Wealthy Brazilian Gambler Hits $35,000 Straight-Up Roulette Bet and Wins $1,225,000 on First Spin--Was Cheating Involved???

Brazilian Billionaire and his BIG bet

Pedro Grendene Bartelle, a Brazilian who is supposedly already a billionaire, walked into the Conrad casino in Punto De Este, Uruguay on January 3 and made probably what is the biggest straight-up roulette bet ever made public in the history of legalized casino gambling worldwide. It was his first bet and he won!

$1,225,000 that is.

Which evokes a heck of a lot of questions.

The first of which is how did Bartelle gain permission to make such a large wager when the normal straight-up maximum bet at the Conrad casino is a mere $50? I have never heard of such a huge roulette straight-up bet, not even in the heyday of the famous Las Vegas Horseshoe casino when the legendary owner Benny Binion ran it. Binion was known for allowing enormous bets in his casino, and players indeed took him up on it.

One player once walked into the horseshoe with a suitcase filled with packets of $100 bills and dumped it on the pass-line at the first craps table he saw.

It turned out to be a million bucks and he won.

But 35 grand straight-up on a 37 to 1 longshot?

Well, maybe the bet was legit. Or maybe it wasn't. Maybe the casino had a deal with Bartelle and helped rig the winning outcome, which was number 32, which happens to be my favorite number.

During my 25-year casino-cheating career, I did a lot of big-time roulette pastposts with chips on number 32--although none ever came close to a million-dollar payoff! LOL

But you never know about casinos in South America, therefore you never know about their employees.

Of course you might ask, "Why would a billionaire be involved in a roulette casino-cheat scam involving a mere million bucks--or a bit more?"

Well, maybe just for kicks. Lots of celebrities have been known to use their celebrity status for additional financial gain and publicity.

You can also ask, "Why does any billionaire strive for more billions and more success?" See what I mean?

So you can throw logic out the window.

Of course I wasn't there to see the spin go down, so I cannot offer any definitive evidence for or against cheating, but the whole scenario is indeed very interesting.

I will say this, however: billionaires do not like to lose at anything...PERIOD

Here's a Casino-Cheating Laugh!

Big Football Player Casino Cheat

I have always thought of the possibility of a famous celebrity or athlete trying to cheat the casino with one of my moves.

Well, it seems to have happened, although I cannot say that the famous person who got caught doing just that was using one of my moves.

It happened at the Treasury Casino in Brisbane Australia, where Australian League football player Joe Ofahengaue pastposted a $100 chip beneath an original bet of one $15 chip. He was paid but was later seen on surveillance video and approached at the same table inside the casino.

Details are sketchy on how exactly Mr. Ofahengaue did the move, whether it was a bet-cap or a complete chip-switch, but he immediately admitted guilt and was processed by an Australian court.

The judge obviously is a fan of either Ofahengaue or his team as he slapped his wrist with a $400 fine and banished the conviction from his record.

My take: Well, first off, if this was truly a premeditated cheat-move and not some kind of mistake, Ofahengaue made his first mistake by not leaving the casino (or at least the table) and not having an associate hang around to make sure the move was clean and there was no steam afterward. If he was at the casino alone, he should have left the casino immediately and found another one to continue his cheating endeavors.

Lucky for him the judge didn't throw the football at him! Pardon the pun...or punt.

Phil Ivey's Cheat Partner Loses Baccarat Edge-Sorting Case Against Foxwoods Casino

Foxwoods Beats Baccarat Cheat in Court

We´ve all had our fill (pardon the Phil Ivey pun) of Kelly Cheung Yin Sun and her involvement in Ivey's baccarat scam. She and Ivey continue their war of lawsuits and counter-lawsuits against several casinos worldwide in an attempt to either force casinos to pay withheld cheat-winnings or to avoid having to return paid cheat-winnings to casinos.

They have lost on every case so far, although one or two are now on appeal.

Today Sun lost another case against Foxwoods casino in Connecticut, which withheld more than a million bucks of baccarat-cheat winnings from her and another female accomplice. Apparently this baccarat-cheat episode happened before she hooked up with Ivey.

