If there’s one thing you can always count on, that’s if a rule is made, people will
find a way to break it, if the spoils are worth the risk.
Casinos are some of the most well regimented and protected businesses on the planet, but
time and time again, crafty players found a way to beat the house, by going around its
rules.
In this top 5, we’ll take a look at 5 most amazing and biggest casino scams which actually
worked.
Snatch & Grab Roulette Scam
Back in 2012, the Ohio Casino Control Commission believed a widespread roulette scam took place,
involving somewhere between 50 and 70 people.
The plan was about as simple as they come.
Players would enter the casino in groups and place small $1 bets on roulette tables.
One of the group would then distract the dealer, whilst the rest stole as many chips as they
could.
On average the group were landing 1-2 thousand dollars per job.
The authorities believe the group was based in New York City, and hit casinos across 18
states.
The scam is in fact ongoing, with most of the group still at large and only a small
handful having faced jail time so far.
Contact Lenses
Heading across the pond, 4 con artists took the poker tables at Les Princes Casino in
Cannes for about €64,000 back in 2011.
This time it was an inside job and slightly more technical than just grabbing roulette
chips.
One of the con artists managed to get hired as an employee and would mark different symbols
on the backs of cards, with invisible ink.
Different symbols were used to denote the value of the card.
The rest of the group played poker and wore special contact lenses which allowed them
to see these invisible symbols.
This time, the entire group were eventually caught after the casino became suspicious
of their continued success at the tables.
The entire scam was then brought to a halt.
Edge Sorting
Professional poker player, Phil Ivey Jr, perfected his own casino scam back in 2012 whilst playing
punto banco at Crockford’s Casino in London.
In total, Ivey Jr managed to rack up wins of £7.3 million by using a technique called
edge sorting.
This is where players use slight imperfections on the backs of cards, in order to keep track
of specific cards through the deck.
The casino became suspicious when Ivey Jr had asked to see multiple packs of cards before
being happy to play.
He was taken to court, where he lost his plea and was forced to return the money.
Ivey Jr’s casino days were put a stop from that point on.
When he later won $9.6 million at an Atlantic City baccarat table, he was refused his winnings
and asked to leave when they discovered just who he was.
Laser Sector Targeting
In the most tech savvy method on this list, 3 gamblers used a system of lasers and computers
to pull off a sector targeting based heist.
Sector targeting allowed the group to calculate the falling descent of an object in motion,
which came in very handy when calculating where a roulette ball would land in the wheel.
Playing at London’s Ritz Casino back in 2004, the group managed to get away with £1.3
million.
Though the system didn’t allow them to know the specific number, or colour the ball would
land on, it did produce accurate estimates, which was close enough.
In a lucky twist of fate, when the gang were finally caught out, they had to be let go,
since there were no laws specifically prohibiting the use of sector targeting at the time.
The law caught up soon after so, no trying this today guys!
The ATM Job
Back in 2012, 14 people came together to pull off a widespread bank heist on Citibank ATMS
at casinos throughout Southern Carolina and Nevada.
By abusing a software glitch discovered by the group’s leader, the group were able
to make multiple withdrawals at 10 times the amount deposited, provided the transaction
was made within 60 seconds.
The gang kept their withdrawals down to $10,000 to help avoid detection, and then enjoyed
a high roller lifestyle at the nearby casinos.
As with all these things, Citibank eventually started to notice a pattern in where they
were losing their money, and so alerted the FBI.
The feds quickly tracked down the group and served them all with some serious jail time.
The group’s leader was given a total of 57 months in prison, and ordered to return
the just over $1 million he stole.
That’s all we have for this week’s top 5.
As always, you can find a new video from us every week, packed with interesting facts
from around the casino world.
Give us a like or dislike depending on what you thought of this video and we’ll see
you next time with even more great casino facts.
Thanks for watching!