Is there Fake News in the Media Covering Casino and Poker Cheating?

Source of Card-Marking Materials???

I never considered this...until I heard this: "German Police Arrest Woman on Suspicion of Marking Cards used in Casino Table Games with radioactive iodine."

According to various online news accounts, a 41-year-old woman, who--oddly--was not identified, Berlin police raided a restaurant after pieces of radioactive playing cards were found at a waste treatment plant and traced back to the restaurant. At the restaurant, thirteen playing cards with traces of radioactive iodine-125, which is a nuclide found in certain medicines. Shortly afterward, a night club, karaoke bar, an apartment and some office spaces were searched by the same police department.

It is not clear if any of these places, including the restaurant, was home to some sort of illicit poker game or casino.

According to the reports, the woman had a partner who had a radioactive detection device that would enable him or her to identify the cards that had the iodine on them. No German casinos were named in this report, so it is possible that this radioactive card-marking scam took place or was taking place in some kind of private, non-state-sanctioned game.

The police also noted that there was no health risk to anyone coming into contact with the radioactive cards as the dose was small and had all but disappeared when the cards were found.

The woman faces from one to five years in prison.

My take: Is this real? Or is this some kind of fake news? Well, I really don't know. Maybe we will learn later that it was all part of some kind of terrorism plot--that would be really scary!!