Bob Dancer Article on My Book American Roulette

February 25th
A Look at American Roulette

Bob Dancer

On the January 23, 2014 Gambling with an Edge radio show, Anthony Curtis and Richard Munchkin both said good things about American Roulette, a book by Richard Marcus. So I went to the library and checked it out. (Understandably it's a title that's easy to find in a Las Vegas library but perhaps not so easy if you live in Peoria.)

Here is what I found (and the book's subtitle says it all): How I Turned the Odds Upside Down --- My Wild Twenty-Five-Year Ride Ripping Off the World's Casinos. Simply put, it's an autobiography by a casino cheat.

The primary tool used by Marcus and his teammates to cheat the casinos is called "pastposting." Pastposting is where you make a bet AFTER the result has already been determined. For example, if you could get a bet NOW that the Seattle Seahawks would beat the Denver Broncos by 35 points in the 2014 Super Bowl, that would be pastposting (and you could make a fortune).

Make no mistake about it, pastposting is cheating. No doubt about it. Casinos and states have rules against this and if caught and convicted, you're going to pay a penalty. Do you like being in jail?

I'm not personally interested in cheating the casinos. I have enough trouble maintaining my welcome when I'm doing everything legally! But I AM interested in knowing how cheating moves are done by others. Part of this is akin to wanting to know how a magician does a particular trick. I find this fascinating! And part of it is simply being aware of what's going on around me in casinos. 

Some of the moves practiced by Marcus and his team ripped off other players rather than just the casinos. I definitely want to know about those so as to better protect myself and my assets.

"Standard" pastposting involves changing chips after the player has won the bet. For example, playing blackjack, assume you bet two $5 red chips. If the bet loses you've lost $10. But if it wins, when you go to pick up your winnings, you smoothly replace the two $5 chips with one $100 black chip underneath one $5 red chip and then you call out to the dealer, "Hey! I was betting black and you only paid me red!" On essentially a 50-50 bet, the cheater loses $10 half the time and wins $105 the other half, so the profits mount up fast.

The move must be done when the dealer is paying off other players at the table and not concentrating on what you're doing. The move must also be made when it is normal for players to be reaching for their chips. It must be done quickly and smoothly. 

A pastposter must have a sense of when to press his claim and when to get out of the casino quickly.

Of course the chips can also be larger denominations. Near the end of his career, Marcus' teammate was betting three $100 black chips and replacing them with two $5,000 brown chips under the single black chip. This made it $10,100 when they won almost half the time and $300 when they lost.

Although the blackjack move could be done solo, Marcus's team found it better if there were one or two teammates. One teammate could ask a question at just the moment of the switch, so as to draw attention to himself and away from the pastposter. A second teammate could hang around the casino to see what the level of casino discomfort was after the move. If there was too much heat, the team would lay off that casino or that town for several months until the heat died down.

Another version of pastposting doesn't involve changing the chips at all. At roulette, they would bet one of the three column bets at the end of the table (furthest away from the dealer) using big chips --- but with the biggest chips hidden below smaller chips. If the bet wins, the player gets paid off as usual. If the bet loses, the dealer is distracted while the pastposter removes the chips from the layout and leaves the casino. Using a brown chip underneath a black chip, on a bet that pays 2-to-1, the team wins $10,200 almost one third of the time and loses nothing the other two-thirds of the time.

There was also a technique described as "railing," which amounts to stealing chips from another player at a craps table. When a big player (the "mark") is winning (say betting multiple black chips) and drinking, often he is careless with respect to keeping track of his chips, which are typically stored in built-in racks along the top of the craps table. The cheat stands next to the mark, befriends the mark, and over time swipes black chips from the mark's rows of chips along the rail. The cheat passes the black chips to a confederate standing behind him. If the cheat is accused of stealing, he can indignantly allow himself to be searched and sure enough he will have no black chips anywhere on his body.

There were several trips to Europe, Africa, and South America where the team had varying amounts of success. I found it interesting how different countries dealt with the pastposters.

