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!!
Friday, August 17, 2012
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
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| 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!
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Game Protection Training Seminars Table Games
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| Table Games Training at WGPC in Las Vegas |
That difference is simply: I train by hands-on training, imparting my knowledge as both one of the world's greatest casino cheats of all time and that as a dealer ripping off casinos from the inside. Do not forget that I was the first to do the false-shuffle baccarat scam as a casino dealer before the Tran Organization made that scam so infamous. I teach casinos how to defend against all scams and advantage play methods. I do not waste anyone's time or money with PowerPoint presentations or overused surveillance video of scams that do not really teach anything.
If interested in my services, go to my website game protection training page and contact me.
Monday, July 16, 2012
Why dr. Edward O. Thorp is Not in the Casino Cheats Hall of Fame
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| Not a Casino Cheat |
You have all heard of the renowned mathematics professor Edward O. Thorp, who back in 1960 wrote the original Card-Counting Bible titled "Beat the Dealer," which for many is still considered the all-out bible for those interested in counting cards at blackjack to beat the casinos. I have been getting some emails asking why Mr. Thorp has not been inducted into the Richard Marcus Books Poker and Casino Cheats Hall of Fame.
More Trouble for Full Tilt Poker--CEO Arrested on Ponzi Scheme Charges!
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| Big Ponzi Pyramid of Chips! |
Won an online poker game and are expecting your money soon? If the game was on fulltiltpoker.com, don't bet on it.
The FBI arrested Raymond Bitar, the CEO of the online gaming site Full Tilt Poker, Monday, on charges he oversaw a $430 million ponzi scheme, according to CNNMoney. Full Tilt owed more than $300 million to online players around the world but only had $60 million in funds to pay off their winnings.
The company allegedly used players' funds to pay off the sites creditors and owners, according to Businessweek.
The site came under greater official scrutiny following a Justice Department crackdown on online gaming sites last spring.
In April of last year, the FBI charged the owners and operators of three online betting sites, including Full Tilt, with illegal gambling and defrauding U.S. banks, MSNBC reported at the time. According to Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, the defendants “concocted an elaborate criminal fraud scheme, alternately tricking some U.S. banks and effectively bribing others to assure the continued flow of billions in illegal profits."
The Justice Department announced in September that Full Tilt was also stealing players' money to pay off creditors and the firm's executive's salaries. According to the press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office:
"When the scheme finally collapsed, Full Tilt Poker was unable to pay players the approximately $350 million it owed them."
My take:
Wow! 430 Mil...that's a big Ponzi Pyramid...to say the least!
Poker Card-Switching Cheats Face Felony Criminal Charges in Washington
Source: The Spokesman Review
Small bets at poker games at the Hooters casino in Spokane Valley have led to felony charges against two North Idaho men accused of the rarely prosecuted crime of cheating while gambling.
“Part of our mission is to keep gambling legal and honest so when the public goes in there to play, they know we have done everything in our power to make sure the game is fair on both sides,” said Gary Drumheller, spokesman for the Washington State Gambling Association in Spokane. “That the house is doing their part but also that the players aren’t in there doing things they shouldn’t.”
Travis Ray Smith, 37, of Dalton Gardens, and Todd Richard Jost, 33, of Hayden, were at the Owl Club Casino on Dec. 23 when prosecutors allege they worked together to distract dealers and covertly switch cards. They have pleaded not guilty to third-degree theft and first-degree cheating in Spokane County Superior Court. Trials are scheduled to begin next month but may be delayed.
Jost’s lawyer, Mark Vovos, described his client and Smith as “ordinary working stiffs” with no serious criminal records.
Carl Oreskovich, who is representing Smith, said his client maintains his innocence.
“This is based in large part on someone’s interpretation of a video,” Oreskovich said. Smith is “prepared to go to court and have the jury conclude that he did not engage in any conduct that would be inappropriate.”
In 2003, two gamblers at Northern Quest Casino were charged with cheating and theft for using counterfeit tickets, but Oreskovich and Vovos, who have been lawyers for decades, say they can’t recall other cheating cases in Spokane County.
Drumheller said his office usually is investigating several, but not all lead to charges.
“It’s really hit and miss sometimes,” Drumheller said. “It really depends on if we have witnesses or we have good surveillance footage.”
