Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Casino Cheating Literature Professor?

Bet Capping
By golly, my deareth Shakespeare...is it true?

According to authorities in the State of Missouri, it is. And of all things, this professor is being accused of capping and pastposting bets. Please don't let the gaming officials take a pound of his flesh!

According to CBS St. Louis, here's what happened:

A Southeast Missouri State University professor pleaded not guilty to charges that he cheated at Cape Girardeau´s casino.

Sixty-six year-old Roger C. Arpin, a longtime literature professor, entered the plea Monday. He was arrested Friday at the Isle Casino Cape Girardeau. He is charged with "capping" his bets at a blackjack table, meaning he allegedly added to a bet after the cards were dealt and he knew he had an advantage.

The Southeast Missourian reports that Arpin is the first person arrested for cheating at the Cape Girardeau casino since it opened Oct. 30. State gaming officials state that 44 others have been arrested in Missouri´s casinos so far this year.

The charge carries a mazimum of four years in state prison. Anyone convicted of cheating casinos in Missouri is automatically banned for life from all the state´s 13 casinos.

My take: Shouldn´t Professor Arpin, if he is guilty of this, be counting cards at blackjack instead? This way he would be using his intelligence instead of risking his ass!!

Does Your Casino Need a Table Game Protection Seminar or Surveillance Training in 2013?

Table Game Seminar
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These are the questions you upper casino management directors have to ask yourselves. Remember, in addition to my informative and essential game protection seminar, with emphasis on table games, I now perform complete undercover surveillance operations on casino floors.

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Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Indiana Surveillance Director and Ex-Surveillance Director Busted in $400,000 Inside Cheat Scam!

Another Mid-America Insider Casino Cheat Scam!

Two former Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg employees are accused of taking more than $400,000 from the riverboat through false security companies. Indiana State police say a five month long investigation culminated in two arrests this week. Hollywood Casino Surveillance Technician Director, Christopher Krabbe, 42, of West Harrison, is charged with Racketeering-Corrupt Business Influence, Theft, and Money Laundering, all Class C felonies. He was arrested after meeting with police at the Dearborn County Law Enforcement Center on Wednesday.

State police had also arrested former Hollywood Casino Surveillance Director, Michael Burnett, 39, of Fairfield, Ohio, on Tuesday. He faces the same charges. Investigators say the two men allegedly setting up two false security equipment companies. The two would then purchase security equipment and charge repair work from their companies to the casino, often overcharging and double billing for the equipment and work. ISP Versailles Post investigators were assisted by investigators from the Indiana Gaming Commission. Krabbe and Burnett have each bonded out of jail by posting $2,500 cash and $10,000 surety bond.

My take: Take a look at these two geniuses! How'd they ever get away with 400 grand for this long? Wow! Says something for the whole integrity of Indiana casinos, doesn't it?

International Pastposter Casino Cheat Goes Down in the UK

An international casino fraudster has been found guilty of cheating at a Piccadilly casino. Jafer Jannati, 57, was sentenced to 12 months in prison, suspended for 12 months, and banned from entering any licensed gaming venue in the country. He was performing an illegal “Top Hat” move during a game of Roulette in the Golden Nugget Casino in Shaftesbury Avenue. Detectives from the Metropolitan Police’s gaming unit discovered he had placed chips on a winning number after the ball had dropped into the wheel in November last year. The move won Mr Jannati £490 but his luck soon ran out. He was recognised and arrested at another London casino two weeks later.

Police said Mr Jannati, from Acton, is known to have at least one previous conviction, for card-swapping in Switzerland in 2008. DI Ann-Marie Waller, from the gaming unit, said: “Jannati is a regular cheat who is known to have frequented casinos around the world. “We are committed to keeping casinos in London free of cheats, and I am pleased we have brought him to justice.”

My take: Well, this guy may have cheated his way through European casinos during recent years but he hardly strikes me as a top-gtier casino cheat. But heck, if you're gonnna take a shot at cheating casinos and your not that good, the UK is not a bad place to ply your trade as the penalties for casino cheating a quite light. Had Mr. Jannati been caught with his act in the US, he'd be sentenced to a few years of real prison time.

Also, don't you get a kick out of the British way of saying "top-hatting" for pastposting! I do.

Thursday, December 06, 2012

See the BEST Video EVER made of Richard Marcus Performing and Describing the Details of the GREAT Savannah Casino Cheat Move!!!

This is the BEST video ever made of me detailing the best casino cheat move of all time, which many of you know is called the SAVANNAH. It was broadcast yesterday by CNBC in the US on their special show "Faking the Grade", a great documentary made by Merrit Motion Pictures about youngsters cheating to gain entry to outstanding universities. The show aired on the Canadian Broadcasting Network back on November 15th.

This video is a MUST-SEE for anyone interested in seeing the REAL DEAL about the famed Savannah move and Richard Marcus

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Chinese Pair Guilty of Roselli Brothers Type Casino Credit Scam on Baccarat Tables!

I don't know if this Chinese duo read about the infamous Roselli Casino Credit Scam on my Scam of the Month Page (scroll down to it), but if they did, they should've probably picked up a copy of my book "The World's Greatest Gambling Scams," where the greatest version of the casino credit caper is detailed down to the most minute detail. I'm not saying they wouldn't have been caught had they read my book, but...who knows?

In any event, read about there casino credit baccarat attack and compare it to the Roselli's massive casino credit scam that destroyed casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City back in the mid '90s. I have called the Roselli casino credit scam the best casino scam of all time!

Source: Review Journal

A Southern California man was sentenced Monday to six years in federal prison for defrauding Station Casinos out of more than $1 million in a baccarat credit scheme.

De Rong Shang, 51, also was ordered to pay $1,011,400 in restitution and serve three years of supervised release when he gets out of prison. Prosecutors had sought a nine-year term behind bars, but Senior U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt said he didn't believe a tougher sentence was needed in this case. Both Shang and family members tearfully begged Hunt in court for leniency. The Chinese-born Shang, who also faces deportation after he gets out of prison, showed remorse and apologized to the judge.

"I'm really sorry for what I did in the past," he said through an interpreter. "Your honor, I guarantee to you that for he rest of my life I will be a law-abiding citizen."

Shang, dressed in jail garb and chains, was convicted March 27 of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 22 counts of wire fraud after a two-week trial. His co-defendant in the case, Yuli Eaton, 47, of Southern California, pleaded guilty and cooperated with prosecutors. Hunt sentenced her in July to five months in prison and five months of home confinement.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Duncan revealed in May that Shang was the target of a new FBI investigation into a similar, but larger, baccarat credit scheme on the Strip. Multiple casinos, including Paris Las Vegas, were alleged to have lost millions of dollars in a scam by Shang's group. Duncan alleged that Shang got involved in the new scheme while waiting to be tried in the Station Casinos scheme.

In court papers seeking a lighter sentence, Los Angeles defense lawyer Anthony Brooklier described Shang as a "loving father and husband whose life careened out of control" because of a gambling addiction.

"He is not criminal by nature, but rather a decent family man who, in the throes of gambling debts, made the desperate and ill-advised decision to participate in the fraudulent conduct that brings him before this court," Brooklier wrote.

In a written response, Duncan called Shang "a greedy, selfish man unconcerned with the consequences of his actions to himself, his family and other supporters." He said Shang, a Chinese citizen who came to the United States in 1991, "preyed upon members of his own community" in the Station Casinos credit scheme.

"This group of mostly Chinese immigrants were easily taken advantage of and were left with ruined credit histories and, in some cases, criminal charges in the Nevada state system," Duncan wrote. In court Monday, Duncan described Shang's crime as a "large-scale fraud" and said he had "no respect for the law."

Brooklier told Hunt that Shang's arrest was a "wake-up call" for him. "Is there no room for redemption?" he asked. "Is there no room for saying I'm sorry?" In handing out the sentence, Hunt said he agreed with prosecutors that Shang's actions were "driven by greed." He told Shang that he should have sought treatment for his gambling addiction rather than trying to defraud Station Casinos.

The scheme unfolded between December 2006 and April 2007 at three of the company's resorts, Red Rock, Green Valley Ranch and Palace Station, prosecutors said. Shang and Eaton recruited people to open Bank of America accounts funded by Shang. Then, Shang helped the recruits apply for lines of credit at the casinos. Once the lines of credit were approved, the recruits transferred the money from their accounts to Shang's account, prosecutors alleged.

The recruits withdrew chips from their lines of credit and played baccarat at the casinos. They carried out a scam known as "rolling the chips" to make it look as though they were losing money, when in fact they were just hiding chips and giving them to other co-conspirators. Shang then cashed in the chips, prosecutors alleged. By the time the casinos tried to collect the unpaid markers, the accounts were drained or closed.

My take: Well, this Chinee duo weren't exactly the Roselli Brothers, who might have been even more greedy than them, but the Roselli Brothers, who ripped the casinos off for nearly $40 million, were obviously also smarter than the Chinese casino-credit scammers.

