Casino Cheats Caught In The Blink Of An Eye
Card marking is something that has been prevalent in the history of casinos across the world - films have even been made featuring this method of trying to cheat a casino. Techniques for card marking have changed with technology seeing bends, crimps and blisters become "old hat". The Times revealed news of a group casino cheats all caught using special contact lenses and marked cards to scam the Princes Casino in Monaco out of €64,000.
The Italian players enlisted the use of specially adapted contact lenses as part of their hoax, marking the cards with invisible ink in order to distinguish the different values. Described by commentators as one of the cleverest scams ever witnessed in Europe, investigators believe that the group may have practiced this ploy in casinos throughout the continent before drawing attention to themselves earlier this summer.
Alarm bells first went off following a game of stud poker, when three Italian players visiting the Princes Casino on the French Riviera won €44,000 (£38,000). Then after a visit to the same table later that week, the casino-goers made off with €20,000 in the space of just a few hours. At that point that staff recognised them and telephoned the police. It was after closer inspection that invisible marks were discovered on the back of the playing cards, with certain symbols such a cross signifying a king, and a line representing an ace – valuable information to assist in the unusually lucky streak of the three players.
According to the state prosecutor of Grasse, Jean-Michel Cailleau, the three players were all wearing contact lenses that had been modified in order to view the invisible markings. Both the Italian men and their two alleged French accomplices were currently being held on suspicion of “committing fraud in an organised gang”, but should they be found guilty then they could face up to ten years in prison.
Police have so far arrested one of the Frenchmen involved in the scam, who they believe was an employee of the casino. It is suspected that he was responsible for smuggling the marked cards into the gaming establishment.
A lawyer for one of the Italian players has claimed that his client has denied the allegations. “He doesn’t understand why he has been arrested,” stated Maître Jean-Louis Paganelli. “He came to the Côte with a friend to have a good time and only brought a pair of sandals, a towel and a pack cards, but that doesn’t make him a cheat”.
One of the most infamous casino cheats involved three men pocketing €100,000 at a casino within the area; where the criminals used a miniature camera to film one of the croupiers. With an accomplice waiting in a car outside, he was able to tell the players what cards the house had – through the use of receivers hidden in the men’s ears.
Despite these cases of casino cheats making headlines for its ingenious techniques, the most renowned gambling scam was run by a British engineer back in 1873. By hiring six clerks to secretly record the winning outcomes on the roulette tables at the Beaux-Arts Casino in Monaco, it was there that Joseph Jagger spotted that one of six wheels was purposefully unbalanced – allowing him to bet on those particular numbers repeatedly to win he amounts of money. Known as The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo, Jagger left with a small fortune – never to return.
Article Published: 17/10/2011 13:04:35
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