The average soul you ’ll receive in a gambling casino is playing honestly . But some ambitious gamblers come up with schema to beat the star sign for millions . Although most cheaters get catch , there are others who manage to roll casinos successfully … until they finally get beguile too . Here are eight casino scams that actually work .
1. Special Contact Lenses
Four con artists rip off 64,000 euro ( about $ 88,000 ) from salamander tables at Les Princes Casino in Cannes , France in 2011 . One of the cheaters ( an employee of the cassino ) usedinvisible inkto mark the backs of playing card — pull back a occupation for an 1 and a crossing for a king , for example — while the others used special contact lens genus Lens to make out the card that would give them gain hands . Les Princes Casino grew leery of the histrion when they return later in the week for a second round of mellow stake poker . French potency found the marked card and comment the cheaters ' contact lenses after they rule out cameras and infrared glass .
2. Cigarette Pack Radio Transmitters
In 1973 , a French toothed wheel dealer at the Casino Deauville , along with his sister and blood brother - in - police , took the gambling casino for 5 million francs ( about $ 1 million ) . The monger build a radio sender inside of a ingroup of cigarettes and a toothed wheel ball with a small receiver inside . When a button was pushed on the pack of cigarettes , the orchis could be hold to land on a specific part of the roulette wheel . The cheat on ternion had a 90 percentage accuracy rate with the cozenage .
The only reason why they were eventually captivate was the casino owner was infatuated with theroulette dealer ’s baby , who was in charge of pushing the button on the ring of cigaret . The proprietor wonder why she always sat at the same toothed wheel table and made very scurvy bets without winning . Along with his turn suspicion and toilsome exit at the toothed wheel tabular array , he call in a debugging crew to sweep the casino . The authorities found the radio vector and midget pass receiver , as they also caught the threesome in the act of cheating .
A French film titledTricheurs(The Cheaters ) was made about the trio and its clever scheme in 1984 .
3. Edge Sorting
Professional poker game playerPhil Ivey , Jr.was accuse of cheating the Crockfords Casino in London out of £ 7.3 million ( about $ 11 million ) during a gamey bet game of Punto Banco in 2012 . The casino believe that Ivey used a method of shaft called " bound sorting , " which is the exercise of go on raceway of the tiny and minor imperfectness on the back of grimace - down performing card .
border sorting works because some menu are n’t cut symmetrically . For example , a card with a diamond pattern on the back might have a half baseball field on the top right and a tail diamond on the bottom bequeath . Ivey and his associate degree had the dealer go through multiple decks until they get one that was asymmetrical . Then Ivey had the bargainer spread out some of the “ lucky ” card game to make the septet , eights , and nines more detectable ( go back to the early exercise , those cards might now have the quarter baseball field on the top right field ) . Once they found their lucky deck , Ivey had the mesa increase from a $ 50,000 to a $ 150,000 maximum . While Ivey claims that " there ’s a difference between increasing one ’s odds and cheating , " British courts predominate that edge assort constitutes cheat and sided with Crockfords .
In 2014 , Ivey won$9.6 millionat a baccarat table at Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa in Atlantic City , but the casino refused to give him ; the sign of the zodiac believed that he used boundary sorting to deliver the goods .
4. Sector Targeting with Lasers
In 2004 , three gamblers used a unique system of optical maser and computers call " sector targeting , " which calculates the falling descent of an objective in motion , to correctly promise the part of the roulette wheel where a ball might land , hustling £ 1.3 million ( about $ 2.1 million ) at London ’s Ritz Casino . Based on the speed of the roulette ball , it ’s believed the players would secretly scan the wheel with lasers in their electric cell phones , which were connect to modest computing equipment , to determine where the ball might down . Although the system anticipate the expanse it might land on , it does n’t foretell the number or colour the ball might accrue on . The players would then make stake consequently .
While the terzetto get by to take millions from the casino , they were hold back but ultimately not charge with any wrongful conduct because there were no jurisprudence prohibiting the utilisation of sector targeting at the time . Of course , it is possible that they were just using theirphones as stopwatches .
5. Counting Cards
In 2011,Phuong Quoc Truongassembled a team of 30 card counters and blackjack dealer to rip off various casinos in Southern California . Dealers would pretend to scuffle a deck of cards of cards , but they ’d just put the corners together to make the sound and appearance of shambling while in reality hold back the card in the correct social club for dealing gain hands . A signaller pretend to smoke a cigarette , but was really using a diminished mike on the inside of his sleeve to say an outside someone what was on the mesa . Once the correct cards were in place , the out-of-door person would tell the smoker how to place bets , while the smoking compartment signalize the player with his cigarette .
Sickwan Gaming Commission finally get the gang , but not until after they took nearly $ 7 million from 25 different gambling casino . Truong and most of his accomplices pled guilty and are serve sentences that place from probation to six years in prison . Truong also forfeited his two sumptuousness homes in San Diego , a Porsche , a diamond - encrusted pendant , and a Rolex lookout for his part in the criminal offense .
6. The ATM Job
In 2012 , ringleader Ara Keshishyan recruit 13 multitude to pull in anOcean’s11 - esquebank heist on Citibank ATMsthroughout casino in Southern California and Nevada . The cozenage involved exploiting the surety protocol on Citibank ’s hard cash advance kiosks , which allowed multiple withdrawal at 10 multiplication the amount deposited — if the transaction was made within 60 seconds . The cozenage would then result in hefty immediate payment payouts from casinos . Keshishyan also instructed his gang to keep withdrawal under $ 10,000 , so their illegal activities would not be cover to the government . The team would use the slip money to adventure and thus have casinos give them gratuitous room , food , salute , and amusement base on their " high tumbler " gambling level .
Ultimately , Citibank noticed the discrepancies and alerted the FBI . The scammers were caught and faced up to five eld in federal prison house and a $ 250,000 fine . Keshishyan wasultimately doom to 57 month in prisonand ordered to repay Citi the $ 1,045,585 he stole from them .
7. Counterfeit Coins
Louis " The Coin " Colavecchio successfully madecounterfeit coins and tokensto purpose at slot automobile at various casinos across the land . He used his ties with form offence as well as his day job as a jeweller to make perfect dies . gambling casino figured out they were being scammed when they discovered a nimiety of tokens and slot car coins in their vault .
Colavecchio was arrested in 1998 and doom to six years in prison . In 2006 , he was hold when he started to procreate imitation gambling casino tokens again . The History Channel made a documentary about Colavecchio calledBreaking Vegas ; many gambling casino now use special composition verifier alternatively of token when thespian desire to cash in out of slot machines .
8. Roulette Scam
Ohio Casino Control Commission believed that 50 to 70 people were call for inan luxuriant cassino scam at roulette tablesthroughout the Buckeye State in 2012 . The hustle involved players enter busy toothed wheel games with wager as crushed as $ 1 and swipe casino chip while their confederate disorder line roulette dealer . The player would then go to areas in the gambling casino that were not under surveillance like public restrooms to buy the farm along stolen chips to other musician , who would return to apply them to corrupt more check at a mellow rate and cash out .
