Casino Scams in London |
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“What Is The Greatest Amount Of Money Ever Stolen From A Casino?” For purposes of this question we are not going to speculate as to the amount of money “Skimmed” from casinos in the old days when the mob and private owners had free run of the count rooms. I eagerly followed the news about investigations of several casino scams where over three (3) million dollars was stolen. One of the scams occurred in Bophuthatswanna, South Africa, in the Sun City Casino. A group of about ten to twelve individuals were involved, both from the inside and as players. The method used to steal was a clever, but old time device, known as a “Chip Cup.” Imagine a hollow tube which was painted and designed to look like a stack of small denomination online casino chips. The “Chip Cup” is made slightly larger than a standard 39 millimeter casino chip. Because the cup is larger than standard chips, it can easily slid over a stack of four (4) standard casino chips. (The casino chips are hidden inside the hollowed cup.) A standard casino chip of small value is glued to made of aluminum, spring steel or brass and is painted and scored to look like a stack of five (5) $1.00 or $5,00 chips. (In Sun City the chip cup was painted to resemble a stack of five (5) $10.00 chips….dollars there are called “Rands”.) The beauty of the chip cup is that a player brings the cup Into play and also takes it out again. The dealer and player are obviously working together in this scam. In Vegas, or in most places for that matter, the normal practice in stacking chips in a crap table is by stacking it in front of the dealer. This is just a matter of efficiency. In other games like Blackjack, then have a rack they put the chips in. In South Africa, in the mid 1980’s, craps was not at all popular in casinos. Casino Craps is an American game. The big money game in Sun City is Baccarat. In this game, unlike the Las Vegas Baccarat games, chips are stacked straight up in front of the dealers. The scam works like this. The player/cheater, (known as an “Agent” or an “A”), sits next to the dealer who is standing. The agent places a bet, but in actuality this is hollowed out and is just made to look like a real stack. If for example the agent bets a $50.00 bet (50 Rand)… a stack of five $10.00 chips. (There are also bettors wagering $100.00, Rand, chips on the game), and the bet wins, he gets paid like a normal bet would. The dealer is able to slip inside the hollowed out chip cups one hundred dollar chips. He then puts this chip cup on top of the10 dollar stacks. The agent, then, just exchanges to get his chip cup back. The "Agent" throws in $50 cash. The cash is dropped and the cheaters have netted 350 dollars. The real strength of the transaction with the chip cup is that the house has just won big bets from the players. Afterwards a relatively small amount, ($50.00 in london) is exchanged as a cash buy-in by a dealer and customer. One key element in the success of the Chip Cup scam at Sun City was the inside bit boss.. .(called Inspectors in Sun City).The Inspector was key to this scam because he controlled the dealer’s schedule. This particular pit boss designated which games the dealers would go to on arrival to start work, and which games they would go to on return from breaks. In effect, this one Inspector could send his crew of three (3) cheating dealers all to one game. The Inspector chose Baccarat games where the house was winning. This practice helped to disguise the activity as the bosses and surveillance were watching the Baccarat games where the house was losing. In addition, the floor man on the game was also in on the scam, and could alert the team if a non-member boss were to approach the table (again, in London) One other key element in the chip cup scam was a cage employee. This is because the cashier has control over the money being paid out and the agents were able to encash large amount without getting noticed. (At the time South Africa had a very strict currency transaction policy. Large cash outs should have been recorded and/or brought to the attention of upper management. In the end it would be the Currency Transactions outside the casino which would prove to be the downfall of the scam and its’ members. (Large amounts of online casino cash were being wired from a house in Rustenberg, a town right outside Sun City, to England.) Over the course of several months the London team was estimated to have removed between 2.5 and 3.5 million dollars from the Baccarat tables. The casino received a settlement from Lloyds of London of better than 2 million dollars. The exact amount of the insurance settlement was not disclosed. A formula of historic win versus the deflated win for those months was used to determine the amount of the insurance claim).
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