Friday, November 23, 2012

Cheating/Counting EZ Baccarat Dragon 7 and Panda 8 Side Bets?

There seems to be a rash of casino hold deficiencies on EZ baccarat tables across the US and Canada, especially in casinos in the booming oil-rich northwest part of Canada. Canadian casino executives have been seeking my advice and consulting in this area. They are hugely concerned about what is happening on their EZ baccarat tables, and their worries are concentrated around the tremendously popular Dragon 7 and Panda 8 side bets.

Are casino cheats and baccarat cheats out there and up there beating the EZ baccarat games?

The answer in short is definitely yes! For starters both these side bets are beatable without even getting into cheating. They can be counted down and wagerd on with a significant advantage going to the player against the house. I will talk more about this later, but now let me turn to the possibility of cheating these EZ baccarat bets.

As with everything in baccarat these days, the casinos' vulnerability to cheating by offering these EZ bacc side bets is quite high. In Canada, the problem is probably the highest in the world. This is mainly because of their vast action on the EZ bacc tables. You might be surprised to know, that I have NEVER seen so much action on baccarat tables anywhere in the world that even comes close to what's happing in western Canada. The size of the bets are big enough, but the volume, and I mean VOLUME of bets on these EZ baccarat tables is both incredible and crazy. Like in the UK and the Caribbean, Canadian casinos let multipe bets from multiple players sit side by side by side by circle in the betting squares! Get what I mean? Simply that there can be as many as four bets in one baccarat betting circle or square. That's all great for the action but helps cheats pull of their EZ baccarat cheat moves as well. There is so much confusion and dealer/player fraternization that the possibility for dealer/agent(s) collusion cheating against the casinos is endless.

I will be addressing particular EZ baccarat cheat moves in the near future, so stick with me!

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Attn Casino Execs...Check Out My New Casino Game Protection Training Seminar Video!

For those of you who are looking for top-tier game protection training and instruction, check out my new casino surveillance and casino table games protection training video. Before you call any of the other so-called game protection consultants out there, take a look at what I offer and the experience I have in the field. Believe me, you will learn a lot more on how to protect and safeguard your casinos from me than from the others.

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I offer game protection seminars, casino surveillance and performance evaluations, and undercover investigations to identify your advantage players, cheats and dishonest employees, both on the casino floor and in the cashier cage.

Saturday, November 03, 2012

Still No New News in Phil Ivey UK Baccarat Case

Baccarat Cheat?
I am sure that many of you are waiting for updates on the Phil Ivey standoff with London´s ritzy Crockfords Casino over the more than $10 million the American poker pro won during an amazing run of fantastic luck at the baccarat table. Crockfords, however, doesn´t seem to believe that luck had much to do with Ivey´s good fortune. Without outright saying they suspected him and his beautiful Asian female partner cheating, they still continue to withhold Ivey´s winnings, and now more than three months have passed and the impasse remains intact.

I have no further news on this and am as anxious as you are to see how this case is finally resolved. As soon as I hear, I will post any updates.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Australian Casino Cheat Rash Hits Queensland Casinos


Queenland Casino

Source: Herald Sun

Almost 50 gamblers have been caught cheating at Queensland casinos in the past year and dozens of others have been nabbed stealing chips, cash, wallets and mobile phones from punters.


Thieves have found rich pickings from casino gamblers accidentally dropping chips worth up to $1000 on the floor, documents released under Right to Information laws reveal.

Queensland Police Service's Casino Crime Unit laid charges for 236 offences in 2011-12, including 49 for cheating, 59 casino exclusion offences, 68 identity offences, 22 thefts, six drug and three fraud offences.

At Brisbane's Treasury Casino, security cameras caught a woman picking up a $1000 chip that had been dropped near roulette tables. Her female accomplice then cashed it in.

The pair later were arrested after one of the women was spotted returning to the casino.

One woman went on a shopping spree with the proceeds of two $500 chips dropped by a gambler in the Treasury Casino in February.

. Casino cameras caught the woman playing gaming machines and then cashing in the remaining chips.

When she returned to the casino two hours later, the woman told police she had gone shopping with the cash and had only $255 left.

Security footage helped police find a man who left Treasury Casino with a $500 chip dropped from another man's pocket.

When police later found him in a Brisbane square, the man admitted he had planned to return to the casino and cash in the chip to play poker machines.

Some gamblers found out they could not claim "finders keepers" at the casino.

One man was charged with stealing as a result of picking up a $50 note that had been spat out of a note-breaking machine at a casino, while another man was charged after using $50 he had picked up off a casino floor to bet on greyhounds.

Conrad Jupiters Casino on the Gold Coast was stung with an unpaid bar tab of $207 after a man left the casino after shouting his mates dozens of drinks. The credit card he left behind had been cancelled by a bank.

Dodgy counterfeit notes also have been offloaded for casino chips.

My take: Even back in the day when I was in business cheating casinos, Australian casinos were ripe for the pickings.

Monday, October 08, 2012

Is British Casino Accusing Poker Star Phil Ivey of Being a Ten-Million-Dollar Baccarat Cheat??? Wow!!!

Crockfords ritzy entrance
Source: Mail Online

Britain's oldest casino is investigating a £7.3 million win by the world’s top poker player – and is refusing to pay him a penny. Crockfords, the exclusive Mayfair gaming club, has informed the Gambling Commission that it is withholding Phil Ivey’s payout. A source with close knowledge of the dispute described the situation as unprecedented. Accompanied by a ‘beautiful Oriental woman’, Mr Ivey, a 35-year-old Californian, was playing Punto Banco, which is a skill-free variant of baccarat, when he struck a remarkable winning streak.

The 184-year-old casino initially agreed to transfer the winnings to his bank account, but six weeks on it has returned only his £1 million stake. Instead it began an exhaustive inquiry. Staff, including the female croupier, were interviewed at length amid fears there may have been some form of collusion. This is thought to have been ruled out.

While it is unclear what, if anything, Mr Ivey has been accused of, lawyers for both sides are said to be engaged in an increasingly tense stand-off. It is not thought that police have been alerted. Sources said Mr Ivey played for two nights over the August bank holiday for about seven hours in all. Suspicions over the win intensified when it was discovered that his companion’s membership of another Mayfair casino had previously been suspended. The reason for this has not been revealed.

Crockfords, the oldest private gaming club in the world, is owned by Genting, the Malaysian gaming corporation. They believe that the £7m streak of luck that a Mayfair casino thinks is too good to be true

Genting investigators flew to London from Kuala Lumpur to speak to everyone who was working on the two nights in question and to examine hours of film from surveillance cameras. The cards used and the shoe they were dealt from were also scrutinised. ‘No imperfections, or marks, that would have given Ivey an advantage were found. In any case, Ivey at no time touched the cards,’ said a source. ‘The shoe was also thoroughly inspected; once again the investigators drew a blank. Doormen outside Crockfords Casino in Mayfair London Mr Ivey, who once picked up £10 million in a poker tournament in Las Vegas, was playing in a small private room on the ground floor of Crockfords. He sat next to his companion. The only other people in the room were the croupier and an inspector. All the action was recorded on ten cameras. Mr Ivey was initially gambling £50,000 per hand, which can be over in less than a minute. He was later given permission by the management to increase his stake to £150,000.

Private club: Crockfords is Britian's oldest casino Punto Banco is the favoured game of high-rollers. The result is determined as soon as the cards are dealt – it offers marginally better odds than games such as roulette. At first, Mr Ivey’s losses were heading towards £500,000 but he recovered, and at the end of the first night was £2.3 million up. His winning form continued on the second night and by the time that he signalled he was ready to quit he had amassed £7.3 million. He told the management he wanted the money transferred into his bank account. The casino allegedly told him it couldn’t be done straight away because of the bank holiday, but assured him that it would be done on Tuesday, August 28.

Mr Ivey left the club and the casino began an immediate investigation. Because of the difficulties involved, instances of Punto Banco cheating are rare. Twelve years ago a Triad gang used covert surveillance footage to read cards being dealt and relay a signal to a receiver outside the casino. The information was then transmitted to the player using a hidden earpiece. There is no suggestion that Mr Ivey is accused of using any of these methods.

Although he is a respected figure in the poker world, casinos regard him as a ‘hit and run’ gambler, with a tendency to ‘quit after just a few hands if he wins big’. On this occasion, Mr Ivey, a divorcĂ©, assured Crockfords bosses that he would play for a serious amount of time, and transferred £1 million into the casino’s bank. Mr Ivey declined to comment when approached by a Mail on Sunday reporter at a tournament in Cannes last week. ‘Please don’t talk to me. I am concentrating on my tournament,’ he said.

