A blackjack dealer and two men have been summoned for gaming fraud, while the suspect is at large for jumping a craps table in El Cortez in Las Vegas and stealing $19,100 worth of chips. [Image: Shutterstock.com]
Collusion with a blackjack dealer
There is an easy way to steal money from the casino and there is a hard way. We’ll let you decide which one. Let’s start in Buffalo, New York, whose residents celebrate the opening-day victory of the NFL for their bills, who started the season Thursday night by tearing down the reigning Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams. On the same day, two people were brought to Buffalo City Court on fraud charges.
Dealer Emily Torres was showing them her cards, giving them a huge advantage
Mark M. Watson Jr. and Rahat Hussain had a great night at the blackjack table at Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino on August 14 (bleeding through August 15) and won thousands of dollars. However, it turned out that this was not just good luck on their part – they had internal help. Dealer Emily Torres would show them her cards, giving them a huge advantage and making them nearly impossible to lose. Their transgressions were spotted in security footage and they were arrested within a day.
All three were charged with first-degree gaming fraud, which is a felony. Watson has already paid the casino in full, a total of $5,287.50. Hussein paid $2210.
The hearing for Torres and Watson will take place on October 12. Hussein, who pleaded not guilty in the August 30 trial, will hold his hearing on October 6.
Supermarket sweep style
Was this the easy way or the hard way? Read the following before you decide. On the morning of September 6, just before 7 a.m. local time, a man jumped at the gambling table at the El Cortez Casino in downtown Las Vegas, rushed into the casino bank in front of the ticket box, and received $19,100 in chips.
Thanks to the security footage obtained from the screen Scott Robin in Vital Vegas, we can see that any description of what happened was not an exaggeration. The man literally lay across the table on a diagonal right thigh on one rail, his hands sweeping away as many chips as he could catch. Honestly, it would have been nice if he didn’t take the players chips, although he might have spoiled some of the bets.
What’s crazy to me is that the thief escaped, and he’s running out of there with a handful of chips. Then again, security probably knew it wasn’t worth chasing after them and risking their safety. This is because….
Good luck spend it
… It is unlikely that the suspect will be able to turn these chips into cash, at least not so many of them. The chips are worth nothing until they are actually exchanged for real money at the cashier and since the guy appears in the video, the casino will almost certainly recognize him. He probably knows that too, so it’s highly unlikely that he’d risk getting caught by going back to El Cortez and trying to make money from the stolen chips.
When I told her about this incident, my wife asked if the suspect could just be a friend exchanging chips. I think it is possible, but it will be difficult. Spending the whole amount in one go would be a no-go – El Cortez knows the amount stolen, so it would just be to say, “Hey, arrest me!”
Many casinos now have RFID tags in their chips so that they can be rendered useless if stolen. The casino will know which chips have been taken and disable them so they are not cashed. El Cortez does not have RFID chips, which could be a reason for suspect targeting this casino.
And if it’s a good chunk of the distance, a red flag will be raised if it’s just some random sniffles coming from the street. Same with frequent small exchanges – it would be weird for someone to do this, especially without spending the time gambling, so the casino will investigate.
The only possibility, perhaps, is that a friend will exchange very small amounts of chips for money over a long period of time, with trips to the casino spaced out several months. Mayyybe It might work, but casinos are 10 steps ahead of us all in terms of security which I doubt is even an option.
