Thai Gambler Cheated Using Magnetic Fingertips

According to Thaiger, a man in Thailand spent 40 years having magnets inserted in his fingers so he could cheat at dice.

The man allegedly came to Dr. Wat Lun of the Wiwat X-ray Clinic-Lab in Chon Buri, Thailand, to have the magnets taken out because he had to catch a flight and was concerned they may trigger the airport security alert.

Images of the man’s stitched-up fingers that Lun uploaded online after the operation have gone popular in Thailand. In the middle and ring fingers of his left hand, the man had “two very tightly embedded magnets,” according to him.

Two small, dark magnets the size of fingernails are displayed in a different picture shared by Lun.

In order to cheat in the dice game known as Hi-lo in Thailand and as Sic-bo or Dai Siu in many other Asian countries, the man had the magnets customized. He informed the physician that a little bit of metal would be embedded in the dice, enabling him to control them magnetically.

They have lived there for 40 years, according to the man.

Hi-Lo Lie

Three dice are used in the Chinese game of Sic-bo. Players place wagers on sections of a table that are separated into zones, each of which represents a potential result of the roll of the dice, such as whether the final number will fall between 1 and 11 or 11 and 18, or whether it will be odd or even.

Today, many casinos in the US also offer this game, which was once quite well-liked in Macau and the Philippines’ casinos.

Thailand has no authorized casinos, yet there is a huge problem with illegal gaming. Dice play in an unauthorized casino is punishable by a three-year prison sentence and a 5,000 baht ($150) fine.

Positives and Negatives

Magnet cheating at gambling is not a novel concept. It is thought that back when slot machines were mechanical and made of metal, cheaters would move the reels using powerful magnets.

This method may be an urban legend because it is improbable that it would have been highly successful and because the majority of the supporting material is anecdotal.

In American gaming parlors and riverboat casinos throughout the 19th century, the dice game Hazard was the inspiration for the creation of Craps. Even though many of these venues were famously dishonest, it appears that when the venues rigged the dice, weighted dice were preferred over magnets.