His mother, Pamela Ivey, who lives in Las Vegas, said: ‘He never mentioned it. It can’t have been very important to him, or I think he’d have mentioned it.’ Last night a spokesman for Crockfords said: ‘As a private club we put great store on the confidentiality of the relationship between ourselves and our client and we therefore have no comment to make.’

The game Punto Banco is the sister game of Chemin de Fer Punto Banco is the sister game of Chemin de Fer, the high-stakes card game favoured by James Bond. The aim is to hold cards with a count of nine or closest to nine. You bet that either the hand held by the player (punto) or banker (banco) will win and place bets on the appropriate area on the table. You can also make a ‘tie’ bet. Tens and picture cards and multiples of ten count as zero: for example, 7 + 3 = 0; 10 + 4 = 4; king + 10 = 0. Its appeal rests on how the advantage can switch with each new card, lending huge excitement to the action. Like blackjack, the game is played with several packs of cards, which are shuffled by a croupier and dealt from a shoe.

My Take: WOW!!! I am suspicious as hell. First off, why would Phil Ivey be risking a penny on baccarat when he has far the best of it in any poker event, be it a tournament or live action? Something had to be up. Okay, Ivey did not touch the cards bur that means absolutely nothing. There are so many ways baccarat shoes are fixed up and false shuffled with shuffling machines or without them. I suspect Ivey being part of a huge baccarat cheat scam involving Crockfords' employees but of course have no evidence. For me, it's the only thing that makes sense. But knowing Ivey, if he got involved in any cheating scam, he probably had way the best of it too, so you can expect to be hearing soon that Crockfords paid his winnings to him.

Again...WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday, October 04, 2012

Full Tilt Poker Star Pleads Guilty to Bank Fraud!

Source: Tightpoker.com

Nelson Burtnick, who was employed as the payment processing chief at Full Tilt Poker, the online poker giant that is now acquired by PokerStars, pleaded guilty of having taken part in a conspiracy to cheat banks and financial institutions into processing funds related to online poker gaming, in violation of US online poker laws.

It may be recalled that the US federal government had cracked down on major online poker rooms Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, and Absolute Poker, seized their domain names, and indicted key people associated with these online poker rooms of bank fraud, illegal gambling, and money laundering. This happened on April 15, 2011, a day commonly referred to within poker circles as the Black Friday of online poker. Subsequently, the US government and PokerStars signed a settlement deal, according to the terms of which PokerStars would refund Full Tilt Poker’s players and acquire the company and the US government would drop all charges against Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars.

A 41-year-old Canadian citizen, Burtnick told Judge Gabriel Gorenstein, US magistrate judge, that US banks would not have processed gambling related funds for Full Tilt Poker as it is illegal for them to do so. He admitted that he had cheated banks while working for Full Tilt Poker as well as PokerStars. He said, “We had to do this type of deception to enable US poker players to load their accounts. I know that what I did was wrong.”

Burtnick will be sentenced to 15 years in prison by US District Judge Lewis Kaplan; however, no sentencing date has been set as yet. Burtnick’s lawyer Kelly Currie refused to make any comment.

According to US prosecutors, Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker, and PokerStars devised a number of ways to dodge the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 so that banks could be fooled into processing gambling related funds.

Preet Bharara, US attorney in Manhattan, the prosecutor in the case, who had filed a civil suit against Absolute Poker, Full Tilt Poker, and PokerStars, announced in July that PokerStars and the Department of Justice (DoJ) had signed a $731 million settlement agreement, as per the terms of which PokerStars would refund Full Tilt Poker’s ex players in the US and other parts of the world and acquire the brand.

PokerStars will directly refund Full Tilt Poker players in the rest of the world, while the DoJ will refund US players.

My Take: What else is going to be new with Full Tilt and the cheating, scamming and defrauding surrounding the site?

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Was this Guy the World´s Biggest Casino Cheat?

World´s biggest casino cheat?
Well, read this article and see what you think. Then at the bottom, see what I think. Remember, for a significant period of time, I held that title.

Source: Online-Casinos

The king of casino cheats and his two accomplices have finally been caught and convicted in a London court after more than twenty years cheating at casino roulette.

Francis Farrugia, Francesco Baioni and Frank Camilleri, all of Italian descent (can you tell?) ripped off casinos around the world for millions of dollars over a period of twenty years, becoming the scourge of casinos and striking fear into pit bosses who would speak of the trio in hushed tones around the campfire, such was their legendary and fearsome reputation. Their jetsetting criminal lifestyle saw them hit casinos around the world including Vegas, Macau, Australia and dozens of cities across Europe.

The Roulette Cheat Technique

The casino cheats didn't resort to some of the more modern cheating techniques such as hawkeye laser computers (not to be confused with the legitimate Hawk roulette technique)or intricate magnetic devices. They instead relied on good old fashioned sleight of hand to employ a technique called 'top-hatting' where they distracted the dealer and placed late bets on winning numbers after the roulette ball had landed.

The top-hatting scam usually involves the complicity of the dealers but the gang were so adept at sleight of hand that they were able to engineer the scam all by themselves. They were rarely caught, despite the fact that dealers are highly trained to catch out such devious roulette techniques as moving the chips after the wheel has stopped and suchlike.

Instead most casinos simply had to resort to banning them for being 'too lucky', in the absence of any real proof. But this did nothing to deter them.

Fake ID

Their huge wins obviously brought them to the attention of the casinos and they ended up being banned from nearly every casino in the world. However this didn't stop them, they just created fake ID's for themselves - by the time they were caught they had over fifty fake Identities each.

The chairperson of the International Association of Casino Security (IACS), Dave Livermore, had this to say about the case; "They were quite slick, but they were going a long time. They’ve been banned for 20 years. They targeted casinos all over the world. During the court case the judge asked his lawyer where the money used to place initial stakes in the casinos came from and he couldn’t answer because all of their money is from casinos. They didn’t have any legitimate funds.”

High Stakes

Dave went on to say that it was their insatiable greed which was their downfall as they began to search out the highest stakes casinos. This inexorable march up the stakes ladder inevitably led them to London, the home of the most glamourous and exclusive high roller casinos.

Unfortunately for the trio the surveillance in London casinos is also top-notch and after police were contacted, rather than arrest them straight away, they were made the subject of a lengthy investigation in which countless incidents of 'top-hatting' were caught on camera.

Getting Away With Cheating In Casinos

Despite the investigation, the decades of scamming and cheating, the millions of pounds in ill-gotten gains in the end the only charge that could be made to stick was possession of forged documents! Farrugia was charged with eight counts and his accomplices merely served with curfews and a nationwide ban from the Gambling Commission!

For his crimes Farrugia was given a nine-month suspended sentence so will spend no time in prison unless he reoffends. All he has to do is resist the temptation to cheat in casinos again, the question is, has he cheated casinos out of enough millions to satisfy his greed or does he just want to have one more go?

My take: Well, the first thing that comes to mind is the lightness of the sentence he and his casino cheating teammates received. As far as his being the biggest casino cheat in the world, maybe for the last ten years he was...But his first ten years? Absolutely NOT! That´s because yours truly was still active cheating casinos!!

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Legal INTRAstate Nevada Poker Taking Steps to Combat Online Poker Cheating

Source: Cardplayer

A start-up company in Tennessee is looking to provide upcoming Nevada intrastate online poker sites with something they could be in desperate need of one day — a centralized list of player information.

Why would competing online sites in the Silver State want to share such data? Per Nevada regulations, players can self-exclude. Also, some players will become, as what Bwin.party Digital Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan has called, “fraudsters.” Protecting the integrity of a platform is a must for the fledgling industry, which will bring all eyes on Nevada. A big scandal could devastate Internet poker efforts at the federal level and in other states.

Ryan, speaking to the Nevada Gaming Policy Committee in May, expressed the need for such a third-party hub of information. MGM Resorts International, Bwin.party’s Nevada partner, wants one too. Here comes Player Verify LLC, led by Managing Member Mark Dalton, who told Card Player Friday that his company has submitted paper work to do business in Nevada.

For $4.99 a year, would-be Nevada online poker players can upload their personal documents to Player Verify, which would store all of it for when a casino (also paying $4.99 per year) wants to access and inspect it as part of the player registration process. Nevada regulators were very conscientious about giving business the flexibility to self-police in this area, Commission Chairman Peter Bernhard recently said.

For self-exclusion — a mammoth deal to opponents of online gambling who worry about increases in addiction figures — casinos could tap into such information to prevent a player with troubles on another site from even registering. Cheaters could also be flagged thanks to a digital drawer full of player data. In other words, if you collude on one site, the entire industry would know about it. Possible criminal penalties are another story.

Just like Nevada’s online poker industry, Player Verify is just starting out. Dalton said that he has reached out to “a bunch” of gaming companies about possibly doing business together, but he hasn’t heard back from any yet. He thinks that once his company snags a license it will be “taken more seriously.”

