“The Deckmate shuffling machine is secure and cannot be compromised,” the report read. But when Joseph Tartaro, a researcher and consultant with security firm IOActive, read that report, he zeroed in on one claim in particular-a statement ruling out any possibility that the automated card-shuffling machine used at the table, a device known as the Deckmate, could have been hacked. It also noted that if there were cheating, it was most likely some sort of secret communication between the player and a staff member in the production booth who could see the players' hands in real time.
Three months later, Hustler Live Casino published a postmortem of its investigation into the incident, finding “no credible evidence” of foul play. No one could possibly think that poor hand might be good enough to call a bluff, thousands of outraged poker players argued, unless the person holding it had some extra knowledge that her opponent's hand was even worse-in other words, she must have been cheating. In September last year, a scandal blew up the world of high-stakes, livestreamed poker: In a hand at Los Angeles' Hustler Live Casino, which broadcast its games on YouTube, a relative novice holding nothing but a jack of clubs and a four of hearts successfully called the bluff of a veteran player.
