CASINO STORIES


TO CATCH A THIEF


Cheating in casinos is a lot more common than most people could possible imagine. Where ever these money or other items of value, there’s a thief just waiting for the right opportunity to present itself.


The Great Train Robbery executed by Ronnie Biggs and the boys is the first that comes to mind and he never got caught - he gave himself up with only moments left to live. He spent years in exile and the police knew where Ronnie was all along, but there was absolutely nothing they could do about it.


The Queen of England must have some of the best security and surveillance in the world, but the Crown Jewels are always a major concern when it comes to theft: Casinos are no different.


South African casinos have suffered a string of armed robberies recently, Nottingham, England was a resent victim of casino robbery when two men reportedly stole £44,000 - they're still waiting for the result of the court case. That’s why it baffles me when people visit casinos, they believe the only people that are going to separate them from there cash are the croupiers.


It’s not very likely that a croupier would steal from a costumer but far more likely that they would be stealing from the casino. Most casino employees that have been caught thieving have usually been in collusion with a punter at the table and the victim of the crime is generally the casino. If you’re underpaid after a winning bet it doesn’t benefit the dealer so there can only be two reasons either a simple mistake or complete and utter incompetence.
I’m going to be talking a lot on the subject of cheating, stealing and scamming in the casino business, but for now let me leave you with a story about a casino cheat that I personally caught.


I was working in a provincial casino in the north of England as a 'Pit Boss' back in the early 1980s, when I noticed a particular player who never seems to lose. His choice of game was Roulette; he came to the casino 3 to 4 times a week, bought into the game for approximately ₤100 and always cashed out a winner with profits of around ₤400/₤500.

After several weeks of monitoring his play I saw no way in which he could be coming out ahead of the casino.
I took this to the management and pointed that I could not visible see anything taking place, but there has to be something because this guy is not making winning bets. Although he asks for a cash chip every time he has a payoff, the amount does not come close to what he cashes out for.

Back in those days casinos in the provinces did not have the surveillance technology that you find today, so we had to set up our own 'spy-ring'. We placed the best Roulette dealer on the game along with another top dealer being used as a chipper. I personally took up the supervisor’s position and the casino manager took up a position several feet behind the player. It took less than 15 minutes for us to spot the scam.
We (meaning the manager and I) approached the punter and asked him to step away from the table, we told him what we had witnessed and he admitted to the scam immediately.




THE SCAM!


The scam was pretty simple, the first thing he did was walk around the casino until he spotted a busy game and a player who was betting in £5 cash chips and placing lot of them all over the Roulette table.
He then had to wait until the red 25p (about 40c) wheel chips were available, the scam was on. The reason he needed the red chips was because the £5 chips where burgundy and therefore difficult to tell apart from the red chips. The punter would now wait for the player with the £5 chips to make bets all over the table and for the dealer to spin the ball, at this point most of the players at the table are scrambling to get there bets down.

He makes his move: Using both hands he starts to place his bets valued at 25p. As he places the last chip he presses down on a £5 chip. Using double-sided sticky tape in the palm of his hand, he then presses down on a £5 chip then puts his hand in his pocket where he wipes the chip of before the next spin.
The thing about this scam is that he wasn’t ripping of the casino he was ripping off the other punters.







Inside the Casino Swag Bag


Although casinos do everything in there power to create a safe and secure environment, they are ultimately not responsible for what happens to your bets before the ball drops. Once you’ve placed your bets, it’s up to you to keep an eye on them and make sure they’re not accidentally moved or stolen by other players.


Basically, it’s your money take care of it and watch it like a Hawk.