Just as Jean Valjean had his nemesis Javert in Les Miserables, Marcus had Steven DeVisser, who worked for the "Hanson Agency." I assume that was a thinly- disguised depiction of the Griffin Investigation Agency. DeVisser was determined and devious, even setting up a honey trap to catch Marcus. I'll let you read the book to find out just how successful DeVisser was.

The book was well-written, educational, and enjoyable. I sure would like to get Marcus to be a guest on the radio show. We're going to try!

My take: I did end up doing three shows on Dancer´s program, one about American Roulette, one about my poker-cheating expose "Dirty Poker," and one about general poker and casino-cheating scams going on today such as the Phil Ivey baccarat edge-sorting scam and the Guy Laliberte poker-collusion scam. 

Fake Chip-Scandal in Atlantic City Poker Tournament Thrown out of Court

After the 2014 Borgata Winter Poker Open was ruined by counterfeit poker chips, a few players involved in the event decided to file a lawsuit. Just one month ago, six men who competed in the Borgata Winter Poker Open filed a lawsuit against the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, claiming the casino was negligent in the operation of the tournament. This lawsuit has now been dismissed in state court.

According to the Press of Atlantic City newspaper, the lawsuit accused the Borgata of not running video surveillance properly during the event as well as not acting accordingly with the reports from players of the chips appearing to be a different color. The suit also states that the Borgata did not inventory the chips that were in play properly. The six men believed that they are owed $33,000 each since they were among the top 27 players in the event.

27 players were the remaining players in the event when the Borgata suspended game play due to the counterfeit chips. The fake chips had been allegedly introduced into the tournament by Christian Lusardi as employees of the casino traced back the chips via the plumbing system to Lusardi. A clogged system was the downfall of the player as the chips were traced back to his hotel room.

The lawsuit was dismissed by Judge James Isman, of the Atlantic County Superior Court. Isman ruled the case should be dismissed as the Division of Gaming Enforcement of New Jersey had already reviewed the tournament. Isman ruled that the Borgata had complied with the regulations under the Casino Control Act based on the jurisdiction of the DGE.

Maurice VerStandig is the attorney for the plantiffs in this case stated that he is considering an appeal and believes there are problems with the DGE given original jurisdiction during cheating events instead of allowing affected players the opportunity to bring a case to court with the jury system. VerStandig stated: “The DGE is not equipped to provide the sort of due process that is the hallmark of civil litigation in the state of New Jersey. There’s no jury box in the DGE, to the best of my knowledge.”

My take: This is obvious! The Borgata, already mired in a lot of hot-shit scandals with the Phil Ivey cheating scam among others, has enough power to squash a few cheat cases in court!

New Jersey Getting Tough on Casino Cheats

When Derek Bethea recently got sentened to 17 years in prison for a pastposting conviction, I had to look twice to make sure there was nothing more to it. But there wasn´t: nothing more than a pastposted $1100 bet on a craps table at an Atlantic City casino. He did have two previous casino-cheating convictions, and both were relatively minor pastposts on craps tables, $2,400 and $250.

Okay, I understand the third-strike rule, but come on!...we´re talking about littly rinky-dink casino-cheat moves. In the whole entire Tran Organization Scam that corrupted dozens of casino employees in the US and Canada over a five-year period and netted $20 million, no one convicted in that case got more than 5 years in prison.

So what´s this hard-nut-gig New Jersey´s got for casino cheats? I don´t know, but I advise you cheats out there to really think twice before plying your trade on the Boardwalk. And if you have to do it, you´d better be careful!    

Another Inside Blackjack Casino Scam...Cheating Dealer on the Lam!

NEW ORLEANS -- A former Harrah's Casino blackjack dealer is wanted by State Police for allegedly swindling the casino out of thousands of dollars.

Breana Lewis, 24, of New Orleans, is wanted for two counts of conspiracy to commit cheating and swindling, and two counts of cheating and swindling for the amount of $32,022.50, according to State Police spokesperson Trooper Melissa Matey. 

In May, State Police detectives began investigating Lewis after officials from the casino suspected that cheating and swindling was occurring at the blackjack tables.

In two instances, detectives saw Lewis “awarding bets to four different casino patrons who appeared to personally know Lewis. The bets awarded were not winners and cost Harrah’s Casino a total of $32,022.50,” Matey said.

