There are a number of reasons why people decide to play poker. Making money quickly and making large sums of money are two of the mains reasons why the game of poker is so attractive and addictive. The lure to make big bucks quickly sometimes proves to be a downfall, especially to those players who are willing to cross the law in order to achieve their objective.
Christian Lusardi was one of these players who decided to venture into Harrah’s Resort and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey and see if he could cheat his way into a fortune. Lusardi, who hails from Fayetteville, North Carolina had reportedly entered the casino with a huge pile of counterfeit poker chips.
After playing at the casino, he later entered one of the toilets and tried to flush down $2.7 million worth of fake poker chips.
Lusardi who is 42 years old entered Harrah’s resort and Casino to get rid of the counterfeit poker chips he used during the Winter Poker Open’s “Big Stack, No Limit Hold ‘Em” event which took place at the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa. This fraudulent scam came to light when workers at the Casino discovered 160 of the counterfeit poker chips, each chip worth $5,000 and amounting to a total of $800,000. The reason this came to light was because the chips clogged the sewer pipes at Harrah’s who sent on to notify Borgata management.
In a statement, Joe Lupo, senior vice president of operations at Borgata said
This was a very unusual occurrence. It’s the first time in Borgata’s 10 years that anything like this has happened. We are very pleased that the New Jersey State Police Casino Gaming Bureau has apprehended a suspect. While this is a very positive development, the investigation by the Division of Gaming Enforcement and the State Police is ongoing.
After the discovery of the counterfeit chips was made, officials immediately suspended the event for 24 hours and then went onto cancel the tournament. Police went on to arrest Lusardi over the weekend and confirm that he introduced counterfeit chips into the tournament on a number of occasions. Lusardi managed to win $6,814 during the tournament.
Lusardi was picked up from a motel in Atlantic City and charged on the basis of criminal attempt, rigging a publicly exhibited contest and theft by deception. His bail was set at $300,000 and no option was given for him to pay 10% at the Atlantic City jail.
