Tale of True Organized Nevada Prison Casino...Do You Think Any Cheating Went On?...LOL!

Jail House Craps Table in Action

Source: Las Vegas Review Journal

Before receiving a gaming license, an applicant must undergo a thorough investigation by the Nevada Gaming Control Board. They routinely are rejected if they have a criminal history or have associated with unsavory characters. So then, how did inmates -- every one of them a convicted criminal -- at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City operate their own casino for 35 years?

Yep, blackjack, craps, poker, gin rummy, even sports betting were available as recreational activities for the inmates at the state's maximum security prisons between 1932 and 1967.

Inmates operated the "Bullpen," a stone building converted into a casino, on the grounds of the 140-year-old state prison in Carson City. Sometimes the local Kiwanis Club and state agency heads even stopped by the prison casino to drop a few coins. For most of those years, the Nevada State Prison was the state's only prison, even housing death row.

Former Mustang Ranch owner Joe Conforte, now a fugitive living in Brazil, even ran some of the games when he was a prison inmate there in 1962.

"It was a different time," said Dennis Neilander, chairman of the Gaming Control Board. "They thought it would keep them out of trouble. It wouldn't happen today." Neilander said that before 1959, gaming control largely fell on county sheriffs. Nevada also had a long history of tolerating gambling even before it became the first state to legaIize gaming in 1931.

Inmates will gamble, regardless of whether it is legal or illegal, and prison gambling did keep them out of trouble, said Carl Osborne, a Las Vegas bus driver who has accumulated a collection of Nevada State Prison tokens, called "brass" by the inmates.

"I think the games would have been more than honest, because cheating inmates would be scared of the consequences," Osborne said. "If someone got caught cheating, they might have to be transferred out of state for their own safety. You wouldn't have been very safe there."

Jail House Casino Tokens

Obsorne, 61, served a short stretch in the Nevada State Prison in the early 1990s and got to know some of the older inmates. Even during his time in prison, sports betting was rampant. Buying prison tokens has become something of a challenge for Osborne. They are becoming increasingly rare. Occasionally they appear for sale on eBay. His winning bids typically are in the $200 range for a single token.

When Warden Carl Hocker -- a transplant from the California prison system -- closed down the casino in April 1967, he also quickly sold off the brass, which came in denominations of 5, 10, 25 and 50 cents, $1 and $5. "I think gambling in prison is a degradation, and it's certainly not constructive," Hocker said, according to newspaper accounts. "We're trying to replace it with constructive, wholesome activities that will contribute to a decent, healthful state of mind." Hocker's idea of wholesome activities were handicrafts, bridge, chess, pingpong, volleyball, shuffleboard and making bead necklaces.

But Howard Herz, a Gardnerville resident who is the state's foremost expert on gaming tokens, has written about the prison casino and found perhaps the real reason for the casino closure. There had been a riot at the prison early in 1967, and several legislators had introduced a bill to close down the casino. Hocker was a veteran of San Quentin and a no-nonsense guy when it came to discipline. Herz also pointed out the Bullpen wasn't an illegal casino, but one sanctioned by the state prison. The backgrounds of all gamblers had been checked. "All of the gamblers had their fingerprints on file, and security was excellent," Herz wrote in Casino Chip and Token News in 2006.

The casino closure bill wasn't needed once Hocker took pre-emptive action and bulldozed the Bullpen.

State Archivist Jeff Kintop said surprisingly little was written in newspapers about the prison casino up to the time it was closed. He said the thinking of most wardens was gaming would keep inmates out of trouble.

"I guess gambling is one of those necessary evils," Warden Jack Fogliani said when he came to the prison in the 1960s.

The thinking of legislators, according to Assemblyman Howard McKissick, R-Reno, was that gambling prevented "homosexual problems." Frank Johnson, a Nevada State Journal columnist, contended in a funny January 1960 column that it was common for reporters somewhere around the country every few months to discover the prison casino and write how awful that was. "It has been months since the press has been around to expose my gambling den," Warden Art Bernard said in Johnson's column. "I am getting lonely." Bernard, it seems, was called on regularly to justify the prison casino.
He told one reporter in 1957 that it was impossible to prevent gambling by convicts and that the prison casino was supervised by prison guards. "These guys are experts," Bernard said about the inmates who ran games. "You can be sure they allow no cheating whatever."

Profits went to the inmate welfare fund.

Herz said each inmate who operated a game needed to have enough money to bankroll the game and receive the warden's approval. He also had to pay a fee of $25 to $75 per game every six months. "That was a lot of money back then," Herz said. "Any inmate that had money could play. They invited guests to come in and play."

