Hot cards in Vietnam

Police in Vietnam have reported arresting a would-be supplier of marked cards for gambling cheaters, but those who use these may have found that their winning streak was a lot hotter and more dangerous than they thought possible.

The cards were marked with radioactive material generating radioactivity levels at least 30 times greater than the safe dose, ensuring that users were at real physical risk.

Bui Dinh Chung, the would-be supplier, had four packs on his person when arrested and explained to police that the idea behind the scam was for the player to conceal a sensor in his clothing, which would vibrate every time a radioactive card was dealt to that player.

The Thanh Nien News report notes that Bui may had difficulty off-loading the cards anyway; they have a reputation in the cheat gambling community for making users tired and weak or suffer from hair loss!

The consequences faced by Bui go well beyond simply cheating, however – police have instigated charges of possessing and trading radioactive material – a very serious criminal offence.

In related news, comes an amusing report of a 55-year-old crooked Connecticut gambler who (erroneously) thought he was the only one who could read invisible markings on cards by using special contact lenses.

Bruce Koloshi’s strategy for cheating at poker at the Mohegan Sun casino in Connecticut was to mark the cards with ink that he believed only he could see with the special contact lenses he was wearing.

Unfortunately for him, it turned out that he was not the only one who could see the markings – casino surveillance operators could too, if they played the video from their cameras in black-and-white rather than colour. A surveillance operator at Mohegan Sun did and called in the state police, who arrested Koloshi.

Under questioning, the failed fraudster admitted his wrongdoing and gave the reason – he was trying to win enough to make bail in Louisiana, where he was facing felony charges for doing the same thing!

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