Last week, the US Justice Department published an indictment involving NBA stars and members of the mob for allegedly running a network of rigged gambling games. One of their rigging tactics was a manipulation of a Deckmate 2 automatic shuffling machine—almost identical to an experiment done by senior correspondent Andy Greenberg and his hacking crew for …’s Hacklab. Hosts Michael Calore and Lauren Goode sit down with Andy to break down how the machines can be compromised, and what the vulnerabilities behind it say about our tech devices at large.
Articles mentioned in the episode:
- How Hacked Card Shufflers Allegedly Enabled a Mob-Fueled Poker Scam That Rocked the NBA
- Hackers Rig Casino Card-Shuffling Machines for ‘Full Control’ Cheating
You can follow Michael Calore on Bluesky at @snackfight, Lauren Goode on Bluesky at @laurengoode, and Andy Greenberg on Bluesky at @agreenberg. Write to us at uncannyvalley@….com.
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Transcript
Note: This is an automated transcript, which may contain errors.
Michael Calore: Hey, Lauren. How are you doing?
Lauren Goode: Hey, Mike. I'm good. How are you?
Michael Calore: I am fantastic today. Thanks.
Lauren Goode: You rarely hear that. Happy for you.
Michael Calore: Before we dive into the show, I have to ask, are you a poker player?
Lauren Goode: Not exactly.
Michael Calore: What do you mean “not exactly”?
Lauren Goode: No, I mean, so you've probably heard of this little thing called CES—
Michael Calore: Yeah.
Lauren Goode: —that happens every year in Las Vegas. So for several years I would go cover CES often for your team and would play a little bit of pai gow poker. Are you familiar with pai gow?
Michael Calore: Oh, yeah. It's one of those games I don't understand.
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