Under Conforte, horse racing was added to the list of prison casino games. Sports betting was expanded to include all collegiate events. That all would end when Gov. Paul Laxalt brought in Hocker as warden. The old state prison itself could end up like the Bullpen in 2011. Gov. Jim Gibbons tried to close it twice in the last two years, only to be rebuffed by the Legislature and the Board of Prison Commissioners.

Gibbons contended closing the 703-inmate medium security prison would save money, although correctional officers challenged his estimates and contended there is no safer prison in Nevada. Under Gibbons' plan, correctional officers would be transferred to other prisons, as would inmates. With the state facing a $1 billion to $3 billion revenue deficit, closing the prison likely will be on the agenda for the next Legislature.

Osborne is a history buff. He thinks it was a mistake to close the prison casino. He also realizes that not many Nevadans are around today who remember the era of legal gaming in the state prison. "Virtually no one realizes we had a casino in our prison," he said. "But it is in our history. It shouldn't be forgotten."

Descendants of Infamous Italian Roulette Pastposting Team Facing Various Casino Cheat Charges in UK!

I have stated that the best casino cheat move I have ever seen (besides my own Savannah, of course) is the roulette pastpost slide that was done by at least two generations of Italian casino cheat families. If you don't know, after Americans, Italians make up the largest population of organized casino cheats in the world. Whether or not this has anything to do with Mafia heritage, I don't know, although some Italian casino cheat organizations have been linked to Italian organized crime.

Two Italian casino cheats facing trial in the UK are descendants of one of these families, though I must point out that they have never had anything to do with the main Italian roulette cheat teams I knew back in the 70s and 80s. They are clearly not that good. If they were, they wouldn't be facing all these casino cheat charges in London.

As it is, the two, Frank Camilleri, sixty-one, and Francesco Baioni, sixty-four, both with UK addresses, have pled guilty to 20 casino cheat charges including possessing fake ID documents to enter UK casinos they were already barred from. In addition to this, they have admitted to roulette pastposting crimes dating back over two decades. Investigators believe the pair have worked casinos all over the world. Their method is to place late wagers in roulette after the ball lands in a number slot, though I do not believe they were using the famed slide technique.

My take: I never thought I'd hear about anyone related to the great Italian roulette cheat teams of yesteryear getting sentenced for any casino crimes, but times do change, and obviously these two guys were mere knockoffs of their familial predecessors.

They will probably get off with slight jail time or suspended sentences as the UK justice system is not harsh with casino cheats.

2010 Thanksgiving Casino Cheat Turkey of the Year Awards!

Now that it's Thanksgiving, it's time for my annual Casino/Poker Cheating Turkey of the Year. In order to qualify, candidates must satisfy three main concerns:

1) Had to get caught (Obviously!) and prosecuted
2) His or her scam had to be either stupid or poorly conceptualized
3) The person had to have not only embarrassed himself but also others

2010 CHEATING TURKEY OF THE YEAR AWARDS!

THIRD PLACE: Goes to B.M, an American surveillance executive who botched up a simple casino cheating move during one of my game protection seminars. I spent several hours preparing B.M. to do this blackjack ten-oh-five on a blackjack table in front of his surveillance staff (unbeknownst to them), but he fowled (pardon the turkey pun!) it all up and actually got caught by one of his own surveillance staff. The use of his initials is to protect him from further embarrassment.

SECOND PLACE: Goes to Jonathan Sanner, Jason Peterson, Thomas R. Kordick and Scott Marshall, all ex-supervisors at the Planet Hollywood Casino in Las Vegas who ran a phony poker jackpot scam and collected the winnings themselves. They netted a mere $2,100, and for that lost their jobs, face possible prison time and embarrassed themselves and their casino fellow workers. TURKEY SHAME on them!

THE WINNER is Walter Bansley IV of New Haven, Connecticut, a scion of an old and well-to-do family of lawyers and judges. Bansley IV, who despite the regalness of the Roman numeral IV after his name is the first known casino cheat having a Roman numeral greater than III, was caught pinching (snatching a losing bet off the layout) a lousy $10 bet of a craps layout...that after having already been ahead more than four grand at the MGM Grand casino at Foxwoods. Now THAT is REALLY embarrassing, not only to himself but to his entire well-respected family!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

And Don't Cheat the Turkey!!

Foxwoods Latest Baccarat Cheat Scam Fallout Widens Across America's Major Casino Areas!

The two baccarat-cheat Koreans arrested a few days ago at the MGM Grand Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut are now believed to be tied to a major international baccarat-cheating ring similar to the infamous Vietnamese Tran Organization, which set the casino-cheat world ablaze for the five years 2003-2007.

Yesterday they were arraigned on various casino-cheat charges in New London, not far from Connecticut's Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos, the latter of which was also victimized by the baccarat scam using electronic devices. A total of four Korean casino-cheat suspects were arraigned.

