Ocean’s 11 If Ocean's 11 were a real team,
it’d be the infamous Tran Organization, headed by Phuong "Pai Gao John" Truong
and his wife. Their skillful operation got them $7 million from over 20 different casinos!
Schemed A stunt of this
magnitude requires lots of preparation. Truong, who had become somewhat of a famous gambler in
the Vietnamese community, knew he needed to learn how casinos operated if he wanted to rob them.
Truong and his wife, Van Thu Tran, worked as card dealers and, back in 2002, were reported to have
performed illegal shuffles that earned them around $3000. They may have lost their jobs,
but they didn't lose their eagerness to make more money.
They came up with the idea of "training" card dealers to perform what's known as a "false
shuffle." In it, the card dealer pretends they're shuffling a deck of cards, only to keep
pockets of them in the same order– by doing this, players on the table who paid attention
will know what cards are coming and will place bets on that deck when it comes back into play.
One of their training operations was set on the Sycuan Casino in San Diego, the same place where
they had worked and gotten caught a year before. Unfortunately for them, Casino security saw the
woman dealing loaded cards and fired her. Although this seems like the worst possible start for their
scam, nothing else happened. The FBI didn't think anything of it and considered it an isolated
incident. Little did they know this San Diago dealer was collecting intelligence on how not
to get caught using the false shuffle. You could go as far as to say she was trying to get caught.
All in the Family John and his wife kept the scam in the family,
as most of the co-conspirators involved shared the same last name—Tran. While there wasn't any
clear indication of their exact relationships with one another, it was clearly an organized
move. Some were surprised to see how easily they gained access to casinos and found people
along the way to cooperate with the scam. They had created a cheating academy –with teachers and all–
that traveled across the country to spot card dealers in casinos they could bribe.
They even flew them to California to receive training in the False Shuffle.
According to Richard Marcus, a famous gambling cheat, the participants they approached were
primarily Vietnamese, which helped their strategy– the language connection and cultural background
made it easier for them. As it turns out, the Trans were experts in knowing how to gain
their trust by getting close and personal; they even bought them drinks. Marcus also
believes that because casino workers know they're not dealing with their own money,
they feel they have nothing to lose. Truong and his people would offer new collaborators
around $5000 per shuffle– an easy hook for someone who has lost interest in their job at a casino.
By this time, they had become experts in using the false shuffle as their main attraction.
False Shuffle Their scam required
a network of cheats and strict attention to detail. After all, it's not everyone who's able
to deceive tightly controlled businesses like a casino. Using the False Shuffle,
the Tran Organization targeted the easiest game they could—Baccarat. Here's how it worked.
With the dealer in place, one of the Tran members, known as the "recorder," would write down the
order of the cards as they were delivered from the rack of decks, also known as the "shoe."
This is legal in Baccarat; players can write down cards and suits to keep track
of what's been dealt already. So our cheater records the cards dealt out of one deck,
and the dealer then False Shuffles about 40 of those cards in the same order—the Slug.
Once that deck comes back into play, the recorder signals to the player when and how much to bet.
Baccarat is easy enough that the player only needs to look out for a handful of signals.
Raking It In They were neatly organized. Truong
and his team had set up a traveling operation that moved around the country studying and eventually
cheating Casinos. Additionally, they set up groups that would work day and night shifts
at the mini-baccarat tables. Tran was reported to be making around $20,000 per shift. In their
first month, they made $158,000. When they started hitting big numbers, they felt the need to grow.
They expanded their operation and decided to scam casinos up and down the West Coast, Midwest,
and even Canada. They were in and out too. It may have taken weeks for a Casino to realize
it had been cheated. By then, Truong and his gang of cheats were long gone.
Two years later, with their operation in full swing, Tran was a fully functional
enterprise with at least 40 people reported to be involved at the same time. They went as far
as making $50,000 every ten minutes at a table. When you're making this kind of money, you're
going to turn into a big-time spender, just like Truong. He bought numerous properties, including
homes in Otay Mesa and Escondido, California. He even had one in Vietnam. Added to this was the
long list of luxury items: a Rolex Presidential watch—now worth around $33,000, a 2001 Porsche
Carrera, among other cars; and a Mercedes-Benz white-gold pendant with 105 encrusted diamonds.