Drumheller said gambling investigators look to see if the card player misbehaved only once or if it was part of an ongoing pattern.
Casino employees reviewed surveillance video of Smith and Jost after a card dealer noticed Smith with six cards in his hand during a game of four-card poker, according to court documents. Smith then tried to slip an extra $15 on an already placed bet but was rebutted. He and Jost were kicked out the casino shortly after.
Other card dealers described the duo as being belligerent and defiant. One dealer said Jost tried to play a coupon that wasn’t eligible, so she told him so. That dealer said she didn’t realize Smith had used that moment to switch his cards until she reviewed the video. She believes Jost intentionally distracted her.
Smith won $90 on a $15 bet that investigators believe was a result of the switched cards. He later won $140 on a $35 bet and $120 on a $15 bet.
Smith told an investigator with the Washington State Gambling Association that he doesn’t remember much of the night because he was drunk, but that he didn’t intentionally cheat, according to court documents.
My take:: Well this is pretty small-time shit that may lead to some big-time problems for those accused. I guess Washington State's casinos are really looking to nail poker cheats and casino cheats, especially since Washington's casinos played a big part in the infamous Tran Baccarat scam where several dealers and floorpeople, including the mayor of Seattle's son, were charged and convicted of cheating their casinos in cahoots with the Tran Gang.
Small bets at poker games at the Hooters casino in Spokane Valley have led to felony charges against two North Idaho men accused of the rarely prosecuted crime of cheating while gambling.
“Part of our mission is to keep gambling legal and honest so when the public goes in there to play, they know we have done everything in our power to make sure the game is fair on both sides,” said Gary Drumheller, spokesman for the Washington State Gambling Association in Spokane. “That the house is doing their part but also that the players aren’t in there doing things they shouldn’t.”
Travis Ray Smith, 37, of Dalton Gardens, and Todd Richard Jost, 33, of Hayden, were at the Owl Club Casino on Dec. 23 when prosecutors allege they worked together to distract dealers and covertly switch cards. They have pleaded not guilty to third-degree theft and first-degree cheating in Spokane County Superior Court. Trials are scheduled to begin next month but may be delayed.
Jost’s lawyer, Mark Vovos, described his client and Smith as “ordinary working stiffs” with no serious criminal records.
Carl Oreskovich, who is representing Smith, said his client maintains his innocence.
“This is based in large part on someone’s interpretation of a video,” Oreskovich said. Smith is “prepared to go to court and have the jury conclude that he did not engage in any conduct that would be inappropriate.”
In 2003, two gamblers at Northern Quest Casino were charged with cheating and theft for using counterfeit tickets, but Oreskovich and Vovos, who have been lawyers for decades, say they can’t recall other cheating cases in Spokane County.
Drumheller said his office usually is investigating several, but not all lead to charges.
“It’s really hit and miss sometimes,” Drumheller said. “It really depends on if we have witnesses or we have good surveillance footage.”
Drumheller said gambling investigators look to see if the card player misbehaved only once or if it was part of an ongoing pattern.
Casino employees reviewed surveillance video of Smith and Jost after a card dealer noticed Smith with six cards in his hand during a game of four-card poker, according to court documents. Smith then tried to slip an extra $15 on an already placed bet but was rebutted. He and Jost were kicked out the casino shortly after.
Other card dealers described the duo as being belligerent and defiant. One dealer said Jost tried to play a coupon that wasn’t eligible, so she told him so. That dealer said she didn’t realize Smith had used that moment to switch his cards until she reviewed the video. She believes Jost intentionally distracted her.
Smith won $90 on a $15 bet that investigators believe was a result of the switched cards. He later won $140 on a $35 bet and $120 on a $15 bet.
Smith told an investigator with the Washington State Gambling Association that he doesn’t remember much of the night because he was drunk, but that he didn’t intentionally cheat, according to court documents.
My take:: Well this is pretty small-time shit that may lead to some big-time problems for those accused. I guess Washington State's casinos are really looking to nail poker cheats and casino cheats, especially since Washington's casinos played a big part in the infamous Tran Baccarat scam where several dealers and floorpeople, including the mayor of Seattle's son, were charged and convicted of cheating their casinos in cahoots with the Tran Gang.
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