According to Dalton, Player Verify already has a few hundred sign-ups, but admitted that there won’t be any real incentive to use his site until many Nevada casinos come on board with the concept, as well as his version of it. “The sky is the limit,” he said about his business if it becomes popular in the Mojave Desert.

Dalton’s company is still in its infancy (two years), but he said his team has been working hard to put together a product for the launch of the nation’s first ever intrastate web poker market, which could kick off as early as this fall.

“We’re the only site that I know of doing what we’re doing,” he said. “We’re outside the box.”

My take: This is good stuff, and I think it will help in one day getting online poker legalized in the entire US!
Source: Channelnewsasia

A 63-year-old French national was extradited back to Singapore on Tuesday morning for allegedly cheating at the Resorts World Sentosa casino in 2010. Police said Reynald Georges Victor Lasnel was caught in Germany, with assistance from German authorities and Interpol. He is wanted by the Singapore police in connection with cheating offences, namely placing bets after the results are known, at the roulette table.
He is suspected of having committed the offences with two other persons on 26 March 2010 and 3 April 2010 at the casino.

The three were initially arrested and charged in 2010, but they fled Singapore while out on court bail despite having their passports impounded.The suspect will appear in court later Tuesday to face the charges against him.

My take: Wow! This is the first I time I´ve heard of an across-ocean extradition for a little casino pastposter! Even if he´s accused of beating the Singapore casino for a hundred grand or so. And to think Interpot was involved in this apprehension! I guess the two Singapore casinos are so sick and tired of getting beat that they have to go worldwide to make an example of a cheat...Hey, that rhymes!

Thursday, September 06, 2012

More poker tournament cheat-claims levelled at Partouche and other French companies

Source: pokernewsreport

There was uproar yesterday at the Palm Beach Casino in Cannes after Partouche withdrew the guarantee from their Main Event – two days after the event started!

When a major poker tournament offers a fixed prize guarantee, you pretty much expect it to still be in existence the day after you sit down to play in it. Unfortunately it is becoming a habit amongst French poker companies to first announce a guarantee and then withdraw it. First it was the €20 million no-longer-guaranteed ISPT and now the Partouche Poker Tour has got in on the act – announcing a 4.3 million Euro prize pool while their web site still advertises a 5 million Euro guarantee for the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event.
Players at the tournament reacted angrily to the news, with Todd Terry and Justin Bonomo the first to alert poker fans via twitter and asking those following the event to send them screenshots where it could be seen that the guarantee was promised. Word (again via Twitter) from Canadian pro Peter Jetten was that «One of the head Partouche people told me “this was not a guarantee but a marketing trick» and the online poker forums came alive with tales of how players had been scammed by Partouche Poker in the past.

My take: Well, I think some of these players are overreacting to Partouche's reducing the prize guarantee. Of course it's a marketing gig and not outright cheating. The fact is, these French companies are putting on good tournaments with big enough prize money. If the prize amounts vary from time to time, the players have to accept it. If I were them, I´d worry more about the online poker companies that allow major poker cheat scams to victimize its players.

Friday, August 31, 2012

Judge Rules Against Atlantic City Golden Nugget in "Cheating" Case

Source: Canadian Business

A judge in Atlantic City on Friday ordered the Golden Nugget casino to let gamblers cash in nearly $1 million worth of chips they won at a card game using decks that were unshuffled.

Superior Court Judge James Isman also told the casino it cannot seize more than a half-million dollars' worth of winnings it already paid out to some of the gamblers involved in the games. The casino plans to appeal the order.

"I wasn't cheating," one of the gamblers, 51-year-old Michael Cho of Ellicott City, Md., said after the judge's ruling. "I didn't do anything illegal. It wasn't right for them to get the money."

The dispute stems from games of mini-baccarat held at the casino on April 30. Unbeknownst to either the players or the casino, the cards put into use for the games were not shuffled as their manufacturer, Gemaco Inc. of Kansas City, Mo., had promised. Over a speakerphone in the judge's chambers, the company's attorney, Jeffrey Mazzola, acknowledged the company had erred.

"There was a mistake made at the Gemaco facility, which we freely admitted," he told the judge. "This was a one-time, isolated mistake, but it occurred. It's supposed to be a game of chance. It changed from a game of chance to a windfall for the individual players. What we have now is individual players coming to the court asking for a free payday based on a mistake that took place."

Lawyers for the Golden Nugget said the pattern of cards became apparent to players, who had been wagering $10 a hand and suddenly upped their bets to $5,000 a hand. The cards did not come out of the chute in numerical order, such as 2-3-4-5. Rather, they came out in a predetermined pattern that the manufacturer lists as a proprietary secret, the attorneys said.

But it did become obvious to the players.

"Anybody could see that — that was the dream we all look for," Cho said.

But Cho said he and the other gamblers still faced risk because they had no idea how long the pattern would endure. It lasted at least 41 hands, during which the players won more than $1.5 million. Despite its suspicion that a sophisticated cheating operation was under way, the casino did not stop the games.

"We took a chance on every hand we bet, that it wouldn't change," he said. "We didn't know if it was going to change. That's called gambling."
The Golden Nugget had sought a ruling barring the gamblers from cashing in more than $977,000 worth of chips they won from the game but still have in their possession. The casino also wanted the judge to order the return of more than $500,000 in winnings it paid out to some of the winners immediately after the games.

The judge denied both requests, saying there will be time to address those issues as the lawsuits filed by both sides come to trial. He agreed that the gamblers did nothing wrong, and even though they discerned a pattern, the judge said there was no guarantee it would not change at any moment.

That drew an angry response from Steven Scheinthal, the Golden Nugget's executive vice president and general counsel, who began yelling at the judge that he did not have all the pertinent information in the case, including evidence of how the casino maintains the players violated house rules by sharing money and chips among themselves during the games to avoid individual betting limits.

"I've been on the bench for 12 years now, and I don't believe anyone has ever spoken to me like that," Isman said. He advised the Golden Nugget it could appeal as soon as Tuesday — which is exactly what its lawyers said they plan to do.

"It was a rigged game," attorney Louis Barbone said. "We walked in that day believing everything was on the up-and-up. We walked out $1.5 million in the hole."
The casino claims the vendor's failure to shuffle the cards made them "defective" and in violation of state gambling regulations mandating fair odds for both the casino and its customers.

My take: Did you read the part where Cho said he and other gamblers were at risk because they didn´t know when their good fortune would end! GIMME A BREAK! That's like sitting under a tree raining money and not knowing when it's going to stop! THERE AIN'T NO RISK!!!

All in all, I feel great for the lucky gamblers but had the judge ruled in favor of the casino, I would've understood.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Casino Game Protection

For those casinos in the United States and Canada worrying about the latest baccarat scams, I am happy to report that due to comprehensive training and seminar attendance, the incidence of these scams, especially those using corrupted dealers, is on the decrease. Like I always say, good game protection is the best defense against professional casino cheats and advantage players.

Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem Snags Poker Cheating Bonus Bettor

Thirty-eight year-old Kyle Greg Dunn was arrested for allegedly postponing bonus wagers  at a Texas Hold 'em game last weekend. I have read that he was plying a sleight of hand method to get down his pastposts but can tell you this was not the case. Dunn simply used a distraction and good timing to pastpost the bets, supposedly at least three times. His earnings for the night were a mere $325, hardly worth the bust. He later claimed he did it out of desperation.
My take: Well, he should have probably just found another way to make ends, and as much kept his mouth shut until lawyering up! I always stress that cheating in poker and casinos is not the way to go!

Poker and Casino Cheating Wave Beginning to Hit Ohio's New Casinos

A lot of cheating is going on in the new Ohio casinos, especially the Hollywood Casino in Toledo. However, the difference between the cheating going on in this new casino versus the cheating that usually go on in new baby casinos is that Hollywood Casino is being taken off by some of its own dealers. You rarely see a brand-new casino, especially an American one, falling victim to inside scams this early. Usually the dealers are too green and nervous about keeping their jobs. In areas such as Singapore and Macau, the crooked dealers are ready to rake off from day one.

The latest inside scam at the Toledo casino I heard about was a roulette pastposting scam with the dealer´s cooperation. He just simply let his cohorts make late bets. These type scams are usually easy for even rookie surveillance to see, but the better scams will certainly go unnoticed in these virgin Ohio casinos.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Atlantic City Casino Screws itself with False-Shuffle Baccarat Scam! Now it's Suing the Players!

Source: USA Today

An Atlantic City casino is suing 14 gamblers who raked in more than $1.5 million in winnings after realizing that eight decks of cards had not been preshuffled and kept producing the same sequence of cards, over and over.The gamblers kept raising their bets -- from $10 a hand to $5,000 -- and scored 41 consecutive winning hands of baccarat in April, the Associated Press reports. As the payouts mounted, Golden Nugget Atlantic City flooded the area with security teams, convinced that someone was cheating, but were unable to figure out how. In the end, the casino let nine of the gamblers cash out $558,900. The rest still have $977,800 in chips.

