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| Lotta employee cheating going on! |
The Mark Twain Casino in La Grange, Missouri certainly had its share.
According to accounts, the Missouri Gaming Commission is proposing a $50,000 fine for the casino for having allowed blatant cheating violations over an eight-month period between December 2016 and August 2017.
That's a long time!
It seems that the cheat scams, involving dealers, supervisors and pit managers, revolved around the casino's craps tables, where we have seen a sharp increase of insider employee scams, most notably the recent $1.4 million hopping-bet scam at the Bellagio in Vegas.
Just like that scam, which unbelievably occurred without interruption over more than a year, the Mark Twain scams were relatively simple, even ridiculous at that. The dealers, in collusion with their supervisors and pit bosses, allowed players to cap, pastpost and change their bets at will, either after they already won the bets or were in a favorable position to do so. It went to flagrant extremes such as the dealer calling a "no roll" on the thrown dice if they crapped out against the players.
There are two amazing things about the scam. The first is that the whole thing seemed carried out only to collect tips from the beneficiaries of the cheating. Unless those tips amounted to at least half the profits, these casino employees were risking their careers for virtually chump change.
The second incredible thing that hits home with this scam is: where was surveillance? Unless they were in on it, which does not appear to be the case, how could this go on for eight months without someone from surveillance catching on to it through routine reviews and observation.
In all, three employees were fired and arrested. A table games supervisor and pit manager have already pleaded guilty and received probation, community service and lifetime bans from casinos in Missouri...pretty light sentences for a continuing criminal enterprise, I would say.
My take: This relative amateurish scam scenario is just more plain evidence that table games dealing-procedures must be adhered to and stressed over and over again via repetitive training. Same thing goes for surveillance.
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