....but not necessarily in other arenas. I've been on a casino payroll as a propostion poker player, which is basically a shill who is betting his or her own money in a real game. Some casinos also use shills, the difference from a prop player being that the shill plays with the casino's money, and doesn't win or lose personally. A shill will only remain a shill if the casino benefits from his or her play for both reasons that they are being employed, i.e., games are being started and played, and he or she isn't losing the casino's money on a regular basis. Most people that I've met that play as prop players are in agreement in that they play too good to be a shill, because we get to keep our winnings and shills don't. Both categories of paid players do receive an hourly wage.

The major difference that I see in shill or prop betting versus shill bidding is, every gaming jurisdiction that I know of requires shills or props to identify themselves when asked by other people involved in the game.

Bob :-)