Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Casino Game Protection
For those casinos in the United States and Canada worrying about the latest baccarat scams, I am happy to report that due to comprehensive training and seminar attendance, the incidence of these scams, especially those using corrupted dealers, is on the decrease. Like I always say, good game protection is the best defense against professional casino cheats and advantage players.
Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem Snags Poker Cheating Bonus Bettor
Thirty-eight year-old Kyle Greg Dunn was arrested for allegedly postponing bonus wagers at a Texas Hold 'em game last weekend. I have read that he was plying a sleight of hand method to get down his pastposts but can tell you this was not the case. Dunn simply used a distraction and good timing to pastpost the bets, supposedly at least three times. His earnings for the night were a mere $325, hardly worth the bust. He later claimed he did it out of desperation.
Poker and Casino Cheating Wave Beginning to Hit Ohio's New Casinos
A lot of cheating is going on in the new Ohio casinos, especially the Hollywood Casino in Toledo. However, the difference between the cheating going on in this new casino versus the cheating that usually go on in new baby casinos is that Hollywood Casino is being taken off by some of its own dealers. You rarely see a brand-new casino, especially an American one, falling victim to inside scams this early. Usually the dealers are too green and nervous about keeping their jobs. In areas such as Singapore and Macau, the crooked dealers are ready to rake off from day one.
The latest inside scam at the Toledo casino I heard about was a roulette pastposting scam with the dealer´s cooperation. He just simply let his cohorts make late bets. These type scams are usually easy for even rookie surveillance to see, but the better scams will certainly go unnoticed in these virgin Ohio casinos.
The latest inside scam at the Toledo casino I heard about was a roulette pastposting scam with the dealer´s cooperation. He just simply let his cohorts make late bets. These type scams are usually easy for even rookie surveillance to see, but the better scams will certainly go unnoticed in these virgin Ohio casinos.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Atlantic City Casino Screws itself with False-Shuffle Baccarat Scam! Now it's Suing the Players!
Source: USA Today
An Atlantic City casino is suing 14 gamblers who raked in more than $1.5 million in winnings after realizing that eight decks of cards had not been preshuffled and kept producing the same sequence of cards, over and over.The gamblers kept raising their bets -- from $10 a hand to $5,000 -- and scored 41 consecutive winning hands of baccarat in April, the Associated Press reports. As the payouts mounted, Golden Nugget Atlantic City flooded the area with security teams, convinced that someone was cheating, but were unable to figure out how. In the end, the casino let nine of the gamblers cash out $558,900. The rest still have $977,800 in chips.
In its lawsuit, the casino cites state gambling regulations requiring all casino games to offer fair odds — to both sides. The casino's lawsuit argues that the gamblers and the casino both began the game believing it was legal and proper — until the players kept winning repeatedly.
Benjamin Dash, a lawyer for the gamblers, counters that his clients did nothing wrong and deserve to be paid. "The Golden Nugget appealed to gamblers to come in and play games licensed and sanctioned by the state of New Jersey," he says. "My clients did exactly that, and then were denied their winnings. There is absolutely no law in New Jersey that would permit the Golden Nugget to declare the game illegal because it failed to provide shuffled cards."
The casino also asserts in its lawsuit that Gemaco Inc., a Missouri playing card manufacturer, acknowledged it had provided a defective shipment of cards that were not preshuffled.
A message left at the company's administrative offices was not immediately returned Monday, the AP says.
My take: Sticky situation, but I think the law is on the side of the gamblers. Why should they not be paid jsut becasue the casino fucked up?
An Atlantic City casino is suing 14 gamblers who raked in more than $1.5 million in winnings after realizing that eight decks of cards had not been preshuffled and kept producing the same sequence of cards, over and over.The gamblers kept raising their bets -- from $10 a hand to $5,000 -- and scored 41 consecutive winning hands of baccarat in April, the Associated Press reports. As the payouts mounted, Golden Nugget Atlantic City flooded the area with security teams, convinced that someone was cheating, but were unable to figure out how. In the end, the casino let nine of the gamblers cash out $558,900. The rest still have $977,800 in chips.