In its lawsuit, the casino cites state gambling regulations requiring all casino games to offer fair odds — to both sides. The casino's lawsuit argues that the gamblers and the casino both began the game believing it was legal and proper — until the players kept winning repeatedly.

Benjamin Dash, a lawyer for the gamblers, counters that his clients did nothing wrong and deserve to be paid. "The Golden Nugget appealed to gamblers to come in and play games licensed and sanctioned by the state of New Jersey," he says. "My clients did exactly that, and then were denied their winnings. There is absolutely no law in New Jersey that would permit the Golden Nugget to declare the game illegal because it failed to provide shuffled cards."

The casino also asserts in its lawsuit that Gemaco Inc., a Missouri playing card manufacturer, acknowledged it had provided a defective shipment of cards that were not preshuffled.

A message left at the company's administrative offices was not immediately returned Monday, the AP says.

My take: Sticky situation, but I think the law is on the side of the gamblers. Why should they not be paid jsut becasue the casino fucked up?

Friday, August 17, 2012

Documentary on the UB and Absolute Poker Online Poker Cheat Scams in the Works!

Source: World Poker Tour Magazine A new poker documentary is set to unveil in detail the true story behind the Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker cheating scandal and director Chris Bell and his production company are still trying to source interviews for the film.

The UB/Absolute “Super User” scandal was arguably the biggest case of fraud the online gaming industry has ever witnessed and saw countless online players scammed out of their money by site employees who had access to hole cards. Now four years on from the incident, there are still many people in the poker community wondering what exactly went on behind the scenes and – as a former poker pro affected by the scandal – Bell has vowed to release a film exploring the real story.

The documentary – appropriately titled “Ultimate Beat” – has already taken Bell years of research and only yesterday his production company Doublehead Pictures released a teaser trailer to give the poker world a sneak peak of what they can expect on its release. As a work in progress, Bell and Doublehead Pictures are still considering interviewees for the documentary, so if you have an interesting story concerning Ultimate Bet and the Super User scandal, don’t hesitate to get in touch with them at www.doubleheadpictures.com. My take: Can't wait to see it!!

Nevada Casino Analyst Gets Nearly 5 Years in Prison for Player Club Points Cheat Scam

Source: Las Vegas Review Journal A former analyst with the state's largest casino company was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison Monday in an elaborate player's club scheme on the Strip.

Tony Ahn, 29, who lost his job amid the cheating scandal, pleaded guilty in May to spearheading the conspiracy. He acknowledged betraying the trust of his company, then known as MGM Mirage, to unlawfully win $863,895 from slot machines.

U.S. District Judge James Mahan ordered Ahn on Monday to pay the entire $863,895 in restitution and serve two years of supervised release after he gets out of prison.The judge gave Ahn until Nov. 5 to surrender to federal prison authorities."This is an American tragedy to see you here," Mahan told Ahn. "You have so much potential. I hope you see this as a positive and turn your life around."

Ahn apologized to the judge and promised never to get in trouble with the law again."I definitely made a big mistake," he said. "There's no excuse for what I did." His lawyer, Thomas Pitaro, told Mahan that Ahn has "all the talent in the world" and hopes to make up for his wrongdoing when he gets out of prison.

In arguing for the 57 months behind bars, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Chu said Ahn had used inside company knowledge to plan the lucrative scheme and recruit members to it. Ahn used his company position to identify regular customers with unused free play points, then transferred the points to counterfeit players club cards and recruited people to play slot machines with the cards at the company's casinos along the Strip, Chu previously alleged in court papers.

Free play points earned by thousands of MGM Mirage club members, many of whom lived outside Nevada, were stolen between July 2009 and July 2010, according to prosecutors. The company under its new name, MGM Resorts International, owns 16 casinos in Nevada, including 10 on the Strip.

Four other indicted members of Ahn's ring - Joseph Ramirez, David Evans, David Pecor and Ahn's brother, Danny Ahn - have pleaded guilty and are waiting to be sentenced.

Alan Feldman, senior vice president of public affairs for MGM Resorts International, said at the time of Ahn's plea that the company's internal Fraud Control Group uncovered the scheme and reported it to Nevada gaming regulators and the FBI. The scheme unraveled in March 2010 after state authorities arrested one of the unindicted members of the group for playing with counterfeit players club cards. Shortly after the arrest, Ahn and the group took measures to cover their tracks. They buried a computer, card encoder, flash drive and blank player's club cards used in the scheme in the desert, prosecutors alleged. Months later, however, with the help of cooperating defendants, FBI agents dug up the items and impounded them as evidence.

My take: Once again, a rat within the cheat team brought down the mastermind. This whole scam is very reminiscent of the Ron Harris story. Harris, while working as a programmer and technician for the testing lab of the Nevada Gaming Control Board in the mid 90s, rigged slot jackpots and keno games to bilk casinos out of hundreds of thousands.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Cheating Side Bets in Blackjack and Baccarat?

The popularity of side bets such as Lucky Lucky in blackjack and Dragon 7 in baccarat has been rising steadily. People have been asking me if these bets are targets of casino cheats any more than  the games' regular bets are. The answer to the question is no, mainly because the variety of these side bets are based on the initial deal and therefore allow less time to make a cheat move. It is worthy of note, however, that most of these side bets are vulnerable to card-counting and advantage play, especially Lucky Lucky on the blackjack tables. Some casinos won't let you bet much on Lucky Lucky while others are dealing less deeper into the decks, the same measures they take against regular-bet blackjack counters.                                

Friday, August 03, 2012

MIT Students Scam Massachusetts State Lottery For $8 Million! It's the MIT Blackjack Team Revisited!

We all know the original MIT story oh so well. The eager bright genius students from MIT beating Vegas and Atlantic City for millions counting cards at blackjack.

Well, this time, the MIT genius brats only had to stay in their home state to get the millions. News has just broke that they cheated the Massachusetts state lottery for $8 million! That might be more than the MIT Blackjack Team made!

Here's the NY Daily News article:

Ten years after a group of Massachusetts Institute of Technology students and a professor famously took Las Vegas casinos to the cleaners counting cards, a new gambling scandal has arisen that involves MIT: a researcher and a group of students scammed the Massachussets Lottery.

Worse though, is that the Massachusetts Lottery knew they were doing it and chose to share in the windfall instead of protecting the integrity of the game.

The math whizzes were looking for a unique school project when a couple of them figured out that it would only take about $100,000 in tickets to guarantee success in the Cash WinFall game. When the jackpot rose to $2 million or more, group members bought in and shared in the prize money. By 2005, the group had earned about $8 million in winnings, reported the Boston Globe.

Despite an obvious conflict of interest in knowing that the game was compromised, officials continued to allow hundreds of thousands of $2 tickets to be bought by the merry band of thieves, the paper reported.

Here's how the scheme worked: If the jackpot in a lottery game isn't won, it usually is held over to the next drawing, creating a larger jackpot. In Cash WinFall the jackpot was capped at $2 million. When no one matched all the numbers, the jackpot would be redistributed - "rolled down" to make lesser prizes 5 to 10 times greater than usual, reported the Globe.

The game was so lucrative for the students, that they gave up jobs to stick it to the system on a full-time basis. Additionally, they were backed by investors who shared in the profits, according to a report by State Inspector General Gregory Sullivan cited by the paper.

Buying $600,000 worth of tickets virtually guaranteed a 15-20 percent return on investment. The initial premise was proven by James Harvey, who turned $1,000 in tickets into $3,000 Feb. 7, 2005. He immediately made the "project" larger, forming Random Strategies Investments and spending hours filling out betting slips and lining up eager financers. Within a few years, more groups popped up, but the MIT group figured out how to win the whole jackpot in a single drawing by 2010, reported the paper.

In an email discovered by the paper, a lottery supervisor shamelessly asks ""How do I become part of the club when I retire?"

My take: In an institution where you have geniuses you have genius gambling scams! This one is reminiscent of the huge horse-betting scam that hit New York racetracks for about the same amount of money some years back.

Casino Surveillance Training is Available With Richard Marcus Game Protection Training

Training the Minnesota Casino Intelligence Unit
Some casino managers have been asking me if I offer separate surveillance game protection seminars along with my table games protection training. Up till now I have always included surveillance game protection training in my seminars for overall casino game protection. However, due to these latest queries I will indeed offer game protection training courses and seminars to strictly casino surveillance personnel. I guarantee the same excellent quality training I have always provided in my past seminars. If you are interested in this surveillance or any other type of game protection training seminar, please review my table games training page
and contact me.

Crooked Surveillance Operator Goes Down in Singapore Casino Cheating Case!

