Casino Game Collusion

Gambling establishments of all kinds must constantly be on the lookout for new ways that players find
to cheat. Some forms of cheating are as old as gambling itself, while others take advantage of newer
technology. Players that collude with each other is an age-old means of gaining a competitive advantage
in several different games.

There are several different ways that players can gain an advantage by colluding. In addition, there are
also several other benefits to be gained by colluding that do not necessarily always defraud the gaming
entity but are still illegal. Here are five ways collusion is used to commit fraud.

Gnomon is simply the term used for using multiple accounts to help one player win. In any type of multi-
player card game such as blackjack or poker, players can gain a competitive advantage just by knowing
what cards are in play and which are not. For instance, if a single player is playing three hands of
blackjack at the same table and is holding two, three or four of the available four cards of any type, then
it significantly narrows the potential cards the dealer might be holding or that might still be in the deck.
Gnomon can be one user playing multiple accounts or multiple players helping one player win.

Gnomon can also offer a significant advantage in tournament play when there is a cash prize of some
kind in addition to what the player wins from the other players. In poker, gnomon can be used to
increase the pot size or even squeeze other players out of a hand. If there are only one or two legitimate
players in a hand, the players who are gnomon can keep increasing the pot size even if they have a
terrible hand. If one of their "team" has a winning hand, they all win. Since poker is as much a game of
psychology as skill, even online, gnomon can also be used to give a single player or the group a
psychological advantage over any legitimate players. Since they are working together, they can
coordinate their strategies to keep other players constantly off-balance.

Sometimes, a group is working together and will share in the profits when they are done, but in some
cases, a single player may stake multiple players and then simply pay them a small fee at the end for
their participation.

Chip Dumping: Chip dumping is a practice that takes place in poker where one player purposefully loses
to another or "dumps" their chips on them. Chip dumping happens for a number of reasons. In addition
to gaining a competitive advantage in tournament play, chip dumping can also be used as a means of
laundering money, since winnings from gambling are considered legitimate income. Criminal enterprises
can deposit their money in casino accounts, then use several accounts to "lose" to a single account. That
person can then claim their winnings as legitimate income. Chip dumping is also a way to pay for
criminal activities so that it looks like legitimate income.

Bonus Fraud: Most online gambling sites will offer signup bonuses for new players or keep customer
loyalty. They may also offer bonuses to players they haven't seen in a while. Most of these bonuses have
rollover requirements, which means the user must gamble the full amount a certain number of times in
order to withdraw the full bonus. For instance, if the player receives a 10% signup bonus and they make
a first deposit of $2,000, then they would receive a $200 bonus. If the bonus has a 3X rollover
requirement, then, in essence, they need to make at least $600 in bets in order to withdraw their first
stake plus the bonus. Collusion is an easy way to ensure players can fulfill the rollover requirements
while still being able to collect the full bonus. All they must do is lose to each other a certain number of
times at poker and they both walk away with their bonus.

Collusion is just as prevalent in real-world casinos as it is in online casinos, but self-collusion is not as
much of an option. One type of collusion that is eliminated in online casinos, however, is dealer
collusion. In real-world casinos, dealers can sometimes be blackmailed or bought off, but in online
casinos, dealers are simply programs that are harder to tamper with.

Because collusion is such a severe and significant problem, most online gaming sites have advanced
software that can help detect any sign of collusion. When the software detects potential signs of
collusion, it can be sent to a fraud expert that can examine the gameplay. Since online games are digital
fraud experts can look at what hands' players were holding when they folded, raised, called or made
other key plays. In addition, casinos can look at the histories of certain players to see when or if they
have played against each other and what the outcomes were. In many cases, when fraud experts
suspect fraud, they may suspend a player's account and even redirect any winnings to players that
should have won certain hands or even tournaments.