In its lawsuit, the casino cites state gambling regulations requiring all casino games to offer fair odds — to both sides. The casino's lawsuit argues that the gamblers and the casino both began the game believing it was legal and proper — until the players kept winning repeatedly.
Benjamin Dash, a lawyer for the gamblers, counters that his clients did nothing wrong and deserve to be paid. "The Golden Nugget appealed to gamblers to come in and play games licensed and sanctioned by the state of New Jersey," he says. "My clients did exactly that, and then were denied their winnings. There is absolutely no law in New Jersey that would permit the Golden Nugget to declare the game illegal because it failed to provide shuffled cards."
The casino also asserts in its lawsuit that Gemaco Inc., a Missouri playing card manufacturer, acknowledged it had provided a defective shipment of cards that were not preshuffled.
A message left at the company's administrative offices was not immediately returned Monday, the AP says.
My take: Sticky situation, but I think the law is on the side of the gamblers. Why should they not be paid jsut becasue the casino fucked up?
Friday, August 17, 2012
Documentary on the UB and Absolute Poker Online Poker Cheat Scams in the Works!
Source: World Poker Tour Magazine A new poker documentary is set to unveil in detail the true story behind the Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker cheating scandal and director Chris Bell and his production company are still trying to source interviews for the film.
The UB/Absolute “Super User” scandal was arguably the biggest case of fraud the online gaming industry has ever witnessed and saw countless online players scammed out of their money by site employees who had access to hole cards. Now four years on from the incident, there are still many people in the poker community wondering what exactly went on behind the scenes and – as a former poker pro affected by the scandal – Bell has vowed to release a film exploring the real story.
The documentary – appropriately titled “Ultimate Beat” – has already taken Bell years of research and only yesterday his production company Doublehead Pictures released a teaser trailer to give the poker world a sneak peak of what they can expect on its release. As a work in progress, Bell and Doublehead Pictures are still considering interviewees for the documentary, so if you have an interesting story concerning Ultimate Bet and the Super User scandal, don’t hesitate to get in touch with them at www.doubleheadpictures.com. My take: Can't wait to see it!!
The UB/Absolute “Super User” scandal was arguably the biggest case of fraud the online gaming industry has ever witnessed and saw countless online players scammed out of their money by site employees who had access to hole cards. Now four years on from the incident, there are still many people in the poker community wondering what exactly went on behind the scenes and – as a former poker pro affected by the scandal – Bell has vowed to release a film exploring the real story.
The documentary – appropriately titled “Ultimate Beat” – has already taken Bell years of research and only yesterday his production company Doublehead Pictures released a teaser trailer to give the poker world a sneak peak of what they can expect on its release. As a work in progress, Bell and Doublehead Pictures are still considering interviewees for the documentary, so if you have an interesting story concerning Ultimate Bet and the Super User scandal, don’t hesitate to get in touch with them at www.doubleheadpictures.com. My take: Can't wait to see it!!
Nevada Casino Analyst Gets Nearly 5 Years in Prison for Player Club Points Cheat Scam
Source: Las Vegas Review Journal
A former analyst with the state's largest casino company was sentenced to 57 months in federal prison Monday in an elaborate player's club scheme on the Strip.
Tony Ahn, 29, who lost his job amid the cheating scandal, pleaded guilty in May to spearheading the conspiracy. He acknowledged betraying the trust of his company, then known as MGM Mirage, to unlawfully win $863,895 from slot machines.
U.S. District Judge James Mahan ordered Ahn on Monday to pay the entire $863,895 in restitution and serve two years of supervised release after he gets out of prison.The judge gave Ahn until Nov. 5 to surrender to federal prison authorities."This is an American tragedy to see you here," Mahan told Ahn. "You have so much potential. I hope you see this as a positive and turn your life around."
Ahn apologized to the judge and promised never to get in trouble with the law again."I definitely made a big mistake," he said. "There's no excuse for what I did." His lawyer, Thomas Pitaro, told Mahan that Ahn has "all the talent in the world" and hopes to make up for his wrongdoing when he gets out of prison.
In arguing for the 57 months behind bars, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Chu said Ahn had used inside company knowledge to plan the lucrative scheme and recruit members to it. Ahn used his company position to identify regular customers with unused free play points, then transferred the points to counterfeit players club cards and recruited people to play slot machines with the cards at the company's casinos along the Strip, Chu previously alleged in court papers.