Source: channelnewsasia.com An army specialist has been sentenced to two years' jail for conspiring with four accomplices to cheat Marina Bay Sands of nearly S$150,000 between July and August last year.Toh Kaida, 29, who was suspended by the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), had admitted earlier this month to 19 charges of cheating.The prosecution proceeded on five charges.

Court documents showed that the mastermind was Ho Boon Keat, 29, who was then working at the casino as a surveillance operator. Ho's accomplices would stake out at the tables of the game, Sic Bo, when he was on duty. Siic Bo is a game where three dice are rolled and gamblers can win up to 180 times their bet if all the dice display the same number. Then an accomplice would claim to have placed a bet of S$25 after a triple appeared. The pit manager would call Ho to check video footage for confirmation and Ho would lie and say the bet had been placed.

In mitigation, defence counsel for Toh, Mr Josephus Tan, said his client had made restitution of S$10,000 to the casino. The amount was Toh's share of the criminal proceeds. So ar, three other accomplices have been dealt with. Ho was sentenced to three years' jail, 28-year-old Ang Chee Peng received a jail term of two-and-a-half years while 25-year-old Benson Ho received a jail sentence of one year and two months.

My take: Singapore's casinos continue to bet hit with massive casino cheat scams engineered by employees. I can only wonder how much money is being pilfered out of them that we don't hear about!

Thursday, July 26, 2012

Game Protection Training Seminars Table Games

Table Games Training at WGPC in Las Vegas
Yes, I am still training table games people via seminars and more intense training classes and courses throughout the world. I want to emphasize the difference between my casino table game training seminars and those offered by the others calling themselves world game protection consultants and experts.

That difference is simply: I train by hands-on training, imparting my knowledge as both one of the world's greatest casino cheats of all time and that as a dealer ripping off casinos from the inside. Do not forget that I was the first to do the false-shuffle baccarat scam as a casino dealer before the Tran Organization made that scam so infamous. I teach casinos how to defend against all scams and advantage play methods. I do not waste anyone's time or money with PowerPoint presentations or overused surveillance video of scams that do not really teach anything.

If interested in my services, go to my website game protection training page and contact me.

Monday, July 16, 2012

Why dr. Edward O. Thorp is Not in the Casino Cheats Hall of Fame

Not a Casino Cheat
You have all heard of the renowned mathematics professor Edward O. Thorp, who back in 1960 wrote the original Card-Counting Bible titled "Beat the Dealer," which for many is still considered the all-out bible for those interested in counting cards at blackjack to beat the casinos. I have been getting some emails asking why Mr. Thorp has not been inducted into the Richard Marcus Books Poker and Casino Cheats Hall of Fame.

Well the reason is quite simple and should be obvious. Despite Mr. Thorp's numerous appearances on many TV shows that relate to casino and poker cheating, the man himself has never had anything to do with cheating in casinos or cheating at poker, at least to my knowledge. Although many casinos over the past few decades have tried to get blackjack card-counting to be considered as casino cheating in their jurisdictions, none, again at least to my knowledge have ever succeeded. Therefore since card-counting at blackjack is not illegal or cheating, Dr. Edward O. Thorp is not, nor has ever been a casino cheat.

More Trouble for Full Tilt Poker--CEO Arrested on Ponzi Scheme Charges!

Big Ponzi Pyramid of Chips!
Source: Huffington Post

Won an online poker game and are expecting your money soon? If the game was on fulltiltpoker.com, don't bet on it.

The FBI arrested Raymond Bitar, the CEO of the online gaming site Full Tilt Poker, Monday, on charges he oversaw a $430 million ponzi scheme, according to CNNMoney. Full Tilt owed more than $300 million to online players around the world but only had $60 million in funds to pay off their winnings.

The company allegedly used players' funds to pay off the sites creditors and owners, according to Businessweek.

The site came under greater official scrutiny following a Justice Department crackdown on online gaming sites last spring.

In April of last year, the FBI charged the owners and operators of three online betting sites, including Full Tilt, with illegal gambling and defrauding U.S. banks, MSNBC reported at the time. According to Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, the defendants “concocted an elaborate criminal fraud scheme, alternately tricking some U.S. banks and effectively bribing others to assure the continued flow of billions in illegal profits."

The Justice Department announced in September that Full Tilt was also stealing players' money to pay off creditors and the firm's executive's salaries. According to the press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office:

"When the scheme finally collapsed, Full Tilt Poker was unable to pay players the approximately $350 million it owed them."

My take:

Wow! 430 Mil...that's a big Ponzi Pyramid...to say the least!

Poker Card-Switching Cheats Face Felony Criminal Charges in Washington

Source: The Spokesman Review

Small bets at poker games at the Hooters casino in Spokane Valley have led to felony charges against two North Idaho men accused of the rarely prosecuted crime of cheating while gambling.

“Part of our mission is to keep gambling legal and honest so when the public goes in there to play, they know we have done everything in our power to make sure the game is fair on both sides,” said Gary Drumheller, spokesman for the Washington State Gambling Association in Spokane. “That the house is doing their part but also that the players aren’t in there doing things they shouldn’t.”

Travis Ray Smith, 37, of Dalton Gardens, and Todd Richard Jost, 33, of Hayden, were at the Owl Club Casino on Dec. 23 when prosecutors allege they worked together to distract dealers and covertly switch cards. They have pleaded not guilty to third-degree theft and first-degree cheating in Spokane County Superior Court. Trials are scheduled to begin next month but may be delayed.

Jost’s lawyer, Mark Vovos, described his client and Smith as “ordinary working stiffs” with no serious criminal records.

Carl Oreskovich, who is representing Smith, said his client maintains his innocence.

“This is based in large part on someone’s interpretation of a video,” Oreskovich said. Smith is “prepared to go to court and have the jury conclude that he did not engage in any conduct that would be inappropriate.”

In 2003, two gamblers at Northern Quest Casino were charged with cheating and theft for using counterfeit tickets, but Oreskovich and Vovos, who have been lawyers for decades, say they can’t recall other cheating cases in Spokane County.

Drumheller said his office usually is investigating several, but not all lead to charges.

“It’s really hit and miss sometimes,” Drumheller said. “It really depends on if we have witnesses or we have good surveillance footage.”

Drumheller said gambling investigators look to see if the card player misbehaved only once or if it was part of an ongoing pattern.

Casino employees reviewed surveillance video of Smith and Jost after a card dealer noticed Smith with six cards in his hand during a game of four-card poker, according to court documents. Smith then tried to slip an extra $15 on an already placed bet but was rebutted. He and Jost were kicked out the casino shortly after.

Other card dealers described the duo as being belligerent and defiant. One dealer said Jost tried to play a coupon that wasn’t eligible, so she told him so. That dealer said she didn’t realize Smith had used that moment to switch his cards until she reviewed the video. She believes Jost intentionally distracted her.

Smith won $90 on a $15 bet that investigators believe was a result of the switched cards. He later won $140 on a $35 bet and $120 on a $15 bet.

Smith told an investigator with the Washington State Gambling Association that he doesn’t remember much of the night because he was drunk, but that he didn’t intentionally cheat, according to court documents.

My take:: Well this is pretty small-time shit that may lead to some big-time problems for those accused. I guess Washington State's casinos are really looking to nail poker cheats and casino cheats, especially since Washington's casinos played a big part in the infamous Tran Baccarat scam where several dealers and floorpeople, including the mayor of Seattle's son, were charged and convicted of cheating their casinos in cahoots with the Tran Gang.

Saturday, June 30, 2012

Ohio is Newest Casino--Cheating Groind in US

Hollywood Casino Toledo
The two new casinos that have recently opened up in Ohio, the Horseshoe Casino in Cleveland and the Hollywood Casino in Hollywood, have been getting hit by both professional casino and poker-cheat teams. This is nothing new for new casino areas, especially in the US where casino and poker personnel are quite weak in rookie casinos.

The reports I have been getting is that the bulk of the cheating is simple past-posting(late bets), bet-capping (adding to winning bets) and bet-pinching, which is swiping losing bets off the layout before the dealer notices them. I have heard some reports of fake chips being put into play, which of course is a more serious offense and could costs these young casinos lots of money.

In the meantime, I expect this rash of casino and poker cheating to continue steadily for at least the next year or two.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Here's a Nasty Little Casino Cheating Trick!

Casino security and suarveillance heads have been reporting a a new highly sophisticated casino-cheat device called a slot machine bill validator. This is a very high-tech cheating device that is reminiscent of the coin-attached-to-a-string device that slot cheats used some 30 years ago to spin the machine's reels while afterward retrieving the coin hooked onto the string.

Today's device is a paperlike facsimile of a $100 bill which has two prongs on separate ends that once inserted into the bill validation slot trigger the machine to read it as a legitimate $100 bill. And the beauty is that you don't have to repeat the process. Once the machine is activated to read any denomination bill as a $100 bill, the cheat is in business. Using $1 bills for $100 credits is $99 in profit before you even push the button!

