Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Vegas Casinos Bust Cheating Gambler For Not Paying $4 Million in Markers! Shame on Them!

Man, I hate when I read about casinos busting people for not paying their casino markers, mainly because the vast majority of those who don't pay their markers already have ruined their lives by losing everything they own in the casinos. I do realize that the casinos don't put a gun to anyone's head and force him or her to gamble, but they are the true masters of both regular and subliminal advertising, right?

The Wisconsin businessman charged with not paying his gambling debts was accused of trying to skate on nearly S4 million in markers, most of it from Caesars Palace (as you all know, my favorite casino!), and the remainder from the Hard Rock Casino.

Christian Peterson, 41, of Verona, Wisconsin, pleaded not guilty to one count of theft in connection with four markers and to two counts of drawing and passing a check without sufficient funds with the intent to defraud.

According to Peterson's attorney, his client went on a reckless gambling spree in 2008 and was an addicted degenerate gambler who needs therapy for his problem.

The indictment accused Peterson of trying to flee town like Flint, literally in a run for his life to get out of Vegas before he got caught. He'd moved his chartered flight-time up to evade casino hosts looking for him. They had the right to demand payment before he left the premises.

Peterson made it out of town and into the air--but then the pilot, receiving word from Vegas officials on the ground, actually turned the plane around and brought it back to Vegas.

"All of it is in dispute," Peterson's attorney, Chris Rasmussen, was quoted as saying.

My take: Getting the plane turned around on you like that is one tough beat! If Peterson ever tries a marker scam, he ought to try the Casino Credit/Identity Theft Scam on my Casino Scam of the Month page.

First Singapore Casino Cheating Bust! It Was a Pastpost Move.

According to the Casino Crime Investigation Branch for Singapore, Loo Siew Wan, 53, is the first person charged with a table games crime at the Resorts World Sentosa casino.

Congratulations, Loo! Somebody had to be IT! LOL!

He has been charged with five crimes related to his pastpost attempt: attempted cheating, cheating by impersonation, theft and giving false information to the police upon his interrogation.

He allegedly tried his cheat move on a casino dealer at one of the Casino's baccarat tables. He placed two SD $100 chips on the 'banker' after the cards had been dealt and the banker already won the hand. This was not a chip-switch move, which would have been better, but simply an amateurish attempt of slapping $200 down on banker and hoping the dealer wouldn't notice it was a late bet.

He also allegedly entered the casino illegally (which seems to be Singapore's casino's biggest problem thus far, as dozens have been busted for entering on false pretenses) by posing as Loh Siow Kok, who happens to be his brother. He used the brother's drivers license to get in.

He was then charged with another crime when he again showed the brother's driver's license to police inspectors called to the scene. He was then charged with stealing his brother's license! LOL! Some brother this guy is!!!...I mean Loo, the casino cheat/thief, not Loh, the brother/victim.

Bail was set at SD $15,000 for all of the above.

My take: This guy went through an awful lot to get himself busted doing a rank amateur move. Better luck with the next stolen ID he uses!

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Is Ladbrokes Casino's New Live Dealer Blackjack Any Safer or Riskier Than Regular Online Blackjack as far as Cheating is Concerned?

Absolutely not. Although Ladbrokes Casino regularly appears as one of the safest all-around online casinos on my Top-10 Safest anti-cheat online casinos list, their new live dealer blackjack games do not make it any more or less riskier as far as cheating is concerned.

Here's an article by gamingsupermarket.com about Ladbrokes' live dealer blackjack:

Ladbrokes Casino has some exciting things going on for those that love live blackjack. Now, the online casino features a live dealer blackjack game. At the present time, this is the most life like blackjack game that you can find in any online casino. This game has been made possible by Microgaming, a leader in the development of online casino software.

This new blackjack game has some features that are new to online blackjack. The first of these is a feature known as bet behind. With this feature, you have the capability to make wagers on players that are seated at the blackjack table. Therefore, if you happen to observe a blackjack player that seems to have a good grasp of the game and plays well, you can choose to bet your money on his performance rather than actually playing the game yourself. Keep in mind that with this bet behind feature, you have no way of actually interacting with the chosen blackjack player. You will not be able to tell them how to play their hand. This is the same as in live land based casinos.

The other feature that is part of Ladbrokes’s latest blackjack offering is the waiting list. As the name implies, it is a waiting list for a specific blackjack dealer. You would add your name to the list and wait until a seat is open. What is nice about this feature is you can enjoy other casino gaming while on the waiting list. Names are added to the waiting list on a first come, first served basis. Playing while waiting is much more enjoyable than watching a table continually for a free seat to become available.

Along another line, this live dealer blackjack game also adds other aspects to the game in order to make a most realistic blackjack experience. The addition of video streaming technology permits players to see their hands being dealt by a live dealer. Secondly, this technology allows players to interact not only with the dealer but also one another. For those gamblers holding out for a more real life blackjack experience, this is the game for you!

Monday, February 22, 2010

Good Oldfashioned Poker Card-Swapping is NOT a Dying Art!

When you pick up a king with a four in a Texas hold'em game and you get a peek at the guy sitting next to you's cards and notice that he's holding a king with a five, and you think, "Wouldn't it be nice if I had his king and he had my four..."

Well, in some well-groomed and practiced cases this does actually happen, and the cards one player happens to see another player holding happen to belong to his partner in poker crime. I'm talking about amateur and professional card-swapping teams, and the good ones are quite effective and get your money very quickly. Read more about card-swapping here.

And it happens in other games besides poker, usually hand-held blackjack.

But then again, not all these poker and blackjack card-swapping teams are that great. Here's one that recently got busted looking pretty bad:

In South Wales (don't know how much action there is over there), a team of card-swappers got nabbed plying their trade in the city of Swansea's main casino. One 34-year-old poker player ID'd as Ozgur Aytekin (rough sounding name, like a terrorist!) was seen on videotape peeking at the playing cards of the man sitting next to him at the table and then switching a card with him. Apparently there were four members to this team that had claimed to be tourists visiting England and Wales. The three caught were jailed for four weeks while one got away and remains at large.

3-Card Poker Operation

Theirs seemed to be quite blatant. According to a casino official, the members of the cheat-team would discuss openly their strategies while showing one another their hands at the three-card poker table. Then the one member not playing would distract the dealer while the other three removed their bottom cards and swapped them under the table. Of course the main poker cheat, Ayetekin, would end up with the winning hand.

In addition to moving cards around the table blatantly, they also moved chips in the same fashion. Ayetekin was observed passing his chips to a man not playing who was standing behind him.

The casino claims it was cheated out of £75 and an additonal £425 was recovered at the poker table.

My take: What a mere pittance to go through all this for!

But don't be fooled by the misadventures of this bumbling card-swapping team. There are lots of good ones operating, especially in California's huge poker card-clubs. I have written extensively about them in my book Dirty Poker.