Confusing Counterfeit Chip Cheat Scam at the Grand Casino in Monaco

Looks like a palace, right?

I am a little late on this one, but the reason I'm blogging it now is because I'm confused, and I would like someone to shed some light on it...if at all possible!

According to various press reports, three British nationals, Sajid Rashid, Qamar Hussain and Zahidul Haque Kahn, bilked the Monaco Grand Casino out of $4.2 million by switching fake chips they bought for 10 euros each for real 1,000-euro chips--continuously for a full year while the casino paid for their posh hotel rooms and their gourmet meals with Dom Perignon champagne.

The scam finally came apaart--God knows how--and the judge sentenced the trio to 18 months to three years in a pretty Monte Carlo prison overlooking all those gorgeous yachts in the Mediterranean. And to boot, he said the convicted casino cheats only have to make $1 million restitution to the famed casino.

First thing I don't get is: what the hell did these classy casino cheats do...just go to the cage and change their fake $10 chips for genuine $1,000 chips--to the tune of $4.2 million?

Or did they go to the gaming tables and exchange their phonies for the beauties there?

Or did they do a type of pastpost-switch move with real $1,000 chips and real $10 chips?

Whatever the heck they did, some supposed French gaming sleuth named Christian Ollier said, "These gentlemen were very good."

Now what the hell does that mean?

If someone knows what happened there in what happened to have been one of my favorite casinos to cheat in when I was active, please let me know!

Online Cheat Collusion Between Live Games Dealers and Online Players

I have been blogging recently about online cheating and the possibility of advantage play and cheating live online games by the online players logging in to play. I've spoken about the feasibility of card-counting and other advantage play methods for live blackjack and wheel clocking possibilities for live roulette.

But what about collusion between live online blackjack and live online roulette dealers with online players?

Is it possible?

Possible?

It's already happening!

I have heard several cases of live casino online games being cheated by the live online dealers in both blackjack and roulette. The majority of the cases occur at the beginning of shifts when live dealers know that casino personnel in the real live casinos are coming and going and NOT watching the games, especially the live casino online games.

One live-games casino operating in England had a live roulette dealer just placing the ball in a number slot that corresponded to what his cheat partner bet online as the wheel did its revolutions. Obviously, they worked out the betting number and the exact time of this live roulette cheat move.

In live blackjack, I've gotten reports of dealers manipulating and flashing cards with online cheat partners. Again, this happens mainly during shift changes, especially when the cheating dealers know that live casino surveillance operators are coming and going.

What makes live casino online collusion-cheating more possible is the fact that generally there are no live supervisors on the live blackjack and live roulette tables.

So it's only live casino surveillance that the live cheating dealers have to worry about.

And if they're out of the picture...let the live casino online collusion cheating begin!

Las Vegas Craps Dealer and Agents Go Down for Million-Dollar "Hop Bet" Scam!

I have heard of casinos falling for ridiculous amateur cheat scams and for huge money, but this one is REALLY ridiculous!

This cheating dealer don't exactly look honest!

The Bellagio Casino of Las Vegas fell victim to a hop-bet scam on its craps table that lasted two years and netted two Bellagio craps dealers, Mark Branco and James R. Cooper, and their accomplices more than a million bucks. A hops bet scam is nothing more than a call bet made on the craps table for a specific-combination outcome of the two dice just before they're rolled.

It pays off at high odds.

The player must immediately put his money on the table as he "hops" the bet.

In this casino-cheat hopping case, the two players would throw their money on the table and mumble out "hopping..."

How 'bout this one?

but what numbers they were hopping were purposefully mumble-jumbled so that no one could really hear it, and since both dealers working either side of table were in on the scam, they just paid the hop bets as if the dice landed in the exact combination their cohorts had mumbled out.

The scam came apart when another "clean" dealer got suspicious of the two dirty ones and alerted casino authorities.

As is the norm in Vegas, there was probably no boxman sitting at the table between the two dealers to nullify the inaudible bets. So you can see how a pair of cheating dealers could get away with this for so long. They and their cheating cohorts were winning these hop bets at payoffs of 15 and 30 to 1.

Branco got four years in prison. Cooper, who is cooperating with the investigation and has testified against Branco and their associates, will most likely receive a lighter sentence.

It is almost inconceivable to me that this rinky-dink scam could go on in a major Las Vegas Strip casino for two years and net a million bucks.

Talk about a casino needing some lessons in table game protection!

A big lesson here for the casinos is that they need to go back to putting boxmen on their craps tables!

And to think that Vegas casinos used to sit two boxmen on busy craps tables.