The squat, brick building on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan looked like any other on the block, with no hint of the elaborate trap within.
In the summer of 2023, a man — we’ll call him, as prosecutors do, John Doe #1 — walked into the building and sat down at an invitation-only, backroom poker table.
The game was Texas hold ’em. The stakes were high. Standing by was a security guard known as Albanian Bruce or, alternately and more tellingly, Big Bruce.
Other players joined. John Doe #1 believed he had as good a chance as any of them.
The others, as described by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn in a case unsealed on Thursday, knew better. They were not just card players. Sometimes, retired N.B.A. players were at the table — “face cards” there to attract high rollers. Others included members and associates of the Gambino and Lucchese organized crime families, old-school crews sitting down to a cutting-edge hustle.
When the dealer ran decks of cards through a shuffling machine, the trap was set.
This was no ordinary shuffling machine, according to the indictment. It contained hidden technology that read the cards in the deck and instantly predicted which player would be dealt the best hand, prosecutors said.
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