State of Connecticut prosecutor Peter McShane said the suspects in the baccarat cheating scam defrauded Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos out of nearly $1 million. He identified 60 year-old Young Su Gy as the mastermind of the baccarat cheat operation. Thirty-four year-old Wookyung Kim is pegged as Gy's right hand man.

Judge Kevin McMahon used a Korean interpreter by phone in his courtroom. He indicated that the Korean cheat group is suspected of baccarat cheating crimes in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, the Caribbean and even Europe.

Fifty-five year-old Korean Ingyu Park and sixty-three year-old Korean Sun Jang were also arraigned in the case and are being held on $500,000 felony warrant bonds out of New Jersey, both for casino crimes. They are accused of cheating heavily at the mini-baccarat tables in Atlantic City's Bally's casino, a haven for high-rolling Korean baccarat players.

My take: Well, there is one notable difference between the Vietnamese Tran Organization baccarat-cheating syndicate and this Korean one--at least the Korean baccarat cheats don't all have the same last name!!! LOL

Which is the Best Shift for Poker Cheats and Casino Cheats to Work Brick and Mortar Casinos and Poker Rooms?

You might simply assume that the best shift to cheat live casinos is the swing shift because that's simply the busiest shift for casinos. While that is indeed true it doesn't always mean that professional casino cheat teams prefer to work the swing shift as a priority. Although it is usually best for cheat teams to work busy casinos simply to blend in better and camouflage their cheat moves, sometimes the busy casinos prove burdensome for organized cheat teams, especially when they consist of three or four members working to do the moves. They may find it nearly impossible to secure their places at the tables. This is especially true of roulette wheels where three or four cheats are needed to work well-orchestrated moves. Other slower times such as the graveyard shift offer cheat teams a more relaxed atmosphere where pit personnel and dealers are friendlier and less on-guard for cheating. When moves are very strong and don't require more than one or two team members to pull them off, the graveyard can be the ideal shift.

So really there is no specified "best time" to cheat casinos if you are a good cheat working alone or with a team. It depends on many factors including move-difficulty and room required at the target table. If you are not such a good cheat it is probably better to work the crowded casinos in as much as you can disappear quickly into the throng if you have a problem and need to get away from the pit personnel's view.

One negative about empty casinos for ALL cheats regardless of number and skill: If you have to get the hell out of "Dodge" on the quick and bolt across the casino, you are going to stick out like a sore thumb and have a heck of a time getting away!

Phil Hellmuth to Sever Relationship With UB.com To Get Away From Poker Cheating Brand!

Apparently Phil Hellmuth, one of the most recognized poker pros in the world who has been affiliated with UB.com (ex-UltimateBet.com) for some time now and been wearing the UB garb and ball cap at every poker event he plays in, is about to announce that he will end his relationship with the giant online poker company most known for the world's biggest online gambling scam. Hellmuth has not announced any immediate plans what he might do immediately afterward, but industry insiders expect that he will be involved in the launching of a new major online poker room (cheat free of course!) that will pay him a large percentage of the profits without any capital investment from Hellmuth--a very sweet deal indeed.

My take: Hellmuth has always been as phony as they come, especially in his dramatics involving his staged confrontations with fellow poker pro Mike Matusow. The bottom line is that even though it does Hellmuth good to separate himself from UB and its cheat-plagued reputation, he is only doing this to make more money elsewhere.

And he will.

PokerStars Gets Tough on Online Poker Players in China Because of Cheating Scandal!

Source: Part Time Poker

If you play online poker from China, game selection just got a bit tougher on PokerStars. That’s the result of a new rule on Stars, rolled out sometime this week with understandably little fanfare, that limits the amount of players from China that can be simultaneously seated at any given ring game table to one.

There’s been a similar rule in place for many SNG tournaments since late August, as a result of a massive collusion ring that Stars unearthed involving Chinese players and Double-or-Nothing (DON) Sit and Gos.

PokerStars paid out a reported $2.1 million in compensation to those players impacted by the collusion. What’s different this time? Well, the order of events. There’s yet to be a massive collusion ring reported at cash tables on Stars, but Chinese players are subject to an identical restriction on ring (cash) games as they face in the DONs.

That’s led more than a few people to wonder if this is simply a proactive move by PokerStars, or if it’s a response to another, as-yet-unreported, collusion ring identified by the world’s largest real-money poker room.
There’s no evidence yet to suggest that the latter is the case. Stars has a long history of issuing refunds to players impacted by cheating, and the uncovering of a massive cheating ring would almost certainly be quickly followed by a string of refunds that would definitely hit the radar on major poker forums like 2+2.

My Take: Well, China is a big place...and there's always gonna be lots of room for online poker cheats!

