Atlantic City Tropicana Casino Fined $115,000 For Not Catching on to Dealer/Player Inside Blackjack Scam!

This rinky-dink blackjack scam where the dealer simply overpaid his cohort at the table or didn't take his losing bets over a seven-month period is almost as shameful as Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut getting beat for nearly a million bucks by an old-fashioned holdout device on its baccarat tables.

The cheating action in question took place between November 2008 and May 2009, during which time the dealer had his buddy repeatedly come to his tables and simply dumped the Tropicana's money on him. According to documents filed with the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, the Tropicana is guilty of not properly supervising a blackjack table, not properly collecting losing bets, and paying off winning bets more money than they were entitled to...and, the grand finale, not detecting casino cheating under their noses!

Supposedly the dealer and player hooked up at the dealer's blackjack tables at least thirty times in seven months. Apparently the amateurish scam came apart when a third party with knowledge of the cheat, probably either the dealer's or the player's girlfriend, ratted them out to the casino shift manager, who removed the dealer from the table as he was dealing to his cheat partner. Under the heat of the back room, the dealer finally admitted the scam.

I have no information as to what happened to the dealer and his cohort, whether they were charged, the dealer fired, etc. Neither was identified and the New Jersey Attorney General has released no public records on the matter.

My take: Sometimes it seems that the easier and stupider a casino cheating scam, the harder it is for casino surveillance to catch on to it. One thing for sure, though, is that either the dealer or the player or both was not spending enough of the cheat-gains on his girlfriend!

Lesson to be learned: Don't let your girlfriend know you're cheating the casino!