I would take those payoff odds in a New York second!

Tuesday, June 05, 2012

Chinese Casino Cheat Facing 350 Years in Prison--For Casino Cheat Scam He May Have Learned on RichardMarcusBooks.com!!!

I have to warn everyone that the reason I post and detail elaborate casino and poker scams is for the entertainment that can be derived from reading about them...NOT for readers and prospective casino and poker cheats. But from time to time someone or some group of people actually go out and attempt to do some of these scams I write about. Now, apparently, one Chinese casino cheat and his group has gone out and done this in a very big...and COSTLY way.

After you read about this scam, go to my casino scam of the month page and read about the Casino Credit/Identity Theft cheat scam. You will not how eerily similar the two are.

Source: Online Poker Net News

A Chinese born man who has been convicted of defrauding three Las Vegas casinos out of $1,011,400 is now facing a jail sentence of up to 360 years, as well as $4.5 million in fines.

During a five month period between December 2006 and April 2007, De Rong Shang, 50, along with Yuli Eaton, 47, recruited people to open up bank accounts which were funded by Shang in order to apply for lines of credit at Las Vegas casinos. Once approved, the scam involved obtaining chips from the casino which they would then pretend to lose playing baccarat, whilst secretly transferring the chips to other co-conspirators, who would later cash them.

Subsequently, the recruits would leave the state or country having been paid around $300 for every $10,000 of credit they scammed and by the time the casinos tried to collect on their markers, they would find their accounts either drained or closed. As assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Duncan explains:

“Shang deceived the casinos into believing that the recruits had sufficient funds to pay back the casinos. In doing so, the defendant caused monetary losses to the casinos while enriching himself with proceeds from the fraudulent scheme.”

Falling prey to the fraud was the Bank of America and three Station Casinos, which includes Red Rock, Green Valley Ranch and Palace Station. De Rong Shang is now due to receive his sentence on July 16th, 2012.

In the meantime, Shang has become the subject of another FBI investigation in which other Las Vegas casinos were scammed out of millions at the baccarat tables. Apparently, Shang’s group may also have been responsible for defrauding Paris Las Vegas out of $550,000 while awaiting trial. In addition, as Andrew Duncan explains: “The defendant was also identified as part of a group attempting to conduct the same scam at Caesars Palace on Oct. 9 and Oct. 12.”

My take: If you read the scam on my page, you will not that the Roselli Brothers certainly made off with a lot more money and A LOT LESS prison time!!!

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Interesting Shuffle Master Cheating Scenario

I have blogged once or twice about the possibilities and realities of casinos, particularly certain key casino employees like dealers and floor personnel, cheating players or their own casinos by manipulating the Shuffle Master automatic shuffle machines on casino blackjack and baccarat tables. It has actually happened a handful of times around the world, mostly by dealers, sometimes in cahoots with supervisors, temporarily disabling the machine to protect their own false shuffles.

Recently I received the following email from a very knowledgeable person presenting an intersting Shuffle Master casino cheating scenario. Below his email query is my response.

Email:

I read the article on your site about the potential for casinos or their employees to cheat with gaffed Shuffle Master automatic shuffle machines (ASM's). After a brief discussion, you concluded that there is no real risk to players of being cheated with gaffed Shuffle Master machines. You basically concluded that although such cheating is possible the risk for casinos or their employees is too high because too many people would have to be in on the scam.

I question your conclusion that the risk of such cheating is very low.

For instance, there is one likely scenario that you did not consider that I would like your opinion on: Shuffle Master does not insist that casinos using their automatic shuffle machines have only Shuffle Master employees service the machines. Shuffle Master is perfectly willing to train casino personnel to service the machines, themselves. So, suppose a senior manager at, say, a California Indian casino where State and federal oversight is weak) decides to cheat players at, say, double-deck blackjack shuffled with Shuffle Master's MD3 automatic shuffle machines. It would seem to me that all that would be necessary would be for the manager to obtain replacement computer chips with a gaffed shuffle routine, and during "routine" service on the MD3 machines have a trained casino technician (also in on the scheme) modify the MD3 motherboards with the new chips containing the gaffed shuffle routine. This would mean that only two people would have to be in on the scheme (plus the supplier of the gaffed chips who would probably not know where the chips were going).

With so few people aware of the scheme, and with weak State and fed oversight, it seems to me that such a scheme would be relatively easy to pull off. Now, why would a a senior manager of an Indian casino do this? Because (with weak State an fed oversight) the risk of getting caught is very low, and such cheating would provide impressive performance numbers that would increase his performance bonuses and juice his career. Also, at those Indian casinos, such as Thunder Valley in Lincoln, CA, that manage their own casinos, senior casino management often consists of tribal members who benefit directly from increased earnings.

So, what is your opinion of the above scenario, Richard? Do you think it's plausible, or do you still think that even in Indian casinos with weak State and fed oversight the risk of being cheated with gaffed automatic shuffle machines is nominal?

My Response: Although your cheat scenario is very well thought out and plausible, it is still very unlikely. Don't forget, the person you need most in your scenario is the dealer, so now your talking about two inside employees plus someone to supply the gaffed chips. Let's even say that this exact scenario happens ten times a year across the world. That still makes the odds of any player being cheated this way negligible. A better scenario for Shuffle Master cheating is simply having one employee or two disabling the machine for a short period of time. This form of cheating via Shuffle Master automatic shuffling machines has indeed happened, although not very often when you consider the number of blackjack, poker and baccarat tables across the world using them.

Tuesday, May 08, 2012

The Beauty of the Reverse Casino and Poker Scam

If you have been following my poker cheating and casino cheating blogs lately, you will have noticed that I have been writing about poker reverse-cheat scams as well as casino reverse-cheat scams. To refresh your memory of what a "reverse" scam is, it is simply a scam in which the primary victim thinks he is involved in a scam that is scamming somebody else and that he will share in the profits. He never has an idea that he himself is the victim. Like any ordinary scam, a reverse scam preys on the victim's greed, not to mention his willingness to scam somebody else, whether that be a gambler or a gambling casino or poker room.

Before you go on reading this article, please read these two reverse scams to get a flavor of how they work. Then I will give you the details on WHY they work.

Scam 1

Scam 2

Okay, now you have read about both these great reverse cheat scams, one at the casino baccarat table, the other at the poker table, and now you are wondering exactly why they work...I mean beyond the obvious driving factor of the victim's greed. Well, for those of you who don't know, even straight people who have never scammed a penny from anyone or anything in their life often fantasize about doing just that. Everyone on the planet, at one time or another, says to himself or herself, "Wouldn't it be just great if I could cheat that bastard out of..." or "Cheat that damned airline or bank!"

You betcha.

So now imagine how tempting it is to become a scammer when you are already embroiled in the poker and gambling world. The first pre-requisite in finding a reverse poker or casino scam victim is that he (or she) be intelligent and know a lot about poker and casinos. You may think this sounds contradictive, but it is not. People with average or below average intelligence are plainly not smart enough to fall for a reverse scam. Such a person would be asking too many stupid questions and thinking too many dumb things, and above all, worrying that he is somehow being set-up. But a sharp casino and poker-seasoned veteran will immediately understand the believability and credibility of the scam that he thinks he will be part of.

So now you have the first step. The next extremely important element of the reverse scam is that you get the victim's money in a way that coincides with what that victim thinks the scam is. In the baccarat reverse scam, the victim does not mind losing his money to the scammer because he believes that the loss is just part of an offset process to make the casino believe that legitimate high action is taking place on the part of the scammer to obtain casino credit.

In the reverse poker scam, the victim does not mind losing his money to the scammer because he believes he will be getting it all back, and then some, when they all cut up the profits they scammed from the other players at the table.

The last phase of the reverse casino and poker cheat scams is escaping with the victim's money in a fashion that does not panic the victim (or at least in the way that he thinks HE is being scammed. If the scammer, just after having taken all the victim's chips, suddenly gets up and leaves the table by himself, the victim might indeed panic and think he has just been taken for all his money. But if the scammer leaves being escorted by what the victim thinks are casino security agents (or worse), the victim's panic will only be directed to his own safety and escape, and not the thought that he had just been scammed.

So there you have it: the beauty of planning and pulling off the poker cheat reverse scam and the baccarat cheat reverse scam...and don't forget: I have been a victim of the reverse scam as well!

Friday, April 27, 2012

Reverse Poker Scam Galore!

ÂşThe victim and the scammer are sitting in the scammer's living room when a friend/partner of the scammer who the victim does not know comes into the house, excitedly shouting, "I got the marking solution and the contact lenses!" Of course the friend pretends not to know that the victim is there. The victim, a seasoned poker player, is immediately more than curious. He asks the scammer, "What is going on with marking solution and contact lenses? What are you guys up to?

