The Obscure Tech at the Heart of the Bombshell NBA Gambling Scandal

Since the invention of the card game, players have been looking for ways to stack the deck. Now, with the development of automated card shufflers, it would appear that a group well practiced in such illicit activities—the Costa Nostra mafia—may have found a new way to rig games for easy money. And, weirdly enough, those games are alleged to have involved a bunch of current and former NBA officials and players, who are now in quite a bit of trouble.

A new federal indictment claims that…