Also wanted are Cornelius Wells, 34, of New Orleans; Jeffery Sheridan Jr., 25, of Angie; Clifford Earl Carter, 31, of New Orleans; and Annette Davis, 43, of Gretna.

My take: This one must have been blatant as hell!!

Cheating Blackjack Deler Busted Cheating his Casino

A blackjack dealer at Rhode Island´s Twin River Casino is accused of cheating his employers.

State police say 31-year-old Luis Pabon of North Providence has been charged with multiple counts of cheating in the performance of duty as a dealer and paying an amount greater than required.

Police say they spent three months watching Pabon after the Rhode Island Lottery, which helps regulate the casino, told them about possible collusion between the dealer and patrons.

Pabon was accused of steering certain cards to customers and offering improper insurance bets.

He was arrested during his shift Wednesday and is due in Superior Court in Providence on Aug. 14.

He also has been barred from the casino. A phone call to a number listed for Pabon went unanswered Friday.

My take: Heck, I didn´t even know Providence, or Rhode Island for that matter, had a casino! In any event, this type of small-time cheat collusion between casino dealers and patrons always goes on in Native American casinos...mostly by non-Native American dealers and patrons.

The Phil Ivey Casino Cheat Debate Continues...

Soon he´ll own the place!

So let me put an end to it!

The bottom line is this: Ivey did indeed cheat, but he most likely will get to keep his illicit $12 million casino earnings from the Borgata casino in Atlantic City. He will not, however, win his lawsuit against Crockfords casino in London.

The issue that Ivey only took advantage of casinos´ foolishness and poor internal controls is enough to protect him against any civil lawsuit or criminal charges against him. But the overriding point here is not being mentioned much in all the articles about the case I´ve been reading. Simply: How did Phil Ivey and his Malaysian-beauty-cohort know that the defects in the manufacturer´s (Gemaco) cards existed? Surely they didn´t stumble into a casino and start playing baccarat and notice that the cards´edges were defective.

The answer to this question is that someone from the card company, perhaps an acquaintance or friend of the girl, was privy to that, which led to Ivey´s knowledge about the defective cards. Ivey then masterminded the casino-cheat operation with full intent, knowing exactly what his percentage edge would be against casinos using his edge-sorting scam.

THIS IS WHY HIS ACTIONS ARE INDISPUTABLE CASINO CHEATING!

No "ifs" "ands" or "buts" about it.

So by doing it did Ivey disgrace himself and/or the poker world?

Well, surely himself, but then what the hell does he care?

Three-Strike Casino Past-Posting Cheat Bites the Dust in Atlantic City

A Hudson County, N.J. man has been convicted for the third time of cheating at casino table games in Atlantic City.

 A jury on Tuesday found 57-year-old Derek Bethea, of Bayonne, guilty of two counts of third-degree swindling and cheating at casino gaming, along with one count of fourth-degree swindling and cheating at casino gaming.

 Bethea on Aug. 15, 2013 placed a $1,000 bet at a craps table at the Borgata Hotel & Casino after the dice had already come out. Though Bethea collected the winnings and left, he was detained the next day at Tropicana Casino and charged with the offense via summons.

 Bethea attempted similar schemes on Aug. 30 at Resorts Casino Hotel and on Aug. 31 at Revel, though both casinos refused to pay the bets. He was arrested Aug. 31, 2013 and has since remained imprisoned at the Atlantic County Jail in lieu of $30,000 bail, according to officials. Prosecutors said Bethea’s cheating spree came less than a month after he was released from state prison, where he served nearly eight years for similar swindling offenses. Bethea was also convicted of cheating charges in 2001 and sentenced to three years in prison.

 In the most recent case, Bethea faces a maximum possible penalty of five years in jail and a $15,000 fine for the third-degree offenses and 18 months in prison and a $10,000 fine for the fourth-degree offense. He’s scheduled to be sentenced June 6. My take: I imagine that this guy´s pastposting moves were not that great, or at least done too often. He should have taken his casino-cheating show on the road...maybe Vegas and Mississippi, but not Connecticut as the twin casinos there are too tied-in with those in Atlantic City.

