Insider Craps-Dealer Cheat Scam Stings Louisiana Casino

Cheating Craps Dealer

This time the insider-dealer-cheat scam happened at the craps table. It was kind of rank and not for the biggest ill-gotten casino-cheat fortune we've seen, but nevertheless 49-year-old Treasure Chest Casino Craps dealer Anthony Thompson was allegedly passing off chips to two cohort patrons on his craps tables over a seven-day period. By "passing off," I mean just that. He was not allowing late or pastposted bets, but simply giving chips to his craps-cheat partners at what he considered the most opportune times, most likely when supervisors weren't watching his games or boxmen were absent.

Eventually a video review of one table game caught the craps-cheating act, and then other videos going back a week revealed several repetitions of the passing-off-chips scam.

Police were called in to interrogate Thompson, who was subsequently placed under arrest and charged wtih several felonies including theft, cheating, swindling and conspiracy.

My take: This is a prime example of someone throwing out an entire casino career for not much more than a bag of peanuts. If he had two partners during this seven-day cheat-episode and they were equal three-way partners, Thompson's take would have been a mere $500. And even if the scam  had gone on for several weeks before that (casino videos are usually erased after a seven-day period), maybe he made a few grand.

But now he'll never work in a casino again, will have a criminal record and maybe even serve some prison time.