He might have been the world's greatest gambler with the longest ever winning streak in history, during which he turned $50 into $40 million, but last September, luck finally parted ways with Archie Karas.
He was caught marking cards at a blackjack table in a California casino. According to the law enforcement agencies that were trailing Karas for many years, he was spotted by surveillance cameras as he used tiny smudges of dye to mark jacks, queens, kings and aces. This would allow him to identify the cards before they were dealt, so he could decide whether to take another card or wait till the right card showed up on top. Using this trick, Archie would often hit the winning value of 21 and cheat casinos out of thousands of dollars. He was arrested and now faces up to 3 years in prison.
Cheating in Ancient Times
Archie is not the first high-profile gambler to be caught cheating, nor the last. In fact, cheating has haunted gambling and gaming industry since ever. In ancient civilizations such as the Greeks and the Latins, flipping a coin was a common way of betting.
A coin from the Roman emperor Nero's time has been discovered, which had been cut in half and an uneven piece of iron placed in between. The two halves had been rejoined and adjusted so that the coin would fall on the same side whenever flipped. Archeologists have also found loaded dices from the times of the Roman Empire, which proves that cheating is as old as games of chance themselves.
Clever gamblers have always tried to beat the system and take control of chance to win huge sums of money at card games, dice games, roulette, and even online games of chance. Let us take a look at some popular cheating methods and the people who have used them.
Most Popular Gambling Cheats Today
Edge Sorting
Just last month, big-time gambler Phillip Ivey Jr. was sued for cheating at baccarat by an Atlantic City casino. According to the plaintiff, Ivey and an accomplice took advantage of a manufacturing flaw in the cards to win $9.6 million between April and October 2012. Gemaco Inc., the company that manufactured the cards, also faces another lawsuit from another casino for providing un-shuffled cards that helped gamblers beat the casino for $1.5 million. In Ivy's case, the pattern on the back of the cards was not uniform. The small circles designed to look like diamonds changed to half-circles or quarters along the edges of the cards.
The casino claims Ivy's companion instructed the dealer to flip cards in particular ways, so that after several hands, the good cards (numbers 6, 7, 8 and 9) were arranged in a specific direction. Ivy could spot the good cards as they came out of the dealer chute. He has been sued earlier in Britain's High Court by a Malaysian casino, which has accused him of cheating in baccarat and winning $12 million. Ivy, who has won 9 World Series of Poker bracelets, denies all cheating allegations. Repeated lawsuits and the implication of a card manufacturing company indicate how deep this scam might be.
Slot Machine Scams
Unlike conventional table games such as craps or blackjack, slot machines do not require any knowledge or skills. Casinos originally installed them to get everyone involved in the gaming. The idea proved so explosives that soon, slot machines moved to the mainstream of gambling.
In old days when slot machines used to be simpler contraptions, cheaters would tie a piece of string with the coin and attach a paperclip on the other end to keep it from falling into the hopper. That method went obsolete as slot machines grew sophisticated and went digital. But every problem has a solution.
Cheaters soon caught up with the technology and invented an electronic device know as the "bill validator device". The device had two prongs that, when inserted into machine, hacked it into reading every inserted currency note as a $100 bill. The device was more destructive for casinos than a nuclear weapon, so they went after their slot machines and upgraded them to render such devices ineffective.
The method has faded into history now, but there were times when cheaters made thousands of dollars using validator devices.
Dice Cheats
Dice is said to be invented by the ancient Egyptians or the Chinese, but no one can say for sure. Archeological digs have revealed dices dating back to 6000 BC. Hollow dices or dices with uneven weight distribution have been used in history for achieving the desired results, but replacing the casino's dice with a tempered one can be a bit of a problem these days. A simple cheating method is to slide the dice instead of rolling it.
Practice makes perfect, and no one believes it more than "dice sliders", cheaters who try to control the outcome of the dice by sliding it down the table, in a way that the number that they want stays face up. These jugglers would usually manipulate only one of the two dices, letting the other one bounce and roll and attract all the attention. The trick is not very common, but the artists who practice it can cause huge losses to the casino that they hit. In 2011, Wynn Las Vegas sued a group of alleged dice sliders for defrauding the casino for $700,000 by manipulating the dice.
Roulette Cheats and Tricks
"Roulette" means "little wheel" in French. When the game is being played, only the players are allowed to sit at the roulette table. The players can place the bet by stacking their chips on the number or color that they want to bet on. The dealer then spins the wheel in one direction and the ball in the opposite direction. As the ball loses momentum, it falls into one of the 37 (for European) or 38 (for American) colored and numbered pockets on the wheel and the winners are decided.
