Friday, November 05, 2010

Well-Known European Roulette Pastposting and Pinching Cheat to be Sentenced Today in London

Actually the famed roulette cheat, thirty-seven year-old Bahram Sahami, is originally from Iran, but he has developed a knack for cheating American-style roulette wheels in Europe. His specialty is pastposting or adding chips to bets after a winning outcome and pinching chips (removing from the layout) after a losing outcome. He is also a known chip thief, lifting chips from other players at the roulette table. Sahami has pleaded guilty to multiple counts of all three of these type of casino cheat infractions, and will be sentenced today at the Southwark Crown Court for 3 counts of casino fraud and cheating at gambling and two counts of thievery of casino chips.

Sahami was also skilled at using false identities to gain entrance to European casinos, something he had to be as he'd been barred by all UK casinos for past instances of cheating. Apparently he used a half-dozen high-quality fake UK driver's licenses and ID cards to fool casino reception personnel during 2009 and 2010, becoming a member of several UK casinos.

Sahami, whose average cheat move netted between $50 and $200, was last busted at a London Gala casino when he was observed pastposting on video surveillance tape. Tape was then reviewed on several shifts and more casino cheat moves were discovered.

My take: This guy seems like a skilled and busy roulette cheat, but maybe he didn't move around enough. It appears he overworked London and the rest of the UK casinos, which is a dumb move for even the best of casino cheats. He will probably get minimal jail time as the UK is not very harsh with casino cheats. As soon as I have the info on his sentence I will pass it along.