Allegedly, a Craps dice Sliding team cheated its way to $226,948 at a Las Vegas casino. Was it cheating? Read all the juicy details here! (Image courtesy of Alexas Fotos on Pixabay) (Photo by Pixabay on Pexels)
After card counting and the continued good old casino cheating tricks like Roulette past posting, video slot chip board cheating, magnets in players’ fingers, and numerous other attempts to cheat at casinos, the latest scam pulled off by a team of four may leave you bemused.
Well, before I spill the beans, this story is maybe not quite as bizarre as a man implanting magnetic strips into his fingers to cheat at dice as reported in our Gambling Crime, Cheats, and Gossip news.
A team of Craps players briefly got away with sliding dice instead of rolling them. I use the term ‘briefly got away with’ because there are now arrest warrants issued, and they still have their $226,948 haul – at least for the moment anyway.
What makes this so bizarre is how the casino’s staff did not catch onto this trick. Especially when you compare the act of ‘sliding dice’ versus ‘card counting’. The latter is not easy to identify, but the eye in the sky still manages to spot these crafty blackjack mathematicians.
Players sliding dice seems much more of a straightforward act of deception to pick up. I mean these casino camera systems easily pick up on jackpot cheats opening video slots and plugging in chipboards, and they regularly spot players adding chips to the winning number on roulette after all bets are off (called past posting). Yet, sliding dice appear to have gone under one Las Vegas casino’s radar.
6-Figure scam: In the grand scheme of things the $226,948 is not much when you consider the MIT card counting team took the casinos millions of dollars back in the day. Nonetheless, it’s not bad work with an even split of 56,737 each for a couple of nights’ work in Vegas!
Timeline & Juicy Details of the $226,948 Scam
The team’s alleged elaborate scheme took place between 23 November 2021 and 1 December 2021. Therefore it appears they played over multiple days. And the casino in question is said to be the Cosmopolitan.
One of the most popular dice games in live casinos and land-based establishments is craps a.k.a. snake eyes. In land-based casinos players get to roll the dice while the croupier’s job is simply to collect the dice once the results are confirmed, call the next round of betting, and once again a player (shooter) then rolls again. This is what bemuses me, or at least makes me believe the croupier must have also been in on the act, is how he or she did not see the team sliding the dice. Also, aren’t there pit bosses? Anyway,
Where to play Craps Online: Evolution Gaming is currently the only live dealer brand to offer a live craps game. There are also a few versions of virtual craps available, one of those being First Person Craps also by Evolution.
Arrest Warrants Issued and Suspects Named
The team of four players are now being hunted by the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB). After the casino unveiled and reported the possibility of a scam, the NGCB immediately investigated and according to local news sources has confirmed it is now on the lookout for the four individuals in question.
The NGCB’s Enforcement Division has now named the four publicly and has officially issued arrest warrants. According to reports circulating in Las Vegas and on the gambling newswires in general, the suspects (all innocent until proven guilty I might add) are as follows:
- Hau Ngo
- Max Rappoport
- Oscar Rodriguez
- Antcharaporn Kamonlert
The Board detailed the warrants as being for “Cheating, Unlawful Acts Regarding Computers, and Conspiracy.”
NGCB’s chief of the Enforcement Division comments: Kristi Torgerson, applauded licensees for self-reporting suspicious activities. She emphasized that the Board would maintain its vigilance over the market and conduct robust investigations to preserve the integrity of the state’s gaming sector.
My Opinion
Ok so, I get it. However, did someone verbally read the rules of Craps to these guys? If not, I don’t see a crime has been committed here. If the croupier was not in on the act, then it was down to the casino to tell this team to ‘roll’ the dice and not ‘slide’ them. That said, this did happen on multiple occasions according to the timeline. If it was a one-off, I see no crime here and rather an oversight by the casino itself. But, hey, that’s just my opinion.
From another angle, I don’t know all the facts and it’s not like the NGCB releases all the juicy details or I would have them. It could be the team used a distraction technique, so the croupier missed the act of sliding the dice. This is the same trick ‘past posting’ cheats use when playing roulette. Plus, according to local reports covering the complaint, the team used signals/
Pretty tough to get away with this one I’d say. Hire a lawyer is my advice. Or if you are one of the players mentioned in the above list, I’d say any future trips to the USA are off the card (or dice) if you want to keep your loot!
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