Like most other gambling cheats and tricks, this one also involves two accomplice players. In one of the tricks, one player would place the bet on any particular number or combination. The other player would wait until the ball has fallen or is about to fall. As the fall position of the ball becomes predictable, the first player distracts the dealer by showing excitement, and the second player quietly places both his and the first player's chips on the winning number. If caught, the second player would be removed from the casino, leaving the first player to claim the prize.
In another cheat, one of the players would buy a particular color of roulette chips for $1 each and would hide some of them in his pocket, passing them on to his accomplice. The accomplice would go to the same table and buy the same color chips for $25 each. He would then play a few hands and cashes in the $1 chips at $25 each. The trick, though simple, continues to be a problem for the casinos in Las Vegas and elsewhere.
Hidden Card Switcher
If you have watched a magic show, you might have been awed by how the magician makes different object disappears and reappear. Magicians rely on different types of mechanical and electronic devices as well as the sleight of hand to pull off seemingly impossible feats right before our eyes. It was perhaps a magician, probably tired of making small amounts of money through magic shows, who invented the hidden card switching mechanism.
The device installs inconspicuously on the inside of the player's sleeve and releases a replacement card the moment it is activated. The player would go to a poker or baccarat table and start playing. As everyone became involved in the game and it was time to strike, the cheater would stealthily pop out a card from under his sleeve and replace a card from the table. The removed card would then be hidden in the same device.
Electronic and automatic versions of this contraption are available, which can automatically release a preloaded card within 0.1 second of the insertion of another card. This diabolic device has deprived casinos of millions of dollars and can be hard to track. In 2010, two South Korean nationals were arrested for stealing several hundred thousand dollars from Foxwood Casino Resorts in Connecticut. They were jailed and ordered to restitute the spoils.
Spy Cam
If the card switcher was invented by a techie, the spy cam cheating "system" must have been conceived by a secret agent. It revolves around a high resolution spy camera hidden inside the cheater's sleeve. The camera is hooked to a remote viewing device, simply a smartphone or tablet, which the player's accomplice is watching at a remote location. The camera can see the underside of the cards when they are being dealt. The cheater also manipulates the cards while cutting the deck, making them visible to the camera.
The accomplice is recording everything and guides the player through a hidden microphone. The cheat is used in baccarat and blackjack. The trick has seen its best days and is rarely used because the casinos are on guard against people wearing spy cams. The pit bosses would keep a close eye on players, observing their movements and how they handle the deck, so it's no easy to pull off.
However, gamblers in China still appear to be using this method, along with a whole range of poker cheating devices.
He was caught marking cards at a blackjack table in a California casino. According to the law enforcement agencies that were trailing Karas for many years, he was spotted by surveillance cameras as he used tiny smudges of dye to mark jacks, queens, kings and aces. This would allow him to identify the cards before they were dealt, so he could decide whether to take another card or wait till the right card showed up on top. Using this trick, Archie would often hit the winning value of 21 and cheat casinos out of thousands of dollars. He was arrested and now faces up to 3 years in prison.
Cheating in Ancient Times
Archie is not the first high-profile gambler to be caught cheating, nor the last. In fact, cheating has haunted gambling and gaming industry since ever. In ancient civilizations such as the Greeks and the Latins, flipping a coin was a common way of betting.
A coin from the Roman emperor Nero's time has been discovered, which had been cut in half and an uneven piece of iron placed in between. The two halves had been rejoined and adjusted so that the coin would fall on the same side whenever flipped. Archeologists have also found loaded dices from the times of the Roman Empire, which proves that cheating is as old as games of chance themselves.
Clever gamblers have always tried to beat the system and take control of chance to win huge sums of money at card games, dice games, roulette, and even online games of chance. Let us take a look at some popular cheating methods and the people who have used them.
Most Popular Gambling Cheats Today
Edge Sorting
Just last month, big-time gambler Phillip Ivey Jr. was sued for cheating at baccarat by an Atlantic City casino. According to the plaintiff, Ivey and an accomplice took advantage of a manufacturing flaw in the cards to win $9.6 million between April and October 2012. Gemaco Inc., the company that manufactured the cards, also faces another lawsuit from another casino for providing un-shuffled cards that helped gamblers beat the casino for $1.5 million. In Ivy's case, the pattern on the back of the cards was not uniform. The small circles designed to look like diamonds changed to half-circles or quarters along the edges of the cards.
The casino claims Ivy's companion instructed the dealer to flip cards in particular ways, so that after several hands, the good cards (numbers 6, 7, 8 and 9) were arranged in a specific direction. Ivy could spot the good cards as they came out of the dealer chute. He has been sued earlier in Britain's High Court by a Malaysian casino, which has accused him of cheating in baccarat and winning $12 million. Ivy, who has won 9 World Series of Poker bracelets, denies all cheating allegations. Repeated lawsuits and the implication of a card manufacturing company indicate how deep this scam might be.
