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London Scams

Casino Scams in London

“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 have been personally involved in the 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 Las Vegas, or casinos in the U.S., the chip cup scam is normally attempted on a crap table. This is because the dealers stack chips straight up in front of them on a crap table, as opposed to laying them down in a table rack, as in a 21 game. (Chips stacked straight up in front of a dealer makes it much easier for the chip cup to be placed over the chips.) 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...called “Punter -Banco”. 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 the hollowed empty “Chip Cup” on the layout as a bet. It looks, to all intents, like 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). If the bet wins the dealer/cheater simply pays the bet as he would any legitimate bet, by stacking five $10.00 chips next to the “Chip Cup”. What the cheaters really want is for the bet to lose.., that’s how the cheaters really win. When the bet loses the dealer/cheater picks up the empty chip cup and in the process of picking up losing $100.00 chips he secretly slips the chip cup over four (4) one hundred dollar chips. (There are now four (4) $100.00 chips hidden inside the Chip Cup.) As the dealer begins to put the chips away he makes sure the chip cup remains on top of the stack of $10.00 chips. The player/cheater then simply “Buys” the loaded chip cup back from the dealer/cheater. The “Agent” throws in $50.00 cash. The cash is dropped and the dealer/cheater hands the loaded “Chip Cup” back to the “Agent” as change. The cheaters have netted $350.00. (The loaded chip cup cost $50.00 to buy... but it had $400.00 inside.) 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 Punter-Banco games where the house was winning. This practice helped to disguise the activity as the bosses and surveillance were watching the Punter-Banco games where the house was losing. In addition, the floorman 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 senior cage cashier allowed the agents to cash out considerable sums of money without question. (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 Punter-Banco tables. (I personally polygraphed about fifty employees to determine the extent of the scam for insurance purposes. 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).