useful for keeping track and ensuring everyone is playing fairly. To make these chips more effective, they can be coated in a layer of invisible ink. These inks appear as black spots when viewed with an infrared scanner.
To use a scanner, you will need several things: an infrared camera hidden on the card that can detect invisible ink, an RFID and RFID reader that can scan the cards and an app to interpret the results. The app will then display the results on your smartphone or tablet. If necessary, you can show your opponents these results.
This article originally appeared on KTNV. Copyright