Most people who gamble at the casino do so honestly. After all, the point of gambling is to have a fun day or evening out with friends and have a good time.
However, there are also gamblers who go the extra mile to make as much money as possible. For most cheaters, the odds are stacked against them and their deception is revealed, but this is not always the case.
Cheaters in the casino who got away with it
We have to admit it honestly. Some cheaters are really creative and original. Sometimes they are so cunning and the deception so ingenious that it actually works. So we have eight cases of cheating that paid off.
Cheating with special contact lenses
The first case we mention has to do with special contact lenses. In 2011, someone who worked at the Les Princes Casino in Cannes managed to scam the place for about €64000. The employee marked the cards used for the Poker game with invisible ink. That way they were recognizable to the players who worked with the dealer and could see the marking because they had special lenses in. When they returned later the same week and made high bets the casino smelled fuse and discovered the scam.
Cheating with a radio transmitter in a pack of cigarettes
The second ruse has to do with a pack of cigarettes. This scam was already perpetrated in 1973 at the Casino Deauville in France. A dealer at the Roulette worked with his sister and brother-in-law to carry it out. The casino was thus about five million francs lighter, which corresponds to almost €900000. The dealer had built a radio transmitter into a pack of cigarettes and a receiver into the ball of the game. By pressing a button on the packet, the dealer could determine where the ball would fall. This turned out to be true in no less than 90% of the cases.
How was the deception discovered?
The only reason they were caught is that the behavior of the sister began to stand out after a while. She always sat at the same table and did not bet much but also won little. While the casino did lose a lot at the roulette table. The transmitter and receiver were discovered because the casino sent a group of people to investigate. This story was even later filmed.
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Cheating by Edge Sorting
Cheat number three was committed by Phil Ivey Jr. in London in 2012. He was accused of cheating at the Crockfords Casino there where he managed to pull off a Punto Banco scam for almost €10 million. He was accused of Edge Sorting. This means that he was able to recognize all the imperfections on the cards (no matter how small), and thus knew which ones they were. Even though the cards were lying face down, he knew which ones they were.
How was he exposed?
It is not so easy to detect the imperfections and discrepancies between the cards but it is possible. It is cheating either way although of course it remains clever if you can do this as a player. However, the court vindicated the casino during the trial following his cheating but Ivey himself called it more of a way to increase your odds rather than a ruse. In 2014, at the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa in Atlantic City, he managed to win about $9.6 million at the Baccarat table but the casino refused to pay out because they suspected cheating.
Cheating using special lasers
In 2014, the London Ritz Casino chose a way to cheat using lasers. The perpetrators managed to determine the direction of the Roulette ball in a large number of cases using a special laser system. The ball was scanned using lasers built into cell phones so you can see where it lands. By the way, the system only predicts the area where the ball will land and not the exact spot or number. To win with it, the cheaters bet on where the ball went. Eventually, the three cheats were discovered but not prosecuted because they were not actually doing anything wrong and there was no law against it.
Cheating by counting cards
One trick that should not be missed is counting cards in blackjack. This method is particularly used in blackjack as was the case with a group of thirty or so fraudsters who used this method in various casinos in California. They used this trick in collaboration with dealers from the casino itself. The dealers pretended to shuffle the cards but in reality this did not happen and you only heard the sound that comes with it. In this way the cards stayed in the right order so that it was possible to win again and again.
Trick with a microphone in a sleeve
With the help of a cigarette (or so it seemed) that hid a microphone in the sleeve of one of the players, this ruse involved communicating with someone outside the casino so that they could determine what was being wagered. This was done on the basis of the cards already on the table. The gang was caught but only after almost $7 million had been looted from twenty-five different casinos. The perpetrators are also serving their sentences for this after they confessed.
Deception by defrauding the ATM
A clever trick was performed in 2012 by Ara Keshishyan and thirteen other people together. They managed to circumvent the security protocol of Citibank in Southern California and Nevada by withdrawing ten times more money than was normally possible. They succeeded by doing the transaction within sixty seconds. In this way, large sums were paid out by the casinos.
Gambling at the expense of the casino
The money collected in this way was used to gamble again and make use of all the facilities of the casino. This way they could play like a VIP and make high stakes at the casino’s expense. The fraud was discovered when the bank saw that something was wrong and called in the FBI. This meant fines, refunds and prison sentences for the perpetrators.
Cheating by making counterfeit coins
Crime number 7 was committed with counterfeit coins. Louis Colavecchio successfully made counterfeit coins with which he played on slot machines in various casinos. Because he had ties to organized crime and worked as a jeweler himself, he knew how to execute the counterfeit coinage to perfection. The casinos discovered the cheating when they found the coins were too much in the machine and took them out. The perpetrator was arrested in 1998 and served a six-year sentence but in 2006 he was arrested again for making counterfeit coins. To prevent people from being paid fake coins when they win on the slot machine, many casinos pay out in special vouchers that you can then redeem.
Cheating at the Roulette Wheel
The Roulette wheel is certainly not immune to cheating. At the Buckeye Casino in 2012 it was the subject of large-scale fraud. The fraud was committed by players at the roulette table who bet small amounts and in the meantime managed to exchange their chips for higher amounts. They had the opportunity to do so because other players managed to distract the croupier and the exchange trick was not seen. After winning, the chips were passed to accomplices in places where this was not seen (no cameras present) and they exchanged them for money. The fraudsters were caught throughout the state of Ohio. Those who were caught received fines or jail time but there are still many who managed to escape.