He knows it's got something to do with a poker card-marking cheat operation. The scammer "hesitates" to tell the victim but then lets him in on it. He first allows the victim to insert the contact lenses in his own eyes while he (the scammer) marks the backs of the cards lying on the coffee table with the solution. As the victim sees the markings on the cards through the contact lenses, he is naturally astonished.

The scammer then explains the card-marking scam he is going to do with the friend, offering the victim the chance to participate. He tells the victim that they are going to scam a big no-limit hold'em game in Vegas's biggest-action poker room. He and the friend need the victim to join in the scam as a player to bump pots and make key bets to allow the scammer and the friend to raise pots as well. The victim is told that he does not participate in wearing the contact lenses and marking the cards. The scammer showed him the markings only to establish the credibility of the card-marking scam at the poker table.

The victim is rearing to go because he does not have to be involved in the risky part of marking the cards and will have no evidence (marking solution and contact lenses) on his person as the scam goes down. He thus thinks he is involved in the scam to cheat all the other players in the big no-limit hold'em game. They choose a $30-60 no-limit game.

Since the scammer and the friend cannot really see the cards, they must signal the values of their own hole cards so that they know what each other has in the hole. But how do they know what the victim has? Simple: they get the victim to tell them without making it complicated. The victim is told to signal only if he has a pair of tens or higher in the hole. He does this by a simple gesture on his cards. He is further told to bet this hand in first position or raise if someone has bet before him. If he turns a set he follows the same bet-or raise instructions. This assures the scammer and his friend of knowing when the victim has a strong hand, strong enough where he can go all-in and reveal his hand at showdown without breeding suspicion.

Now the victim is completely set-up by the scammer and his friend. Since the victim believes he is partners with the scammer and the friend to cheat the rest of the poker table, he does not worry about losing his chips to either of the two. Before the trio hits the poker table, the victim is told that if he loses his chips in the game to the player or his friend, he will be replenished with cash when either the victim or his friend meets him away from the poker table, in a meeting place completely outside the casino.

Before the big reverse scam move goes down, the victim has been raising and re-raising pots according to the instructions he had received from the scammer and his friend. He had been told that his function is to help bump-up pots when the scammer and his friend know they have the winning hand. This goes on for a varied amout of time until the ideal situation develops to take the victim down. That situation is when the victim has the high pair in the hole and flops a set while the scammer and friend enter the turn with straight or flush possibilities. When either the scammer or friend or both connect, the victim is signalled to move all-in. He is called by either the scammer or friend or both, and thus loses all his chips, usually an amount of $20,000 or more. The only thing that can stall the big scam is when the board pairs up and the victim makes a full house or four of a kind. When that happens, the victim moves all-in but is not called by either the scammer or the friend.

So now what? The scammer and the friend have all the victim's chips. Let's say that the scammer won the all-in hand against the victim. Now it is necessary for the scammer and friend to end the contact with the victim. A few moments after the big-scam hand, two men dressed in suits approach the poker table and one of them bends over the scammer and says in a low voice but loud enough for the victim to hear, "Would you please come with us, sir?" As the scammer gathers all his chips and leaves with the two men, the victim, naturally assuming that the two men in suits are detectives or FBI, panics and makes nervous eye-contact with the friend. The friend signals the victim to leave the table and go back to the scammer's apartment immediately. When the friend and the victim are sitting in the apartment, nervously speaking about what could have happened, the phone rings. The friend tells the victim to answer it. The victim does, and of couse it is the scammer on the line, who tells the victim that he is in FBI custody and is being charged with numerous felony counts pertaining to cheating in gambling casinos. He tells the victim that he and the friend had both better get the hell out of town quickly, that the FBI is going to track them down. The victim and the friend part ways in a hurry. The victim probably never comes back to Vegas, or at least not for years, and the scammer and his friend enjoy the victim's money, knowing that the victim probably will never know he had been scammed.

This is one of the greatest reverse poker scams ever done. To read the greatest reverse casino scam ever done, click here

Thursday, April 19, 2012

BetOnline Poker Room Shut Down Amid Alleged Online Poker Cheating!

I have just gotten word that the sports book BetOnline has ceased operations of its online poker room. I do not know if this will be permanent but it is big news and probably is the harbinger for another major online poker cheat scam. This closure of an online poker room that accepts US players will have some effect on that market. The reasons I am getting are that some pro online poker players have been cheating via collusion scams and that other players are having problmes withdrawing their funds. I am sure more on this will come!

My take: Well, I won't say "I told you so" but I told you so!

Roulette Pastposting Team Leads Massive Casino Cheating Wave in New Zealand!

Casino Cheating Tsunami!

Source: Waikato Times

Three people – one of them a SkyCity employee – have been charged with attempting to cheat a casino of more than $7000.

Bo Du, 32, worked as a roulette croupier at Hamilton SkyCity Casino when, police say, she deliberately spun her roulette wheel early – or slowly – to allow her two associates Xiaodong Lu, 27, and Zhuo Zhao, 31, to place last-minute bets as the roulette ball came to a stop.

The offending is alleged to have taken place earlier this month.

It is alleged that on April 4, Lu walked away with $1632 and eight days later she and her partner Zhao pocketed a further $5600.

Despite being remanded without plea on one charge of cheating and two of theft, a police summary of facts stated Du had made a full admission and told them she met up with the couple afterwards to collect her share of the winnings.

Lu also faces two counts of theft and one of cheating, while Zhao is charged with one count of theft and one of cheating.

The trio's appearance in the Hamilton District Court yesterday had lawyers scratching their heads as to what a charge of "cheating" entailed.

Justice Ministry figures released to the Times show there have been just seven charged with the Gambling Act offence between 2005 and 2010.

The Times has reported one similar incident in May 2007 when Jing Luo Yan, a 45-year-old chef, tried to cheat at a game of Caribbean stud poker at the Hamilton SkyCity and was convicted and fined $500.

Though rare, the recent alleged offending pales in comparison to an example from November 1998 when Tonga-based Chinese millionaire businessman Zhu Hua Yu and SkyCIty Auckland dealer Lei Zhang were convicted of cheating when Zhang used secret signals to help the punter amass $120,000 playing baccarat.

Internal Affairs gambling compliance inspector Derek Hartley said he and the Hamilton unit were still investigating and did not rule out further arrests or charges in relation to the latest alleged offending.

However, he would not comment on how frequently similar investigations took place or whether SkyCity could face sanctions.

SkyCity Hamilton general manager Arthur Pitcher refused to comment.

He refused also to discuss SkyCity's anti-corruption efforts or staff supervision policies.

It is not known whether Du has lost her job at SkyCity or how long she worked there.

SkyCity Casino has 23 playing tables, 339 gaming machines and revenues of $26.5 million – up 13.7 per cent in the last financial year.

Du, Lu and Zhao were all remanded on bail without plea to reappear in the Hamilton District Court next month.

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Previous casino scams both here and abroad make the winnings collected by Hamilton's three alleged casino cheats look like chump change.

November 2011: Three Italians are charged with cheating at a Cannes casino after French police alleged they used special contact lenses to see invisible ink on the marked cards.

The alert was raised when the gang won NZ$76,300 in an evening of stud poker against the croupier in a night and another $10,000 in a few hours later that week.

January 2007: Two men and a woman cheated at least six London casinos out of nearly $734,000 in a hi-tech poker scam using hidden miniature cameras and earpieces. The sting involved two of the gang playing poker while their accomplice sat in a van nearby.

A tiny camera, hidden up the sleeve of one of the players filmed cards being dealt, with footage beamed live to the van via a transmitter. The poker players were then told via earpieces how to bet.

December 2004: Three gamblers who used a laser device to win over $2.73 million in two nights at a London hotel casino are let off prosecution after police say they did nothing illegal.

The laser scanner measured the speed of the roulette ball as it was released by the croupier, identified where it fell and measured the declining orbit of the wheel.

A computer calculated which section of numbers the ball would land on and dropped the odds for the gamblers from 37-1 to 6-1, with the info flashed to a mobile phone just before bets closed.

November 1998: Tonga-based Chinese millionaire businessman Zhu Hua Yu and SkyCIty Auckland dealer Lei Zhang are convicted of cheating after Zhang used secret signals to help Yu win baccarat bets totalling $120,000.

April 1998: Nevada's premier poker machine cheat, Dennis Nikrasch, who raked in millions of dollars over 22 years, cuts a deal with prosecutors for a lighter sentence in return for telling how he did it. Nikrasch and his cronies' scams brought them about US$40m (then NZ$70m) a year and left officials baffled over how they did it.

Nikrasch was convicted in 1986 of scamming US$10 million from Las Vegas casinos by rigging poker machines between 1976 and 1979. He was freed on parole in January 1991.

My take: Heck, I didn't even know there was major legal gaming casinos in New Zealand! Looks like some pretty big cheating scams are going down there, usually the case with Pacific Rim casinos when they're new. This casino cheat wave kind of parallels what has been going on in Singapore.