Free play points earned by thousands of MGM Mirage club members, many of whom lived outside Nevada, were stolen between July 2009 and July 2010, according to prosecutors. The company under its new name, MGM Resorts International, owns 16 casinos in Nevada, including 10 on the Strip.
Four other indicted members of Ahn's ring - Joseph Ramirez, David Evans, David Pecor and Ahn's brother, Danny Ahn - have pleaded guilty and are waiting to be sentenced.
Alan Feldman, senior vice president of public affairs for MGM Resorts International, said at the time of Ahn's plea that the company's internal Fraud Control Group uncovered the scheme and reported it to Nevada gaming regulators and the FBI. The scheme unraveled in March 2010 after state authorities arrested one of the unindicted members of the group for playing with counterfeit players club cards. Shortly after the arrest, Ahn and the group took measures to cover their tracks. They buried a computer, card encoder, flash drive and blank player's club cards used in the scheme in the desert, prosecutors alleged. Months later, however, with the help of cooperating defendants, FBI agents dug up the items and impounded them as evidence.
My take: Once again, a rat within the cheat team brought down the mastermind. This whole scam is very reminiscent of the Ron Harris story. Harris, while working as a programmer and technician for the testing lab of the Nevada Gaming Control Board in the mid 90s, rigged slot jackpots and keno games to bilk casinos out of hundreds of thousands.
Tony Ahn, 29, who lost his job amid the cheating scandal, pleaded guilty in May to spearheading the conspiracy. He acknowledged betraying the trust of his company, then known as MGM Mirage, to unlawfully win $863,895 from slot machines.
U.S. District Judge James Mahan ordered Ahn on Monday to pay the entire $863,895 in restitution and serve two years of supervised release after he gets out of prison.The judge gave Ahn until Nov. 5 to surrender to federal prison authorities."This is an American tragedy to see you here," Mahan told Ahn. "You have so much potential. I hope you see this as a positive and turn your life around."
Ahn apologized to the judge and promised never to get in trouble with the law again."I definitely made a big mistake," he said. "There's no excuse for what I did." His lawyer, Thomas Pitaro, told Mahan that Ahn has "all the talent in the world" and hopes to make up for his wrongdoing when he gets out of prison.
In arguing for the 57 months behind bars, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Chu said Ahn had used inside company knowledge to plan the lucrative scheme and recruit members to it. Ahn used his company position to identify regular customers with unused free play points, then transferred the points to counterfeit players club cards and recruited people to play slot machines with the cards at the company's casinos along the Strip, Chu previously alleged in court papers.
Free play points earned by thousands of MGM Mirage club members, many of whom lived outside Nevada, were stolen between July 2009 and July 2010, according to prosecutors. The company under its new name, MGM Resorts International, owns 16 casinos in Nevada, including 10 on the Strip.
Four other indicted members of Ahn's ring - Joseph Ramirez, David Evans, David Pecor and Ahn's brother, Danny Ahn - have pleaded guilty and are waiting to be sentenced.
Alan Feldman, senior vice president of public affairs for MGM Resorts International, said at the time of Ahn's plea that the company's internal Fraud Control Group uncovered the scheme and reported it to Nevada gaming regulators and the FBI. The scheme unraveled in March 2010 after state authorities arrested one of the unindicted members of the group for playing with counterfeit players club cards. Shortly after the arrest, Ahn and the group took measures to cover their tracks. They buried a computer, card encoder, flash drive and blank player's club cards used in the scheme in the desert, prosecutors alleged. Months later, however, with the help of cooperating defendants, FBI agents dug up the items and impounded them as evidence.
My take: Once again, a rat within the cheat team brought down the mastermind. This whole scam is very reminiscent of the Ron Harris story. Harris, while working as a programmer and technician for the testing lab of the Nevada Gaming Control Board in the mid 90s, rigged slot jackpots and keno games to bilk casinos out of hundreds of thousands.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Cheating Side Bets in Blackjack and Baccarat?
