Friday, November 18, 2011

Good Example of How Casino Steaming Leads to Casino Cheating

Source: Asia One News

A Malaysian visitor was frustrated and angry after losing $18,000 on his first visit to Marina Bay Sands.

At about 5pm on Oct 26, Tan Kuan Loong tried to cheat at a three-dice game, sic bo, by placing a late bet of $30 on the winning combination.
It should have won him $1,500, but his cheating ways were found out after dealer Chaiyaboot Narumon told her pit manager about her suspicions of the bet.

As the surveillance department reviewed the video footage of that bet, Tan tried to sneak in another bet of $30, when one of the dice already showed a five.

Tan pleaded guilty to one charge, while the second cheating offence was taken into consideration by the judge in the sentencing. Tan's defense counsel Rajan Supramaniam asked for leniency, saying his client had a five-year-old daughter with a hole in the heart. He had also resorted to cheating in a moment of foolishness. Tan was fined $1,500. He could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined up to $10,000.

My take: This type of entry into casino or poker cheating is always a risk for those who steam while losing at gambling and out of desperation decide to cheat. At least in this case, the authorities and the judge had the decency to cut Tan a break. It was hard to hear about the hole in his daughter's heart.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Piggyback Casino Cheating...Can it be Done?

I was asked an interesting question yesterday: "I am a fairly intelligent guy and was wondering if I can go to Vegas and spot a casino cheat team or individual cheat or a poker team and piggyback onto their operation without taking any of their heat if they get caught?

Like I said, interesting.

Well, as far as the poker piggyback cheating goes, forget it! You can't join a collusion ring your not part of, nor can you read marks on cards their marking if you don't already have the right lenses in your eyes.

But in casino table games it is possible, albeit rare and difficult. With advantage-play teams at blackjack and baccarat tables, it may be possible to read their advantage if they are counting cards, ace-tracking, hole-carding or any of the other scams done on those tables that do not involve chip manipulation. On craps tables the idea of piggyback cheating would be more feasible. One example would be with dice-sliding, where the dice-cheat slides one of the dice so that it does not tumble or hit the back wall, therefore staying put on the number he has set up, usually six. If you pick up on a guy throwing dice and one of them not hitting the back wall and consistently coming up six or any other number, you could piggyback onto the scam and not take heat because you are not rolling the dice. So if you can see a guy rolling one of the dice six, you know that on a come-out or come-bet roll, you have a 2 to 1 edge right off the bat of a winner 7 or 11, against a craps loser 12. And there are many other opportunities like this involving field bets.