Sportsbook And Casino Games Cheats

[The Judge]

Written by Luken Karel for thegreek.com

PART 1: SLOT MACHINE CROOKS
It was more than two decades ago that Barron Hilton, the chairman of the hotel chain that bears his name (and grandfather of you-know-who), shelled out $50,000 for a private, six-hour seminar from Steve Forte, arguably the leading expert on casino games cheaters and scam artists. Forte was the consultant on the poker movie "Rounders," starring Matt Damon and Ed Norton, and is the author of several books and videos on casino cons, swindles and rip-offs.

At $50,000, Hilton may have gotten a bargain because it's estimated (although impossible to prove) that cheats, or crossroaders, as they're often called, steal $100 million annually from casinos.

In Part 1 of our series, we look at slot machine crooks.

The war between slot machine crossroaders and casinos is a technological one, with slot manufacturers constantly upgrading their equipment in an attempt to stay a step ahead of the thieves.

Better constructed machinery has all but eliminated such techniques as spooning, where a spoon-like device is inserted up the payoff tray to make the machine release its coins; stringing, where a coin on a string is used for repeated plays; and handle popping, a technique in which cheaters apply tremendous force in the first two or three pulls causing the handle mechanism to weaken. Most handle poppers were able to hold the first reel and save a valuable symbol, such as a bar, on the center line. Some expert cheats even were able to hold more than one reel. The machine, with its locked-in symbols, then could be played endlessly, greatly increasing the crossroader's advantage. Handle poppers often used accomplices, called blockers, to shield the excessive force and non-spinning reels from view.

Strong arm cheating included the use of a piano wire or bottom joint, inserted through a puncture hole, to contact the slot's payout counter. Then a boomerang-shaped object, called the top joint, was angled through the coin slot until it made contact with the display light sockets on the inside of the machine. Current then traveled through the top joint to the bottom joint which energized the machine's payout process.

Some slot crossroaders, or drillers, gained access to the inner workings of the machine with a high-speed, carbon-tipped drill that often was no larger than a pen. Then, often with the aid of a small but powerful magnet hidden in a cigarette pack, they manipulated the wheels.

"The quality of the machines has improved dramatically," said Forte, whose clients have included some of the largest casino operators in the world. "Today, the machines are virtually foolproof."

But not quite.

"There's always a way," conceded Forte. "At one time the hottest scam in the industry involved a device called a minilight. In the old days, the hopper, which actually dispenses the coins, was mechanical. If you could get power to it, it would start spitting out the coins."

To make it more difficult for crossroaders, the industry adopted optical sensors, which operate by light.

"The thieves went in through the coin payout shoot with a device the size of a fork with an LED light at one end and a magnet to hold it in place at the other end," explained Forte. "They built up credits and when they hit the payout button, they turned on the light, which confused the optic sensor and caused the machine to overpay. The light could be turned on with a transmitter receiver so they didn't have to reach under the machine to do it manually. Once the scam was uncovered, enforcement officials found the minilights all over town. Manufacturers of slot machines quickly adapted and moved the optic sensor to the back of the machine where it couldn't be accessed."

And so, the technological battle between slot makers and slot takers rages on, with innovative crooks facing resourceful casino personnel in an ongoing and ever-evolving war of survival.

[The Judge]

PART 2: BLACKJACK THIEVES
Blackjack is every casino's most popular and profitable game but the house's bottom line could be even stronger were it not for the efforts of thieves, called crossroaders. The most dangerous form of cheating, claims the top expert in the field, is done with the aid of crooked dealers.

"I would say that there's almost nothing that I could share with you, for shoe games, the wheel and craps, nothing in my experience - 30 years of collecting hustlers' moves, forays, scams, you name it - that would have any real threat to the casino bottom line that doesn't involve somebody on the inside," said Steve Forte, the man many regard as the nation's leading authority on casino games cheating. "Employee theft is a reality in any industry and the gaming industry is no exception."

Crooked dealers, many of them capable of sleight of hand tricks and close-up magic, have a variety of ways to work with an accomplice or agent. In a hand-held, single-deck blackjack game, the most common method is for the dealer to seconds, that is, the second card from the deck while pretending to deal the first. Usually a crooked dealer will use one of two hand manipulations, the two-card push off or the strike to deal seconds. Before seconds are dealt, the dealer first determines the top card's identity through a peek. An adept dealer also can look (bottom peek) and deal (base deal) from the bottom of the deck.

A blackjack dealer also can increase the agent's chances of winning by showing or flashing him the next card.

A proficient dealer, or mechanic, can transform his agent's losing hand into a winning one by substituting a card from the deck. A mechanic who specializes in switching cards is called a hand mucker.

But while cooperation of the dealer makes cheating easier, it's not essential to the cagey crossroader's success.

Expert hand mockers can gain an edge by palming two cards off the cut. It doesn't even matter if they're poor cards, say a three and a six, because the mucker always can substitute them for an ace and a picture card once he's legitimately been dealt those cards through the course of play. When he's accumulated the ace and picture card and switched out the three and six, he has a stolen blackjack in his possession. On the next hand he makes a limit bet and inserts the pilfered blackjack.