The popularity of side bets such as Lucky Lucky in blackjack and Dragon 7 in baccarat has been rising steadily. People have been asking me if these bets are targets of casino cheats any more than the games' regular bets are. The answer to the question is no, mainly because the variety of these side bets are based on the initial deal and therefore allow less time to make a cheat move. It is worthy of note, however, that most of these side bets are vulnerable to card-counting and advantage play, especially Lucky Lucky on the blackjack tables. Some casinos won't let you bet much on Lucky Lucky while others are dealing less deeper into the decks, the same measures they take against regular-bet blackjack counters.
Friday, August 03, 2012
MIT Students Scam Massachusetts State Lottery For $8 Million! It's the MIT Blackjack Team Revisited!
We all know the original MIT story oh so well. The eager bright genius students from MIT beating Vegas and Atlantic City for millions counting cards at blackjack.
Well, this time, the MIT genius brats only had to stay in their home state to get the millions. News has just broke that they cheated the Massachusetts state lottery for $8 million! That might be more than the MIT Blackjack Team made!
Here's the NY Daily News article:
Ten years after a group of Massachusetts Institute of Technology students and a professor famously took Las Vegas casinos to the cleaners counting cards, a new gambling scandal has arisen that involves MIT: a researcher and a group of students scammed the Massachussets Lottery.
Worse though, is that the Massachusetts Lottery knew they were doing it and chose to share in the windfall instead of protecting the integrity of the game.
The math whizzes were looking for a unique school project when a couple of them figured out that it would only take about $100,000 in tickets to guarantee success in the Cash WinFall game. When the jackpot rose to $2 million or more, group members bought in and shared in the prize money. By 2005, the group had earned about $8 million in winnings, reported the Boston Globe.
Despite an obvious conflict of interest in knowing that the game was compromised, officials continued to allow hundreds of thousands of $2 tickets to be bought by the merry band of thieves, the paper reported.
Here's how the scheme worked: If the jackpot in a lottery game isn't won, it usually is held over to the next drawing, creating a larger jackpot. In Cash WinFall the jackpot was capped at $2 million. When no one matched all the numbers, the jackpot would be redistributed - "rolled down" to make lesser prizes 5 to 10 times greater than usual, reported the Globe.
The game was so lucrative for the students, that they gave up jobs to stick it to the system on a full-time basis. Additionally, they were backed by investors who shared in the profits, according to a report by State Inspector General Gregory Sullivan cited by the paper.
Buying $600,000 worth of tickets virtually guaranteed a 15-20 percent return on investment. The initial premise was proven by James Harvey, who turned $1,000 in tickets into $3,000 Feb. 7, 2005. He immediately made the "project" larger, forming Random Strategies Investments and spending hours filling out betting slips and lining up eager financers. Within a few years, more groups popped up, but the MIT group figured out how to win the whole jackpot in a single drawing by 2010, reported the paper.
In an email discovered by the paper, a lottery supervisor shamelessly asks ""How do I become part of the club when I retire?"
My take: In an institution where you have geniuses you have genius gambling scams! This one is reminiscent of the huge horse-betting scam that hit New York racetracks for about the same amount of money some years back.
Well, this time, the MIT genius brats only had to stay in their home state to get the millions. News has just broke that they cheated the Massachusetts state lottery for $8 million! That might be more than the MIT Blackjack Team made!
Here's the NY Daily News article:
Ten years after a group of Massachusetts Institute of Technology students and a professor famously took Las Vegas casinos to the cleaners counting cards, a new gambling scandal has arisen that involves MIT: a researcher and a group of students scammed the Massachussets Lottery.
Worse though, is that the Massachusetts Lottery knew they were doing it and chose to share in the windfall instead of protecting the integrity of the game.
The math whizzes were looking for a unique school project when a couple of them figured out that it would only take about $100,000 in tickets to guarantee success in the Cash WinFall game. When the jackpot rose to $2 million or more, group members bought in and shared in the prize money. By 2005, the group had earned about $8 million in winnings, reported the Boston Globe.
Despite an obvious conflict of interest in knowing that the game was compromised, officials continued to allow hundreds of thousands of $2 tickets to be bought by the merry band of thieves, the paper reported.
