High-Tech Poker Experiment Goes Viral
Can poker’s automatic shuffling machines really be hacked? WIRED senior writer Andy Greenberg set out to find out — and the results have shaken up the poker community. In a viral new video titled “I Cheated At Poker By Hacking A Casino Card Shuffling Machine,” Greenberg teamed up with cybersecurity expert Joseph Tartaro and poker pro Doug Polk to expose just how vulnerable casino hardware can be. The clip racked up more than 100,000 views in under 24 hours.
How the Hack Worked
Tartaro, a seasoned security consultant, has spent years studying the inner workings of casino tech. In the video, he demonstrates how the popular Deckmate 2 shuffling machine — used in poker rooms worldwide — can be compromised using something as simple as its USB port. By plugging in a small Bluetooth-enabled device, he was able to read the exact order of cards inside the machine and transmit it directly to his phone.
“This device has a Bluetooth model and it will wirelessly connect to this phone,” Tartaro explains in the video. “Every time a deck gets shuffled, it will get the exact order from the camera in the shuffler and send it to me.”
Putting the Rigged Shuffler to the Test
With the hacked Deckmate 2 ready, Greenberg organized a private poker game featuring Tartaro and two unsuspecting players. Using subtle chip movements as coded signals, Tartaro fed Greenberg live information on whether to fold, call, or raise — giving the journalist perfect reads on every hand. Despite not being a skilled player, Greenberg cruised to victory in the sit-and-go, proving just how dangerous such a hack could be in the wrong hands.
What the Experts Say
While the experiment raised eyebrows across the poker world, not everyone is panicking. Doug Polk — poker pro and co-owner of The Lodge Poker Club in Texas — said regulated casino games remain largely safe.
“The Deckmate 2 in a casino location, you shouldn’t be too scared of,” Polk said. “They have all these casino contracts, so they have licensed people fixing problems that there might be. The problem is once somebody has a Deckmate 2 on a black market or a secondary market, they are now no longer being upkept by the company itself.”
Polk added that he’s “heard so many cheating stories of people using these to cheat players out of their money when it’s not happening at a casino location.”
Company Responds
Light and Wonder, the gaming manufacturer behind the Deckmate 2, issued a statement to WIRED saying the company has already taken action. “We’ve updated the firmware on all our Deckmate shufflers to all our customers worldwide at zero cost to them,” a spokesperson said.
Still, Tartaro maintains that vulnerabilities remain and warns that such exploits could be weaponized in unregulated private games.
Modern Cheating Concerns
The experiment comes amid growing concern over technology-driven cheating in poker. In a 2024 interview, psychologist and poker player Maria Konnikova cautioned against the use of electronic devices and even sunglasses at the table, noting that miniature cameras and hidden sensors could pose new threats to fair play.
With poker tech evolving faster than ever, Greenberg’s video serves as a timely reminder: in the digital age, even the shuffle might not be as random as it seems.
