Beating the Odds
A Notorious Cheater Reveals How He Beat the Casinos for a Living
by Michael Konik | Cigar Aficianado
In the long run, after thousands of hands of blackjack, hundreds of pulls on the slot machines and dozens of complimentary drinks, nearly everyone who plays casino games on the square will lose. That's the way the gaming industry works. The house has the edge; the house gets the money.
Unless you are a skilled "advantage player," there are only two ways to consistently beat the casinos: be enormously lucky, or cheat. The average gambler makes his bet and hopes for the improbable. Sophisticated gangs of hustlers choose to help themselves.
In fact, according to many gaming experts, it's impossible to quantify the amount that crews of skilled casino cheaters steal each year--although $50 million, they say, would not be an unreasonable figure. "We spend a hell of a lot of money trying to catch these crooks," says the manager at a prominent Glitter Gulch casino. "And every time we come up with a new technology to prevent large-scale cheating, the thieves seem to come up with a way to bypass it. It's a never-ending cat-and-mouse game."
Dice mobs, who switch-loaded or misspotted dice into casino craps games, can grind out thousands of dollars a day. "Slot crews," expert locksmiths capable of decoding key tumblers with merely a glance, manipulate the progressive jackpots on unwatched slots. And crews of "muckers," sleight-of-hand artists who can "hold out" extra cards in the palm of their hands, taking them in and out of casino games at will, can make a blackjack hand of virtually any total.
One notorious gang, led by a well-known organized-crime figure, is believed to have netted more than $80 million before being "ratted out" by an accomplice who feared he was about to be murdered. Thanks to Orwellian surveillance cameras and dishonor among thieves, the cheaters, like serial bank robbers, are almost always discovered and sent to prison.
Except one team. The most ingenious crew ever to work the American casino circuit stole more than $3 million a year for five years. And never got caught.
...continued here - http://www.cigaraficionado.com/webfeatures/show/id/Gambling-Cheatin-Man_7728
A Notorious Cheater Reveals How He Beat the Casinos for a Living
by Michael Konik | Cigar Aficianado
In the long run, after thousands of hands of blackjack, hundreds of pulls on the slot machines and dozens of complimentary drinks, nearly everyone who plays casino games on the square will lose. That's the way the gaming industry works. The house has the edge; the house gets the money.
Unless you are a skilled "advantage player," there are only two ways to consistently beat the casinos: be enormously lucky, or cheat. The average gambler makes his bet and hopes for the improbable. Sophisticated gangs of hustlers choose to help themselves.
In fact, according to many gaming experts, it's impossible to quantify the amount that crews of skilled casino cheaters steal each year--although $50 million, they say, would not be an unreasonable figure. "We spend a hell of a lot of money trying to catch these crooks," says the manager at a prominent Glitter Gulch casino. "And every time we come up with a new technology to prevent large-scale cheating, the thieves seem to come up with a way to bypass it. It's a never-ending cat-and-mouse game."
Dice mobs, who switch-loaded or misspotted dice into casino craps games, can grind out thousands of dollars a day. "Slot crews," expert locksmiths capable of decoding key tumblers with merely a glance, manipulate the progressive jackpots on unwatched slots. And crews of "muckers," sleight-of-hand artists who can "hold out" extra cards in the palm of their hands, taking them in and out of casino games at will, can make a blackjack hand of virtually any total.
One notorious gang, led by a well-known organized-crime figure, is believed to have netted more than $80 million before being "ratted out" by an accomplice who feared he was about to be murdered. Thanks to Orwellian surveillance cameras and dishonor among thieves, the cheaters, like serial bank robbers, are almost always discovered and sent to prison.
Except one team. The most ingenious crew ever to work the American casino circuit stole more than $3 million a year for five years. And never got caught.
...continued here - http://www.cigaraficionado.com/webfeatures/show/id/Gambling-Cheatin-Man_7728
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