What is Chip Dumping in Poker? Is it Even Legal?

Updated on March 20, 2025

It’s easy to find articles covering concepts like GTO poker, hand rankings, or running it twice. However, the dark side of the game can often be neglected, leaving players unfamiliar with the concepts.

While dishonesty in poker is a sensitive subject, understanding the slang and the practice it describes is vital in protecting the game.

Today, we’ll cover a fraudulent activity known as chip dumping to help you spot it and keep your tables as safe as possible.

What is Chip Dumping in Poker?

Chip dumping is the poker term for losing chips to another player on purpose, usually to pass them money. Though it sounds like a perfect cue for a poop joke, chip dumping is a very serious form of fraud.

It’s fine to give up a few chips on purpose if you think you can gain strategic advantages from it in the long term. However, by manipulating stack sizes in a tournament, for example, fraudulent chip dumping occurs when both players are aware of the act and are colluding.

What does Chip Dumping Look Like

Though it can happen in all poker games, chip dumping mostly happens at the cash tables since the chimp dumper can withdraw the money immediately.

An obvious case of chip dumping might see two players sitting at a heads-up cash table, each sitting with $1,000.

Player A would raise to $999.
Player B would go all-in.
Player A would fold.
Player B would win $999.

Player A would either reload and they would repeat the process, or Player B would cash out the $1,999.

In reality however, players know that chip dumping is against the rules, so they tend to be a little more subtle about it. They may pass the money in more believable ways over a number of hands or join a six-handed game to make the chip dumping less obvious.

Though it may go undetected at first, chip dumping doesn’t take long to cross the line of ‘reasonable doubt’ and for the players to be caught.

What if You’re Caught Chip Dumping

Since chip dumping is fraudulent, the casino usually seizes your money pending an investigation.

If you’re found guilty, you will probably lose your money.
The casino may close your account.
The casino might ban you from their location and any other facilities they may own.

A new player might get away with a warning, but poker clients aren’t stupid. This infraction of their terms and conditions goes way beyond a poker cheat sheet.

They will probably see through a chip dumper’s, ‘I don’t know, what is chip dumping in online poker?’

Why Do People Chip Dump

There are several reasons why some people will chip dump, especially in online poker. They range from the more harmless acts of transferring money to a friend in the form of poker chip values to pay a debt or avoid currency exchange fees, to serious crimes, like trying to hide or launder money.

Whatever the reason for chip dumping in poker, it is always against the rules of any provider.

Some reasons for dumping chips might include:

To give someone a stake to play with.
To launder dirty money.
To collude against other players.
To transfer funds from multiple accounts to abuse a new player promotion.
To hide their winnings from a staker/spouse.

Since most online card rooms now allow players to transfer money between accounts, most chip dumping is done for dishonest reasons.

Strategic Chip Dumping in MTTs

Since players can’t cash out tournament chips, fraudulent chip dumping is far less prevalent in MTTs, but it can still happen.

ICM forces players to play tighter when they have medium stacks, and good tournament players understand that the presence of a short stack can benefit their big stack. A short stack enables big stacks to push the medium stacks around and increase their lead as the medium stacks try to outlast the short stacks.

Therefore, it’s common for players to play softer against a short stack to keep them at the tables. They may make very tight folds against them, give them a walk when they have two big blinds, or turn down other profitable poker bluff situations to keep the short stack at the table.

You could argue that this form of chip-dumping is different. For chip dumping in poker to be fraudulent, both players must be working together, which is not the case here.

Although the big stack may pass chips to the shorty, they do so in their own interest.

Why Should I Care about Chip Dumping?

Although it might not feel like any of your business, we have a duty to report chip dumping. According to www.transparency.org, nefarious characters launder billions of dollars through casinos worldwide, and this criminal activity can tarnish poker’s reputation.

This issue can put off potential new poker players whose deposits are vital for the longevity of the game.

Chip dumping makes the games more boring, too. Remember, chip dumpers didn’t come to play poker. They came to pass money to another player, which means they’re taking the seat of another player who wants to get involved.

The History of Chip Dumping

Casinos have always been popular places for criminals to launder their ill-gotten gains. However, technology is making it harder for them to get away with it. These days, chip dumpers are usually caught pretty quickly since casinos can track the actions of anyone suspicious.

If you’re looking for where to play poker in Las Vegas, you’re pretty safe in most casinos or poker rooms.

The same is true with online companies, but it’s even easier for them to combat chip-dumping because they can block withdrawals without the risk of any physical violence or danger.

Over the years, the poker industry has implemented rules to combat chip dumping. For example, most casinos now make showing cards mandatory during an all-in showdown.

According to Mike Matusow on Twitter, the industry implemented this rule after Men Nguyen supposedly forced the players he stakes, known as horses, to deliberately lose their chips to him.

Nguyen has been accused of a few dodgy dealings at the poker tables, which Dough Polk discussed at length in a YouTube video titled "He Stole MILLIONS At The World Series Of Poker."

Some people will go to any lengths to win whether the speculation is legit or not.

How to Spot Chip Dumping

Get into the habit of looking out for what is chip dumping in online poker. If you suspect players are doing so, inform the cardroom/poker provider to collect/ screenshot any evidence.

It’s easy to gather if you’re playing online because any poker hand is stored digitally. But it can be a little more difficult in a casino, especially since hands come around more slowly, making repeated big pots against two players less frequent.

If you suspect chip dumping in a live game, have a quiet word with the casino pit boss instead of mentioning it directly to the players.

People can act aggressively when they are accused of breaking the rules, especially if they are innocent. So, raising your concerns privately will keep you safer and prevent misunderstandings.

There you have it: another concept to add to your poker terms list.

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