Casinos have always played host to scammers who look to make a fortune with or without the help of Lady Luck. Below, we take a look at five of the biggest and best-known casino scams in the history of casinos.
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The Faux Roselli Brothers
First coming to light in the year 2000, the case of the Roselli Brothers shook casinos in Las Vegas and a number of unsuspecting victims to the core. The story begins in 1995 when two men took over the identity of the Roselli Brothers and joined forces with a hacker who got them all the details they needed about casino players with perfect credit scores. Using this information, they opened accounts at multiple casinos and deposited around $50,000 into each, thus making casinos more than eager to give them credit. Over the course of five years, the faux-Roselli Brothers’ credit from casinos had gone up to over $1,000,000 at almost every casino, and they were making single bets as high as $100,000. After winning an estimated $40 million, they cashed out all their accounts and disappeared. It was only when casinos and creditors started descending onto the victims of the scam for repayment that people realized that the Roselli Brothers had stolen the identity of various people, including those of the Roselli Brothers themselves. No one knows who the fraudsters were and they still haven’t been caught.
Radio Transmitters in Roulette Balls
After becoming interested in amateur radio, a French dealer realized that he could use this technology to make himself a very rich man indeed. Getting his brother and his sister-in-law on board, the dealer replaced the online roulette ball with one he had engineered to respond to radio transmissions, while the sister-in-law, who would sit at the next table, had a small radio transmitter in a packet of cigarettes. The brother, meanwhile, would be the player, who would always bet on the same set of numbers – the scam was accurate down to a range of six numbers. Within a week, this scam had won the scammers over $1,000,000 and there didn’t seem to be an end in sight. Then, security noticed that the woman was always in on nights when the casino suffered the worst losses and, following a lot of investigations by the casino and the police, the radio frequencies at the casino were discovered.
The Cutting of Cards
Operational in both US casinos and the Philippines in around 2011, the Cutter Gang became internationally infamous after they were caught using tiny cameras in their shirt sleeves to get a peek of the cards when they were invited to cut them during games of baccarat. The gang member filming the cards would then take breaks during the game to pass on the camera to others who would then provide them with valuable information. While they were apprehended and $1,000,000 in winnings were withheld, the police didn’t have enough evidence to keep them jailed, and they were set free and they had the money returned to them. The Gang members then went to the Philippines where their web of deceit was finally untangled. Even so, they escaped custody and they remain at large to this day.
Contact Lenses & Invisible Ink
Also taking place in 2011, the story of the short-lived scam by three Italians and one Frenchman could have turned out to be one of the most lucrative scams in casino history. In this scam, one perpetrator would discreetly mark the values on cards with invisible ink during a game of stud poker. Then, another player wearing contact lenses that could see invisible ink, played for an evening and made a killing of $84. This went unnoticed until the perpetrators returned and won large amounts in a row, which prompted authorities to investigate. While it didn’t take long to find out the four people were scamming the casino, it did take a while for them to figure out that the secret to this scam were the contact lenses.
Roulette at the Ritz
In 2004, a group of gamblers from Eastern Europe used an app on their smartphone to determine the orbital decay of the roulette wheel, which basically measured the size of the wheel and the speed at which the ball was spinning to determine where it would end up. Surprisingly effective, the gang managed to win over $2,000,000. When they got caught, the authorities let them go because even though it was a scam, there was no legal basis on which they could be arraigned – oh, and they also got to keep all their winnings. It’s hard to decide what is more surprising about this scam: the ingenuity used to pull it off, or the fact that the scammers were let off by the law? Either way, all members have been banned from practically all casinos for obvious reasons.
Part of Folklore
Scams of this magnitude, although rare, have become part of the folklore and legend of land-based casinos around the world. They are fascinating to read about but they leave a lot of damage in their wake.
