Chasing the casino cheats
Posted by Gavin Smith on 24 Jun 2009 at 09:06
With a boom in interest in the UK for casino games and poker over the last decade, there has also been unwanted extra interest from scamsters out to cheat their way to a fortune.
Two men recently became the first to be sent to prison in the UK for cheating in a casino thanks to the Gambling Act 2005.
Mehmet Mersin and Suleyman Arik where caught swapping cards while playing three-card poker at the Empire Casino in London, and were seen performing carefully practiced moves seven times to pick up more than £5000 illegally.
Arik got six months in gaol and Mersin eight months. Arik is a Turkish National and will be deported on his release, while Mersin has received a UK casino ban for 10 years.
Both were recorded by vigilant security staff using high-tech cameras and owned up when presented with the volume of evidence. Their crime is just one in a series of scames that UK casinos now have to be on the lookout for.
Pictures released of the offending duo show what otherwise appears to be a regular casino table, but both men were exchanging cards in order to give each other strong hands to pick up winnings.
The Independent newspaper took a closer look at the security and expertise which is behind the casino industry's fightback against commen.
Reporter Jerome Taylor spoke to Doug Reeman, head of security at the Empire Casino, and got an insight into how to spot a cheat at the table.
Quoted by the Independent, Mr Reeman says: "It was a near-perfect operation where the evidence was so compelling they had to plead guilty,"
The British casino market is enjoying something of a revolutionary period where casual gaming is now far more socially acceptable and enjoyable thanks to new facilities.
However, some professionals cheats see casinos as an easy target, although many fall foul of well trained and alert staff.
According to the Independent, a dealer picked up initially on the scam at the Empire and security specialists then monitored the pair using high definition CCTV. They gathered videoed evidence over two days and the case was brought under the Gambling Act, which made cheating in casinos a criminal offence.
The Independent also spoke to Detective Inspector John Anderson, who heads the club unit within the Metropolitan Police's specialist clubs and vice department, who said: "Many of the people we are after work in organised teams and are very good at what they do,
"They often move internationally, targeting anywhere from casinos in Britain, Turkey and Monte Carlo. Some have even started turning up in the United States."
However, getting a result isn't necessarily straightforward. Public perceptions mean that getting a conviction can be tricky, with cheats seen as the underdogs challenging casinos, which can often be portrayed by Hollywood movies as being run by the bad guys.
DI Anderson, quoted by the Independent, added: "Often the public has very little sympathy for casinos,
"But stopping casino cheats is essential, not just because they are stealing, but because they are often linked to wider organised crime networks. The trade-off for us is that the casinos – which are so heavily regulated now and above board – are fantastic sources of intelligence for crime networks that might be involved in, say, money laundering or identity fraud."
There are now more legal weapons in the locker thanks to new laws in Britiain. The Gambling Act is joined by the likes of the Fraud Act, which tweaked pieces of anti-fraud law and then there is the Identity Cards Act, which made it an offence to use fake ID.
Casinos like the Empire also rely on a network of technology, with the Independent adding the London venue has more than 130 CCTV cameras with each table fitted with not only its own camera but with a microphone as well. With 1,600 visitors on a weekday, The Empire needs to be watchful, although in many cases cameras are actually used to sort out disputes which come up over calls made when betting. Of course, all this technology is also handy for beating the cheats, as before cameras, casinos had to rely on the human eye alone to pick up on wrongdoing.
But casinos have also found that cheats are prepared to up their game. The Independent also spoke to Roy Ramm, who is head of compliance at London Clubs International, which owns the Empire.
He told the paper of a poker team which he came across once, one of whom had a camera up his sleeve. The team would pick out a croupier with the habit of dealing cards at a particular angle the camera could see. A man in aa van outside would watch the images sent by the device and then informed members of the gang what each player had through hidden ear pieces.
He is also quoted as saying: "There's one chap – let's call him 'Jimmy' – who is known to pretty much all the casinos,
"He has tried to disguise himself in so many different ways. I've seen him with a shaven head, shoulder-length hair, fake moustaches and beards. He's tried everything but we always spot him before he even gets in the casino."
The paper's report also reveals the appropriate industry name for this kind of cheat - a "busted flush".