Muckers also use sleight of hand when playing two hands at once. An ace-five in one hand and a king-six in the other, two 16s, can be turned into a blackjack and a potential-laden 11 by switching cards between the two hands. Sometimes the mechanic is so proficient that the move is difficult to spot even with slow-motion surveillance equipment.

A third method employed by muckers is capping or pressing, a technique in which the mechanic adds chips to a favorable hand. Dragging or pinching is the reverse, removing chips from a poor hand.

Knowledge of the blackjack dealer's hole card is an enormous edge and thieves have devised some ingenious ways to attempt to gain that information. Before objects on a table were banned, some cheats employed a glim (also called a flick, light, or twinkle) a shiny object, such as a cigarette lighter, which, if strategically placed on the table, will reflect the dealer's hole card when it's transferred from the deck to the table. Of course, casino surveillance experts know of glims so crossroaders have gone to great lengths, including building a prism disguised as an ice cube which floats in their half-finished drink, to improve the scam.

Another method of gaining access to the dealer's hole card is called spooking, where a spook sits at another table behind the dealer and signals when the dealer checks his hole card for blackjack.

But by far the most devastating cheating is the cooler, where a stacked deck or package, is inserted into the game in place of the casino deck(s).

As many as nine thieves, seven players, including one who will make the switch with the accomplice dealer, and one who will distract or turn the pit boss, a bagman to carry out the legitimate deck(s), and another turn person (often an attractive woman or a skirt) to create a disturbance, can take part in the scam.

Of course, the thieves need exact copies of the casino's distinctive cards, less of a hurdle than you might think in today's technological era.

So, while surveillance techniques have improved and the odds of success at cheating the house at blackjack have diminished, there are always those who will try.

[The Judge]

PART 3: DICE SWINDLES
The fast-paced nature of craps and the physical involvement of the player make it a target of opportunity for casino cheats, or crossroaders, as they're commonly called.

Obviously, the easiest way to cheat at craps is for the crossroader to substitute gimmicked dice into the game - typically when it's the hustler's turn to throw and he has physical contact with the cubes. There are several hand techniques for inserting crooked dice, including the thumb switch, and the palm switch but all require the cheater possessing magician-like sleight of hand ability.

There also are several ways dice can be altered.

Tops are dice that only have three numbers, each appearing twice on opposite sides of each die. One common set is to have the numbers two, three and six. These dice can roll the numbers four, five, six, eight, nine and 12 but cannot seven out. In order to reduce suspicion, the craps shooter himself usually will not be a big bettor but his partner, a beard, at the opposite end of the table, will. Tops with one, three and five also are used, sometimes in alternating fashion with two, three and six tops so more numbers appear.

Most casino stickmen drag the dice across the table after each roll, making them tumble and exposing all sides. Of course, no crossroader worth his cheating heart would insert tops into that situation.

A safer dice scam is to insert loaded dice, known as weight, into the game. These cubes, which do not guarantee a win but shift the odds in the crossroader's favor, can pass the casual inspection of a boxman. However, today's dice, because they are translucent, are much more difficult to load.

"There's been a whole evolution in craps scams," began Steve Forte, an advisor on the motion picture, "Rounders," and one of the world's foremost authorities on casino cheating. "In the old days you had subs, hidden pockets in the dealer's clothing. Craps is a game that has so much action that the dice would go one way and the money would go the other, into the sub. Then they went to techniques like hand-off moves, where the boxman would make change, giving extra money to the accomplice. And, off course, there were gaffed dice."

Some craps swindles don't require gaffed dice.

"I once asked an old-timer what was the strongest thing he'd ever seen to cheat crap games and he said, 'Setting them up late,'" recalled Forte. "Craps is a game that involves a lot of call bets. As the dice are in the air, somebody's going to give you a bet. So let's say I'm the dealer and you're on second base next to me. You put up eight black chips and as the dice are in the air you say something. The person upstairs in surveillance has no idea where that money is supposed to go until I set it up. So, if I listen for the dice and I hear, 'Six,' I can take those eight black chips and set you up with four each on six and eight, so you win.

"Or let's say I hear, 'Seven out." I take those very same eight blacks and put them behind the nine. I slap the 'lay' button on it, as you for the juice and all of a sudden it looks like that was obviously an $800 bet against the nine. You win again."

In another scam, one die is passed from the shooter to an accomplice and on to a beard at the opposite end of the table. The shooter then rolls just one die, expertly making it land close to the beard who has concealed the stolen die, positioned on six beneath his money. When a cheater bets the field and is guaranteed a six on one die, he can only lose when the random die comes up ace or deuce. All other spots win and the six pays double.

The dice have not been gaffed and, when executed properly, the move is almost impossible to detect with the naked eye.

"Cheating is and always has been a serious problem," acknowledged Forte. "Knowledge and vigilance are your only protection.