4 ways cheaters managed to scam the casino

Gambling is big business all across the world and especially in the US. Its’ reported that in 2013 alone gamblers across US casinos lost an incredible $119 billion. The casino always wins in the end thanks to the house edge, but you can also win massive amounts with some luck on your side. So gamblers flock to the casinos hopping to hit a big win. This means that it’s only natural that the casinos are targeted by enthusiastic cheaters, who think they have the perfect scheme on how to beat the house. Even today casinos estimate losses in tens of millions of dollars due to cheaters. This is why most casinos today pay special attention to their security, regardless if it’s a state of the art monitoring system, an investigation software or just brute force by casino security. But it seems that cheaters always find a way to steal from the casino. Here are 4 real life examples of cheating schemes which actually worked.

Infrared Contact Lenses

This incident occurred in 2011 at Les Prince Casino. They were visited by 3 Italians which managed to bribe one of the employees to mark the cards at the poker tables. He used an invisible ink to mark crosses and slashes on the Kings and Aces of certain decks. This gave the cheaters an edge, as they were wearing contact lenses which could spot the marks.

When the trio hit the tables on their first night they managed to take €70,000 from the casino. The scheme was successful but the cheaters made one crucial mistake. After examining the game play the casino security team noticed that they were folding hands every time the dealer had a winning hand. So all they had to do was wait for them to come back and try again.

They didn’t have to wait long. Their leader came back to the casino about two months later, racking up another €21,000. He was arrested and the trio was brought to justice. They were sentenced to a €100,000 fine each and prison time.

Remote Controlled Roulette Ball

This incident happened at 1973 at Casino Deville. The scheme involved a casino roulette dealer, hit brother in law and his sister. The cheaters managed to win over $1 million by using a roulette ball which was controlled with a remote.

The scheme was quite ingenious and high tech for that time. They hid a radio receiver in the ball and a radio transmitter in a pack of cigarettes. The dealer replaced the regular ball with the crooked one, while the brother in law placed bets on the table. The sister in the meantime controlled where the ball would land on the roulette slots.

The scheme worked perfectly and they might have gotten away with it if the sister wasn’t such a pretty girl. The casino owner noticed her right away. But soon he noticed that she was always at the same table, laying small bets and never really winning anything. He called in a debugging crew which caught the crooked ball on their first sweep. Later on a movie was inspired by this fraud, called Tricheurs.

Fake Casino Tokens

Louis “The Coin” Collavecchio is a popular character who managed to create perfect replicas of casino tokens. The History Channel made a documentary about him called Breaking Vegas, describing his work and how he managed to scam the casinos.

He was an interesting character to start with. Skilled as a master mechanic, a jeweler and a car dealer he managed to put his skills to his use and take on the casinos. He managed to create perfect replicas of slot machine tokens, which couldn’t be detected by the casino. They were perfect in any way and all he needed to do was go to the casino, play for some time and walk out with cash after exchanging his tokens. This went on for years until finally the casinos noticed that they had a surplus of tokens, more that they had in stock. He was eventually arrested and sentenced to 6 years in prison. But the story doesn’t end there. He was hired as a consultant for the government and got an $18,000 fee in order to explain his manufacturing process. They were amazed as to how his printing dies were more durable than the ones from the US Mint.

Cufflink Camera

This scheme was pulled off by the “Cutter Gang”. This gang managed to cheat the casinos for millions of dollars by targeting the baccarat tables. One of the players had a tiny camera hidden in his cufflink. Once the deck was shuffled the player was allowed to cut the cards. He then dragged the top card and separated the cards below with his index finger in order for the camera to record them.

After that the camera was exchanged in the bathroom to an accomplice and the video was given to a team in the nearby hotel. Based on the video they gave the player advice on how to play and win at the table. The group was arrested but the camera wasn’t found and the group managed to walk away free.

Investigation software against cheaters

As you can see from the examples above cheaters are quite ingenious when it comes to finding ways to cheat the casinos. This is why gambling establishments all over the world are investing millions of dollars into state of the art security systems and investigation software. They also have security teams and undercover guards keeping an eye on the players, in an attempt to spot any cheaters. This may seem like a bit too much, but you have to understand that a well devised scheme can cost the casino millions of dollars in the long run. They also have a big help from investigation software, which helps the casino analyze the game play, the players’ behavior and possible cheating attempts. This leaves the casinos protected at all times and pretty much discourages cheaters of trying their schemes on the casino floor.