Laser Scanners At The Casino: 'Sting' Uncovers Hi-Tech Cheating Scam

[Anonymous]

ARCHIVED SOURCE: https://web.archive.org/web/2004061...com/skynews/article/0,,30100-13023146,00.html

Three people have been arrested on suspicion of swindling more than £1m from the Ritz casino.

The two men and one woman from Eastern Europe were held after scooping the staggering haul on roulette last week.

They are believed to have won £100,000 on their first visit to the casino before returning the next night to win another £1.2m.

Police are investigating the possibility they used a James Bond-style gadget consisting of a hi-tech laser scanner inside a mobile phone.

The device could have been used to calculate the speed of the ball when released and its probable finishing point on the wheel.

By the time the calculation was made the gambler would still have several seconds before the croupier called "no more bets".

Bosses at the exclusive casino - frequented by Arab princes and international playboys - became suspicious of the amazing run of luck on March 16.

All tables are monitored using video cameras and experts looked at the tapes before calling in Scotland Yard.

Two Serbian men, aged 38 and 33, and a 32-year-old Hungarian woman were arrested and police also seized their winnings and mobile phones.

The suspects were taken to a police station and then bailed until March 30.

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said: "Three people have been arrested on suspicion of obtaining money by deception through gambling.

"A significant amount of cash was seized and inquiries continue."

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When I read stories like this, I believe that whoever developed this device must have sold others. But it's the greedy ones that get caught! They must have thought that the casino would get a little bit suspicious.

 

[Yithian]

Text/Source Restored.

Disappointed to read the croupier didn't say Rien ne va plus.

The follow-up stories reveal that the team was eventually permitted to keep their winnings.

Roulette arrest trio keep £1.3m winnings​

Sandra Laville
Sun 5 Dec 2004 19.02 EST

Three people suspected of carrying out an audacious scam involving a laser gadget at a London casino are being allowed to keep their £1.3m winnings.

Scotland Yard, which has spent nine months investigating whether the Hungarian woman and two male Serbian friends used the equipment to con the Ritz Casino in London, said yesterday it had closed the inquiry after failing to find evidence that any crime had been committed. Officers who seized the cash have handed it back to the gamblers and told them they are free to return home.

According to reports from Budapest, the Hungarian woman was well known at the capital's top casinos and had been banned as a result. But on March 16 when she walked into the Ritz accompanied by her two friends, aged 33 and 38, she did not initially raise the suspicions of croupiers.

The 32-year-old woman, said by police sources to be "chic and beautiful," watched as the roulette ball settled on her selection then cashed in her chips for £100,000. The following evening the trio returned to the roulette table. This time they won £1.2m.

The club's management suspected they were using a scanner inside a mobile phone which measured the speed of the ball as the croupier released it and calculated where the ball would settle.

By the time the ball made its third spin - when all bets have to be placed - the information would have been flashed on to the phone's screen in time for the three to place their bets.

The Ritz, owned by the Barclay brothers, suspected it was the victim of a sting and called the police, who arrested all three at the casino. Officers seized their mobile phones and searched the rooms of the hotel opposite where they were staying. The three were released on police bail and have been reporting to a central London police station.

Officers examined the Ritz's CCTV footage but Scotland Yard said yesterday the case had been stamped "no further action". A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said: "All the money retained by police at the beginning of the inquiry has now been returned."

SOURCE:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2004/dec/06/ukcrime.gambling

 

[Herr Cloaca]

This reminds me of the book The Newtonian Casino
A group of idealist hippies in the late seventies decided to take on Las Vegas casinos. They created a computer secreted in the soles of a pair of shoes that would calculate where the roulette ball would land. Bear in mind, semiconductors had only just started to be made in high volume, and they also had to come up with a way for the shoes to communicate wirelessly with each other.

You'll have to read the book to find out what happened next...

 

[eziofan]

In my experience bookmakers and casinos like to make you think certain actions are illegal. I have been involved in a method of betting called Match Betting in which you basically make a lot of money at no risk. I was gradually banned or restricted by the majority of online bookies (known as 'gubbing' amongst the matched betting community). Once you have been excluded by them all you can try multi accounting, where you get other people to open up accounts and you bet using their accounts and split the proceeds. Not illegal, just against the bookies terms and conditions.
There was a court case a few years ago where an ex pro footballer won a few thousand at a casino using someone else's credit card (with their permission). The casino refused to pay out claiming it was fraud. They lost and had to pay him out.

 

[FunkyTT]

I've just started reading up on that Matched Betting lark..... Friend of mine is making £400 a month on it .

 

[eziofan]

I've just started reading up on that Matched Betting lark..... Friend of mine is making £400 a month on it .

Yeah, its got a little harder since I first started. I made a considerable sum

 

[ramonmercado]

Cheating with implanted magnets.

Remember in the 2000s when "biohackers" surgically implanted magnets into their fingers to develop a "sixth sense" for electromagnetic fields?

Here's a more practical reason for doing such a thing: Dr. Wat Lun, a physician in Chon Buri, Thailand, recently posted on Facebook about a man who had tiny magnets surgically implanted in his fingertips forty (!) years ago in order to cheat at the dice game Hi Lo (aka Sic Bo). From Oddity Central:

"He came and asked to have them taken out because he wants to take a flight and is scared the magnets will set off an alarm at airport security," the doctor wrote. "When I cut open his fingers, I found two very tightly embedded magnets."[…]
Although the exact cheating method was not disclosed, some Thai news outlets claimed that the man used the magnetic plates in combination with a small magnet in one or multiple dice to manipulate the score.

c

 

[ramonmercado]

Not so high tech cheating.

Three men were arrested in Singapore after they were caught using sticky glue on their hands to steal other gamblers' casino chips. Huang Chunsheng (50), Jiang Renjing (55) and Zheng Jiansheng (64) all Chinese nationals will serve between 7 and 8 months in prison.

From the Straits Times:

"The trio mostly targeted patrons who had placed large bets using a whole stack of chips, so that it would be harder for the victims to notice if some chips went missing," said DPP Tai.
On March 11, Huang was caught red-handed when a casino patron found one of his chips missing after the thief had placed his hand nearby. The victim immediately grabbed his hand and found the casino chip stuck to Huang's palm.

https://boingboing.net/2023/05/02/men-applied-glue-to-their-hands-to-steal-casino-chips.html