Alleged Borgata Chip Faker Indicted

Alleged Borgata Chip Faker Indicted

Thursday, 9 July 2015

Alleged Borgata chip counterfeiter, Christian Lusardi, has been indicted by a court in New Jersey. The 43-year-old from North Carolina was arrested back in January after police traced a stash of fake poker chips back to his home address.

Police claim that Lusardi ordered the plastic discs from China and then proceeded to smuggle them into the Borgata Winter Poker Open back in 2014 and then used them in the festival's $2 million guaranteed event.

Tournament organisers got suspicious when a chip count was conducted on Day 2 and the number in play was significantly higher than it should have been.

After investigations by the Borgata the tournament was eventually cancelled and players were paid out according to their stacks at the time of the cancellation. Further investigations were then carried out by the local authorities who discovered more than 2 million in fake chips blocking a sewer pipe in Atlantic City's Harrah's Casino.

Lusardi was officially arrested a short time later; however, police then discovered he'd also been selling counterfeit DVDs and he was subsequently charged and sentenced to five-years in prison for his crime.

However, fast-forward a few months and Lusardi was back in the dock again, this time relating to the counterfeit chips. Appearing in Atlantic Count Court on Wednesday, a grand jury took little time to indict him on charges of second-degree trademark counterfeiting, second-degree attempted theft by deception and third-degree criminal mischief.



Tags: Christian Lusardi