skin game
1. slang A rigged or fraudulent gambling game. It turns out the "poker club" they'd been running was just a skin game to milk cash out of rich poker enthusiasts.
2. slang By extension, any swindle or con. He had this long-running skin game where he would convince rich, elderly widows to invest in insurance plans that actually paid into an offshore account he controlled. People are naturally suspicious of anything that challenges or contradicts their most strongly held beliefs, being quick to label such things as nothing more than skin games.