Station Casinos is cracking down on phones in its poker rooms. At all of its Las Vegas poker rooms, management is prohibiting players from keeping their phones on the table.
Players are still allowed to use their phones. However, they can’t leave it sitting on the table.
At the company’s Boulder Station property, poker room management wrote the rule on a whiteboard.
“Cellphones & other electronics are not allowed to be on the table,” the rule read. “Card protectors are also not allowed.”
Card Player reached out to the property’s poker room manager for comment, but did not receive a response.
Station Casinos own 17 properties in Southern Nevada. Red Rock Resort, Boulder Station, Santa Fe Station, and Green Valley Ranch have poker rooms. Green Valley Ranch reopened its poker room at the end of last year.
New Rule Should Mitigate Most Recent Cheating Method
Despite the lack of insight, it’s very clear why the measures were implemented. To ensure the property’s poker games are on the straight and narrow.
In 2024, authorities arrested a duo cheating high-stakes poker games in Europe. The pair of cheaters had one player in the game and his partner was outside the casino with a video feed.
The player in the game had a microscopic camera the side of his phone. He laid his phone on its side and the camera was able to see underneath the dealer’s pitch. Thus, his partner with the video feed could track every card dealt, and relay that information to the player at the table through an earpiece.
This method made its way across the Atlantic and became a threat in the U.S.
In a recent Crush Live Poker podcast, poker pro and host Bart Hanson said there were reports and rumors about similar scams running through Southern California games.
By removing electronic devices from the rail or the felt of the table, Station Casinos can protect its players from a similar cheating ring.
Station Casinos Following The Trend
The decision to remove phones and card protectors comes shortly after one of its competitors took a different security measure.
Management at the South Point Casino poker room changed the way their dealers deal the cards. Instead of the traditional pitch, South Point dealers now use the slide method, popular throughout Europe.
The traditional pitch has dealers tossing the cards to players through the air. But the slide method is exactly what it sounds like. The dealer pushes the card into the felt and slides it to the player.
Switching to this dealing method is the other way to prevent these cheating rings from taking advantage of other players. If the cards are never airborne, then any potential camera couldn’t pick up the card values.
Despite several Las Vegas casinos taking precautions, there have been no confirmed reports of recent cheating in Las Vegas.