2010 World Series of Poker is Over...So, Was There Any Cheating Going on?

Now that the 2010 WSOP final table has played out with Canadian Jonathan Duhamel taking home the whopping $8.9 million and gold bracelet, I am required to make my 2010 World Series of Poker Final Cheating report.

Well, believe it or not, I don't have many cheating incidents to report on. Besides the usual chip dumping and slow playing by the professional poker tournament syndicates, there isn't much to say about cheating at this year's tournament.

As far as the championship event goes, I always point out beforehand the dangers of the four-month interim between the determination of the nine players at the final table and the play of that final table. There is always the possibility, or I should say probability of deal-making, which is a form of collusion, which is a form of cheating. I can't say for sure who made what deals, but I would bet that some major ones were made between July and November.

As far as that incredible hand between Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi and Matt Jarvis where a full house made on the turn was beat by a higher full house made on the river, it was legitimate. No way did the dealer or anyone else maneuver the cards to effect that amazing outcome.

So overall it was a pretty honest 2010 World Series of Poker. In fact, the dominant cheating news during the play of the final table came from the European Partouche Poker Tour event where big-time poker cheat Ali Tekintamgac used phony bloggers and media reporters to flash him signals of opponents' hole cards.

Obviously, he got caught!

Negreanu's sunglasses-wearing PokerStars TV Commercial Confirmed!

Since I posted the entry about the alleged TV commercial of Daniel Negreanu, the anti-sunglasses cheat famed poker pro, possibly wearing sunglasses at the poker table, I have received emails from several people telling me they saw the commercial and that Negreanu was indeed wearing sunglasses.

Well, that's good enough for me.

It was the typical super-hype online poker commercial for PokerStars with the hot babe and the suspenseful poker hand, and of course the "dot-net" instead of the "dot-com" to intice players to the real-money games via the so-called free games.

All this goes to show that Negreanu is a super piece of crap, sunglasses or no sunglasses, and that he'd sell his sole to the online poker devil for a few hundred thousand more...not to mention (AGAIN!) his main-star status on the GSN "High Stakes Poker" show, during which, by the way, his sunglasses commercial appears.

For those of you who don't know, "High Stakes Poker" is completely full of shit. No one wins or loses a dime on the show. It's all a big show-and-tell donkey show and Negreanu leads the donkeys (anyone watching the show who believes it is real) to the big dumper in front of the television screen. All the stacks of purple chips and packets of $100 bills are returned to the players or the sponsors or to whoever put it up before shooting began.

I only wish that more of you saw through all this shit and stopped watching High Stakes Poker.

Like Negreanu, it is a piece of crap.

FOX NEWS wanted my opinion on TV's "Wheel Of Fortune" Wonderwoman...So I Gave it To Them.

The other day I received an email from Fox News reporter Meaghan Murphy asking my opinion on whether or not Caitlin Burke, the young woman who amazingly solved the "Wheel of Fortune" puzzle with just one letter, somehow cheated. I told Ms. Murphy, "Of course she did!"

Here's the article Ms. Murphy wrote for Fox News

The Wheel Of Fortune contestant who stunned the world by solving a puzzle with just one letter has laughed off suggestions she cheated.

Caitlin Burke picked the seven-word, 27-letter phrase — "I've got a good feeling about this" — after selecting a lone letter "L".

US show host Pat Sajak was stunned, asking whether it was "the most amazing solve we've ever had". Viewers were also shocked. The video of Ms Burke's freakish effort spread quickly across the internet after airing last Friday.

But as online debate raged as to whether it was too good to be true, one expert has suggested the 26-year-old contestant had an unfair advantage.

"I think she cheated with help from someone on the inside who simply gave her the information beforehand," FOX411 reported professional casino cheating expert Richard Marcus as saying. What I can tell you is that the spinning of the wheel had nothing to do with it, nor was this a similar scam to what happened a few times on the show Who Wants to be a Millionaire? where contestants were getting help from the audience."

Ms Burke maintains she won her $900 prize and Caribbean holiday fairly and squarely.

"For those who think I cheated, I say, 'How?' I don’t understand," Ms Burke was quoted as responding. "I would love to know how people think I cheated at that game — like what, I had it written on my hand? How would I even know it would be a puzzle? Or what, I snuck backstage? I don’t even know how that stuff works. I mean, if I was cheating, I probably would have cheated in a smarter way and rigged the wheel so I made more money.”

The New York resident was even happy to give future hopefuls some tips.

"If you look at the end of a word and understand how letter endings work, you can work from there," she was quoted as saying. "For example, if there’s an 'N' in a word, there’s usually a 'G'. If there’s a three-letter word, it's probably 'T-H-E' — things like that." Common sense is underrated — you can really solve a lot by understanding the way words are formed."

My take: Well, common sense may be underrated but cheating is even MORE underrated!!!