Here's how the scheme worked: If the jackpot in a lottery game isn't won, it usually is held over to the next drawing, creating a larger jackpot. In Cash WinFall the jackpot was capped at $2 million. When no one matched all the numbers, the jackpot would be redistributed - "rolled down" to make lesser prizes 5 to 10 times greater than usual, reported the Globe.
The game was so lucrative for the students, that they gave up jobs to stick it to the system on a full-time basis. Additionally, they were backed by investors who shared in the profits, according to a report by State Inspector General Gregory Sullivan cited by the paper.
Buying $600,000 worth of tickets virtually guaranteed a 15-20 percent return on investment. The initial premise was proven by James Harvey, who turned $1,000 in tickets into $3,000 Feb. 7, 2005. He immediately made the "project" larger, forming Random Strategies Investments and spending hours filling out betting slips and lining up eager financers. Within a few years, more groups popped up, but the MIT group figured out how to win the whole jackpot in a single drawing by 2010, reported the paper.
In an email discovered by the paper, a lottery supervisor shamelessly asks ""How do I become part of the club when I retire?"
My take: In an institution where you have geniuses you have genius gambling scams! This one is reminiscent of the huge horse-betting scam that hit New York racetracks for about the same amount of money some years back.
Casino Surveillance Training is Available With Richard Marcus Game Protection Training
 |
| Training the Minnesota Casino Intelligence Unit |
Some casino managers have been asking me if I offer separate surveillance game protection seminars along with my table games protection training. Up till now I have always included surveillance game protection training in my seminars for overall casino game protection. However, due to these latest queries I will indeed offer game protection training courses and seminars to strictly casino surveillance personnel. I guarantee the same excellent quality training I have always provided in my past seminars. If you are interested in this surveillance or any other type of game protection training seminar, please review my table games training page
and contact me.
Crooked Surveillance Operator Goes Down in Singapore Casino Cheating Case!
Source: channelnewsasia.com
An army specialist has been sentenced to two years' jail for conspiring with four accomplices to cheat Marina Bay Sands of nearly S$150,000 between July and August last year.Toh Kaida, 29, who was suspended by the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF), had admitted earlier this month to 19 charges of cheating.The prosecution proceeded on five charges.
Court documents showed that the mastermind was Ho Boon Keat, 29, who was then working at the casino as a surveillance operator. Ho's accomplices would stake out at the tables of the game, Sic Bo, when he was on duty. Siic Bo is a game where three dice are rolled and gamblers can win up to 180 times their bet if all the dice display the same number. Then an accomplice would claim to have placed a bet of S$25 after a triple appeared. The pit manager would call Ho to check video footage for confirmation and Ho would lie and say the bet had been placed.
In mitigation, defence counsel for Toh, Mr Josephus Tan, said his client had made restitution of S$10,000 to the casino. The amount was Toh's share of the criminal proceeds. So ar, three other accomplices have been dealt with. Ho was sentenced to three years' jail, 28-year-old Ang Chee Peng received a jail term of two-and-a-half years while 25-year-old Benson Ho received a jail sentence of one year and two months.
My take: Singapore's casinos continue to bet hit with massive casino cheat scams engineered by employees. I can only wonder how much money is being pilfered out of them that we don't hear about!
Court documents showed that the mastermind was Ho Boon Keat, 29, who was then working at the casino as a surveillance operator. Ho's accomplices would stake out at the tables of the game, Sic Bo, when he was on duty. Siic Bo is a game where three dice are rolled and gamblers can win up to 180 times their bet if all the dice display the same number. Then an accomplice would claim to have placed a bet of S$25 after a triple appeared. The pit manager would call Ho to check video footage for confirmation and Ho would lie and say the bet had been placed.
In mitigation, defence counsel for Toh, Mr Josephus Tan, said his client had made restitution of S$10,000 to the casino. The amount was Toh's share of the criminal proceeds. So ar, three other accomplices have been dealt with. Ho was sentenced to three years' jail, 28-year-old Ang Chee Peng received a jail term of two-and-a-half years while 25-year-old Benson Ho received a jail sentence of one year and two months.
My take: Singapore's casinos continue to bet hit with massive casino cheat scams engineered by employees. I can only wonder how much money is being pilfered out of them that we don't hear about!
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