Any turth to Cirque du Soliel Billionaire Guy Laliberté´s Poker-Collusion-Victim Claims?

Stacks gone to colluders?

Well, the timing couldn´t be better, right? Just a few weeks before the start of the 2014 WSOP and Laliberté comes out with claims that professional poker colluders, mainly players from the Full Tilt team, cheated him out of tens of millions of dollars via collusion.

What do I think? It´s probably true. These poker-playing billionaires have so much money that they can easily get carried away and lose ten million here or twenty million there, and who´s better to do the taking than professional poker colluders. Like in any poker-collusion case, the cheating is almost impossible to prove. That´s why colluders do it in the first place: there simply is no risk. Based on interviews given by Laliberté and my own personal knowledge on these Full Tilt guys, I tend to believe him.

Do I think this will stop Laliberté from continuing his live poker-playing career?

ABSOLUTELY not! 

Ben Affleck Banned for Life For Card-Counting in Vegas!

Well, we all know that Ben Affleck has been around poker and blackjack in both real casinos and silver-screen ones, but now he is a persona non-grata in Las Vegas, at least in the Hardrock Hotel and Casino. Accused of winning $800,000 by counting down the cards at blackjack tables, a form of what is known in the gaming industry as advantage-play, Affleck was escorted out of the casino and driven to his hotel in a limo. And after he was banned from the Hardrock casino, intercasino surveillance and security put out the word to watch out for Affleck and his blackjack skills. I wonder if Kevin Spacy, who starred in the card-counting epic film "21", will be the next super-celebrity rooted out of a casino for card-counting and advantage play. Not that this has anything to do it with it, but Affleck was the star in the film "Runner Runner" which depicted online poker cheats. My take: Who knows? Maybe I will be getting a call from Ben Affleck to sign up for my casino-cheating team!!!

Here's a New Twist on Baccarat Cheating

With all the huge baccarat cheating scandals we've been hearing about the last decade, everything from the Tran Organization multi-national dealer-corruption $30 million false-shuffle scam to Phil Ivey's multi-million-dollar baccarat edge-sorting scams, it's refreshing, at least to me, to hear of a simple if not stupid one.

A casino cheat in New Zealand hit the baccarat tables there with a past-posting attack. When he was caught he simply said that he wasn't aware of his cheating because the dealers were accepting his past-posted bets. Well, I kinda like that excuse!

Article: 

A man accused of cheating while playing baccarat at SkyCity casino is bewildered by the charges and said he lost $25,000 there in a year.Petronius Linsao Cortez, 52, appeared in Auckland District Court today on nine charges after a night at the casino on Sunday.Court documents said the Glenfield resident "knowingly contravened the rules of the game . . . by placing bets after the outcome had already been determined".
Cortez said he was unaware he had acted illegally and was confused when security marched him upstairs and contacted police.

"The dealer, he's the one that controls the table, and he was accepting those late bets," he said.
When asked how much he had won from the casino, the father of three was candid with his response.
"Actually I'm losing a lot there," Cortez said."I'm very unlucky at the moment."

Filipino-born Cortez, who has worked as a machine operator since coming to New Zealand in 2000, said he had been going to SkyCity about once a week for the last year.He started off playing black jack but recently moved on to baccarat, hoping for a change of luck.That did not come and Cortez said he was down about $25,000 - "all blown away in the casino".

Baccarat is a card game played by a minimum of two punters and a banker, who all aim to have two or three cards totalling nine.

SkyCity would not comment on the case as it was before the courts, nor would they discuss the security systems used to catch the alleged offender. "Undesirable activity potentially attracts a maximum ban of up to two years," a spokeswoman said.Though she would not disclose the penalty against Cortez, he told Fairfax Media he had been slapped with a two-year ban.But he was far from disappointed with the outcome.
"I think this is the wake up call I needed. They excluded me so this is probably the lesson for me to stop," he said.

Cortez will be back in court next month and he said in the interim he would speak to a lawyer and decide whether to defend the charges. Making it up to his wife was also on the cards."I need to buy her flowers," Cortez said.

The charge of contravening the Gambling Act by cheating is a rare one - only 10 people have faced the charge in the last five years.