A high-tech poker scandal and a chemistry test controversy

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Operation Royal Flush

Every now and again, this Newscriptster enjoys a game of poker—Texas Hold’em, to be precise. It’s all fun and games, but even without betting real money, it’s nice to win. So recent news about Operation Royal Flush raised the question: Was there any science behind this cheating operation?

In October, law enforcement agents arrested more than 30 people in a high-stakes poker scandal known as Operation Royal Flush, which involved unsuspecting wealthy gamblers, aka “fish”; the famous people recruiting them, including former NBA players and other professional athletes, whom prosecutors described as “face cards”; and New York mafia families.

It was nearly impossible for unwitting gamblers to spot the trickery in these rigged games. The organizers allegedly used sophisticated technology: playing cards marked with invisible ink, specially designed sunglasses and contact lenses to read these markings on the backs of cards, hacked shuffling machines, rigged poker tables, and analyzers in poker chip trays.

Marked cards and light-filtering lenses can be easily purchased online on sites like eBay and Amazon or specialty poker-cheating websites. Poker tables can be built specifically for cheating, often with a camera or an imaging sensor mounted underneath the felt “that can read players’ whole cards,” says Sal Piacente, a casino games security and cheating expert.

Card-shuffling machines may be altered to read the cards in the deck. Poker chip trays can have hidden cameras that read invisible markings on the cards and transmit that information to external operators who are part of the scam, Piacente says. In a CNN interview, he showed viewers earpieces that are incredibly tiny and may be used for such communication.

There’s nothing truly new about these technologies, Piacente tells Newscripts via email. “They’ve been around for years, just not widely publicized.”

While this Newscriptster is not a fan of being deceitful, I’m tempted to see whether fellow players can spot cheating during our next poker night if I bring marked playing cards and trick sunglasses along.

Wrong answers only

Meanwhile, in California’s Mission San Jose High School, a teacher, the school principal, and the Fremont Unified School District defended wrong answers on a chemistry test. A 10th grader’s parents fought a months-long battle until the school district agreed to regrade the exam.

At the heart of the controversy were four questions, including one related to burning firewood. Of multiple statements, students were asked to pick a correct one indicating the type of combustion reaction. The student chose “Heat and light products indicate this combustion reaction is exothermic” as his answer. The publisher’s answer key also identified this statement to be correct. But the teacher insisted that the true statement was “Cellulose and oxygen products indicate that this combustion reaction is exothermic.”

Arguing that light isn’t always a product of combustion, she stubbornly failed to admit that oxygen and cellulose aren’t produced at all when firewood is burned.

As the San Francisco Chronicle covered the controversy, outrage poured in from far and wide. On a Reddit thread, one chemistry teacher commented “I’m ashamed of this teacher. . . . Not for being wrong, but for refusing to admit it and fighting something so stupid.”

Resa Kelly, a professor of chemistry education at San Jose State University, says that this case is “concerning,” but it’s also “not uncommon” for teachers to occasionally make errors or harbor misconceptions. But “I do think it’s important for teachers to admit when they’re incorrect,” Kelly tells Newscripts.

Finally, in November, the school district acknowledged that firewood burning doesn’t produce oxygen and that the students’ tests would be regraded. The 10th grader’s mom told SF Chronicle that their fight was never about her son’s grade. “For us it was about doing the right thing.”

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