stacked deck
Cheater's arranged cards
A stacked deck is a deck of cards arranged to produce a predetermined outcome—cheating by design.
The phrase appears most often figuratively: a situation rigged against fair competition.
The rules amounted to a stacked deck favoring incumbents.
To stack the deck is to arrange conditions to guarantee a particular result.
- riggedFraudulently arranged beforehand
- rigged gameContest with predetermined outcome
- nepotismPreferring kin in hiring
- cheatingDeceptive rule-breaking
- loaded diceTampered probability cubes
biased · cronyism · skewed · systemic bias · tampered · thumb on the scale · distrust · favoritism · good old boys · engineered · fixed · crooked deal · exploitation · fine print · fraudulence · poker · doctored · manipulated
- playing cardsace, jack, king, queen, joker
- unfairnessunfair, unjust, biased, unequal, inequitable
- gambling cheatscard mechanic, marked cards, card sharp, collusion, mechanic
stacked deckfair shake
Equitable treatment or opportunity
level playing field · fair play · square deal · above board · on the level
stacked deckequal opportunity
Unbiased chance for all
even odds · equal footing · meritocracy · open competition · fair chance
stack, stacks, stacking, stacker, stackable, unstacked, deck, decks, decked