I don't think she'll be able to appeal this decision as the court didn't take into consideration whether or not Sun's edge-sorting is cheating or not, but rather simply decided that the casino is protected from this lawsuit because it has tribal immunity.

Well, Sun, too bad! Now take your lawsuit down the road, jerkoff!

Another Rank but Costly Insider-Casino-Cheat Scam at Singapore Marina Bay Sands Casino--And a Casino-Cheating Foursome Indicted by a Grand Jury in South Dakota

Behemoth Cheat Casino

It seems that the cheating dealers working at the Marina Bay Sands casino in Singapore never take a break! This time the dealer, a Chinese national, colluded with another Chinese national who is also a student to bilk the MBS casino for $140,000 on, of course, the mini-baccarat table.

It was just another simple overpay/don't take losing bets/give the player additional chips on buy-ins--operation.

If you're thinking: Why is this casino so infested with insider-dealer-cheat scams? The answer is because it is a very lax casino as far as casino table-game protection, surveillance and security are concerned.

This casino shold have called me in as a consultant/trainer years ago.

Read the article here.

In other casino-cheating news, two casino employees and two players were indicted by a South Dakota, US grand jury for cheating the Dakota Sioux casino in South Dakota on New Years Eve, 2015 and New year's Day, 2016 out of $10,000 on blackjack tables.

Again it was another overpayment scam involving one dealer, one pit boss and two players.

And the beat goes on.

Is Bicycle Casino Money-Laundering Raid Connected to Casino Cheating?

Money-Laundering Raid at Bicycle Casino

Last Tuesday, federal agents raided the long-time famous California poker and gaming club at the Bicycle Hotel and Casino in Bell Gardens, California. The basis of the raid was a money-laundering investigation by the FBI and other federal financial and ICE task forces.

Ever since I have been receiving several emails asking if casino-cheating at the Bicycle casino was somehow related to this. I also noticed in online news articles detailing the raid that people interviewed made references to "being cheated" or "something fishy" about how the poker and pai-gow games were run by Bicycle casino personnel.

So that is probably what spawned the questions about whether pai-gow or poker cheating at the Bicycle casino could be involved in this.

My short answer is no.

Money-laundering is a criminal operation usually carried out by drug cartels or other illegal criminal gangs involved in high-cash operations, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars on a weekly basis. Casino cheats, even the highly professionl ones that do make serious money, are not generally in the category of money-laundering. They may hold on to chips and not cash out to avoid casino security and surveillance catching on to their casino and poker cheating activities, but that's about it.

So, no, the big federal raid on the Bicycle casino most likely is an investigation into major Asian gangs laundering  some serious cash.

Who's the Best Fictional Poker Cheat in History?

Paul Newman's Poker Cheat in "The Sting"

We've all see the poker films that have portrayed card sharps and poker cheats.

There was of course Paul Newman in "The "Sting." Then there were Lady Fingers and Shooter in "The Cincinnati Kid." Then of course there were Matt Damon and Edward Norton in "Rounders."

Several more were  depicted in the "Wild West" Films of the 50s, 60s and 70s.

But who was the best of the best of these poloroid cheats?

It's a good question, but for me the best of the best was Paul Newman when he stung Robert Shaw in "The Sting." Shaw had switched out the deck with the help of a handkerchief and replaced it with a deck set up to give Newman four 3s and himself four 9s, which would surely result in a bust-out hand for Newman.

But Newman, after he drew two cards to a starting hand of three 3s and received the fourh 3, somehow switched out his hand and replaced it with a hand containing four Jacks, busing out Shaw.

So this cheating the cheat hand or reverse poker cheat scam was the best fictional poker cheat of all time!

13 Casino Cheats and Tons of Chaos Result in $160,000 Being Fleeced from Cambodian Casino---Well, Almost

Would anyone gamble on the square in this shithole?

If you ever wanted an example of how an unorganized and poorly run casino with no adherence to proper gaming procedure leads to being vulnerable to casino-cheat attacks, read the article below!