Slot Machine Scams
Unlike conventional table games such as craps or blackjack, slot machines do not require any knowledge or skills. Casinos originally installed them to get everyone involved in the gaming. The idea proved so explosives that soon, slot machines moved to the mainstream of gambling.
In old days when slot machines used to be simpler contraptions, cheaters would tie a piece of string with the coin and attach a paperclip on the other end to keep it from falling into the hopper. That method went obsolete as slot machines grew sophisticated and went digital. But every problem has a solution.
Cheaters soon caught up with the technology and invented an electronic device know as the "bill validator device". The device had two prongs that, when inserted into machine, hacked it into reading every inserted currency note as a $100 bill. The device was more destructive for casinos than a nuclear weapon, so they went after their slot machines and upgraded them to render such devices ineffective.
The method has faded into history now, but there were times when cheaters made thousands of dollars using validator devices.
Dice Cheats
Dice is said to be invented by the ancient Egyptians or the Chinese, but no one can say for sure. Archeological digs have revealed dices dating back to 6000 BC. Hollow dices or dices with uneven weight distribution have been used in history for achieving the desired results, but replacing the casino's dice with a tempered one can be a bit of a problem these days. A simple cheating method is to slide the dice instead of rolling it.
Practice makes perfect, and no one believes it more than "dice sliders", cheaters who try to control the outcome of the dice by sliding it down the table, in a way that the number that they want stays face up. These jugglers would usually manipulate only one of the two dices, letting the other one bounce and roll and attract all the attention. The trick is not very common, but the artists who practice it can cause huge losses to the casino that they hit. In 2011, Wynn Las Vegas sued a group of alleged dice sliders for defrauding the casino for $700,000 by manipulating the dice.
Roulette Cheats and Tricks
"Roulette" means "little wheel" in French. When the game is being played, only the players are allowed to sit at the roulette table. The players can place the bet by stacking their chips on the number or color that they want to bet on. The dealer then spins the wheel in one direction and the ball in the opposite direction. As the ball loses momentum, it falls into one of the 37 (for European) or 38 (for American) colored and numbered pockets on the wheel and the winners are decided.
Like most other gambling cheats and tricks, this one also involves two accomplice players. In one of the tricks, one player would place the bet on any particular number or combination. The other player would wait until the ball has fallen or is about to fall. As the fall position of the ball becomes predictable, the first player distracts the dealer by showing excitement, and the second player quietly places both his and the first player's chips on the winning number. If caught, the second player would be removed from the casino, leaving the first player to claim the prize.
In another cheat, one of the players would buy a particular color of roulette chips for $1 each and would hide some of them in his pocket, passing them on to his accomplice. The accomplice would go to the same table and buy the same color chips for $25 each. He would then play a few hands and cashes in the $1 chips at $25 each. The trick, though simple, continues to be a problem for the casinos in Las Vegas and elsewhere.
Hidden Card Switcher
If you have watched a magic show, you might have been awed by how the magician makes different object disappears and reappear. Magicians rely on different types of mechanical and electronic devices as well as the sleight of hand to pull off seemingly impossible feats right before our eyes. It was perhaps a magician, probably tired of making small amounts of money through magic shows, who invented the hidden card switching mechanism.
The device installs inconspicuously on the inside of the player's sleeve and releases a replacement card the moment it is activated. The player would go to a poker or baccarat table and start playing. As everyone became involved in the game and it was time to strike, the cheater would stealthily pop out a card from under his sleeve and replace a card from the table. The removed card would then be hidden in the same device.
Electronic and automatic versions of this contraption are available, which can automatically release a preloaded card within 0.1 second of the insertion of another card. This diabolic device has deprived casinos of millions of dollars and can be hard to track. In 2010, two South Korean nationals were arrested for stealing several hundred thousand dollars from Foxwood Casino Resorts in Connecticut. They were jailed and ordered to restitute the spoils.
Spy Cam
If the card switcher was invented by a techie, the spy cam cheating "system" must have been conceived by a secret agent. It revolves around a high resolution spy camera hidden inside the cheater's sleeve. The camera is hooked to a remote viewing device, simply a smartphone or tablet, which the player's accomplice is watching at a remote location. The camera can see the underside of the cards when they are being dealt. The cheater also manipulates the cards while cutting the deck, making them visible to the camera.
The accomplice is recording everything and guides the player through a hidden microphone. The cheat is used in baccarat and blackjack. The trick has seen its best days and is rarely used because the casinos are on guard against people wearing spy cams. The pit bosses would keep a close eye on players, observing their movements and how they handle the deck, so it's no easy to pull off.
However, gamblers in China still appear to be using this method, along with a whole range of poker cheating devices.