According to the FBI, the clan hit 29 casinos in California, Mississippi,
Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Washington, and Ontario. While they spread out all over the US,
surprisingly, they only made two heists in Las Vegas. Avoiding Vegas may have
been their smartest move. The high-end security would have been far too risky.
Higher Stakes Of course, to earn big bucks,
you have to raise the stakes. This was when they decided to start cheating at Blackjack. But to
cheat Blackjack, they had to change their tactics since Blackjack has higher limits and, thus,
higher winnings. First and foremost, the dealer had to be skilled in the False Shuffle. Then,
someone watched the order in which the cards were being dealt. They were called The
Tracker. The Tracker would read the order into a microphone hidden in the cuff of their shirt
while they pretended to smoke a cigarette. With the aid of a specially crafted computer program,
they could cheat their way through the game.
Outside the Casino, another person would be talking directly to the Tracker through
an earpiece. The computer program would read the order of the cards so
that the Tracker would know how to play after the false shuffle was performed.
The Tracker would then make hand signals so the player would know when the falsely shuffled Slug
was being used– they would also know how to bet based on the signals. The Tracker took a puff of
their cigarette with one finger, signaling they should bet. Two fingers meant the player should
double down. These elaborate tactics cracked the code of Blackjack without the Casino knowing.
Greed The execution
of the scam seemed to be flawless. Their profits were practically endless,
reaching six figures. At one point, they stole $868,000 in one night! But, as with most stories
of crooks and criminals, greed got the best of them. Truong, overtaken by a sickening need for
more money, decided to shortchange his dealers– a tactic that would soon turn against him.
The dealers, feeling exploited and cheated in their own right, became informants for the FBI.
Police were able to identify the masterminds in charge of the whole enterprise and put
them under close surveillance. This included transaction reports, travel records, and even
their playing habits– the FBI had zeroed in on them and was ready to take action.
In 2006, Truong met with a new group of dealers he would try to convince to work for him. Little did
he know these random individuals were actually undercover agents from the Mississippi Gaming
Commission. At the Imperial Palace Casino in Biloxi, Mississippi, Truong attempted to bribe an
agent acting as a dealer and another posing as a floor supervisor. Truong laid out his whole scheme
during the same meeting: he explained everything, from the cigarette signals to the betting
procedure. As if this wasn't enough, the agents were able to capture the whole ordeal on video.
The FBI received a tip regarding a possible trip the organization would have to the first Casino
they ever robbed—the Sycuan Casino, in San Diego. They set various cameras around the table and
watched as one of its most infamous members, Willy Tran, performed his skills to steal $20,000 in a
matter of 20 minutes. This was the final piece police needed to take down the Tran Organization.
Indicted It all fell to pieces. Truong, his wife Van,
and 42 others were indicted and taken to court for racketeering. They admitted to having created an
enterprise based in San Diego that orchestrated gambling cheats across the United States. With
this scheme, the group cheated their way to $7 million. The heads of the organization were
charged with one count of conspiracy to commit multiple offenses against the United States,
including stealing money from Native American tribal casinos and money laundering.
All of the indictments stated clear intentions by the group to bribe card dealers in many casinos
across the United States. The 42 charged persons admitted to targeting 29 different casinos in
the US and Canada to engage in financial conspiracy—aka cheat. Added to this, two
other participants pleaded guilty to tax-related crimes directly linked to money received from the
shuffling scheme. After her trial ended, Van Thu Tran was sentenced to 3 years in prison and 3 more
years of supervised release. She was also ordered to pay $5.7 million in restitution to the affected
casinos and would do so through forfeiture of several bank accounts and her personal items.
As for Pow Gai John, he pleaded guilty and faced up to 20 years in prison, plus
another five for the thefts performed at tribal gaming establishments. Fortunately for him,
he scored a better deal and only served
70 months in prison. He was ordered to pay at least $2.7 million in restitution,
Adapting Thanks to the
cooperation of dealers and the Casino's willingness to lose some money to catch
the cheaters, the tactics used by the Tran Organization will never again be successful.
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