I mean, I've never been to Cambodia and would have guessed their casinos were somewhat poor in table game protection, but this is really too much to believe--13--count 'em--13 casino cheats in one casino-cheat team in the same casino at the same time..

They probably wore shirts with "CASINO CHEAT" logos on the backs. LOL

And all 13 were Cambodian nationals, who by Cambodian law are prohibited from gambling in Cambodian casinos in the first place.

Read the article here.

My take: Take a look at the photo! This place looks like a mess!

Rare: Chinese Mini-Baccarat Pastposter caught and arrested at New New York State Casino

More Chinese Bacarat Cheating

Why do I say "rare?"

Because even though the game of casino baccarat is the one of preference for virtually all Chinese casino cheats, hardly ever is the chosen method of casino-cheating pastposting. Chinese cheats almost always work in collusion scams with dealers and mainly use the false shuffle scam at baccarat.

This time, however, forty-nine year-old Chinese baccarat cheat Jing X. Jiang is accused of simply pastposting winning bets on the mini-baccarat table at the new del Lago Resort Casino near Rochester. He is said to have scammed the casino out of $6,000 with repetitive pastposting cheat moves, which means he was most likely working with $100 and/or $500 chips.

Now Mr. Jiang finds himself charged with Gambling fraud and Grand Larceny, both felonies, and could be looking at some prison time.

My take: Not to sound racist or anything, but I think Chinese baccarat cheats ought to stick to the false shuffle baccarat scams. Also, it should be noted that pastposting, especially when done with high-denomination chips, should only be done one time at any particular table. In my entire 25-year cheating career, I maybe performed multiple pastposts on the same table a dozen times.

Repetitive pastposts on the same table, be it baccarat, blackjack or roulette, usually lead to the same ending usffered by Mr. Jiang.

A REALLY Wanted Casino Cheat!

WANTED!

I have heard of some pretty prolific casino cheats, including myself, but I have NEVER seen one who's had his or her WANTED photo posted on the walls of post offices or on police and FBI websites before.

All this casino-cheat-law-enforcement hoopla is about Jubreal Chahine, a 40 year-old professional casino cheat who's been around casinos for some 15 years or so. His main casino-cheat gig has always been bet-capping and pastposting, at which he is pretty damned talented, but two years ago he was arrested in a Pennsylvania casino while applying for a Players Club card under his real name while he was wanted on outstanding casino-cheat-crime felony warrants.

How such a clever casino cheat could be so utterly stupid is a mystery to me!

Well, Chahine, also known as Alexander Gabriel Allen, is now wanted in Las Vegas for an assortment of criminal casino-cheat crimes, and the Clark County District Attorney's office has given him poster-boy status among casino cheats.

The photo above is now hanging on the walls of Clark County post offices and is on the website of various law-enforcement agencies.

Expect to see Mr. Chanine back behind bars soon.

Ivey and Sun Get New Life in UK Edge-Sorting Baccarat Scam Lawsuit

Infamous Baccarat Cheat Pair

It had appeared that Phil Ivey and his baccarat-cheat partner Cheng Yin Sun were running out of options in their lawsuit against Crockfords Casino in London to force the casino to pay them the $12 million they scammed from it back in 2012, but now the UK supreme court has granted the cheat-pair a final appeal, so Ivey and Sun are still not dead yet.

The UK lower courts have ruled that Crockfords does not have to pay Ivey and Sun their cheat profits, but they have never ruled that what the pair actually did constituted cheating. The reason why I call this cheating is because they altered the deal of the game in order to gain a material advantage against the casino, which in practically all casino jurisdictions is the very definition of cheating.

Ivey and Sun are in a similar situation in New Jersey with a lawsuit over the same edge-sorting which led to antoher huge casino baccarat win. Although this time the victim-casino, the Atlantic City Borgata, had already paid Ivey and Sun their $10 million and sucessfully sued to recover the money from them.

Ivey is still trying to win a final appeal in that case as well.

My take: I don't think the UK supreme court will reverse the lower courts' decisions--I sure hope they don't.