Dealing With Casino Cheaters: Don’t Mess With The Mafia

Author: Johnny Blood [CC BY-SA 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

If you're dealing with casino cheaters, what should you do? Well, remember when the blackjack cheater in the movie "Casino" gets his hand smashed with a hammer? Then his partner is offered either the cash he "won" plus the hammer, or to leave with nothing. Back in the day, casinos didn't mess around when it came to dealing with casino cheaters.

Introduction: Dealing With Casino Cheaters: Don't Mess With The Mafia

In July 2014, Mark William Branco and Bellagio co-worker James Russell Cooper Jr. were arrested and charged with cheating the Bellagio out of over $1 million by using "hop" bets whilst playing craps. Should of played from home withVegas Crest Casino. Essentially these two craps dealers were posting winning numbers after the dice landed. Their efforts got prison time and a banning from every casino in the US. At least they kept all their fingers. Or didn't end up with their heads in a vice. A few years ago, in the 1960's and 1970's, things might not of turned out quite so well for them.

Give Me A Hand

The scene in Casino sees the black jack player punished for cheating in a way typical of the mafia of that period. But thinking about it, you'd have to be nuts to try and steal from the casino. Virtually all gambling joints of the time were mafia owned and operated. If you were cheating, then you were stealing directly from the mafia. And that's never gonna end well. Better to hang onto both your hands and play these online casino sites in the US.

Permanent Home In The Desert

A gaming protection expert, Max Rubin, who works exclusively with the Barona Resort & Casino near San Diego, says that's how it was back in the day. Calling it "cheater's justice", use of the hammer on the hand was the way things were dealt with. "Back then if you stole a million-and-a-half dollars, you would disappear. If you stole a few hundred thousand, you might get chained to a wall and beaten". Everyone knows that the desert is filled with unknown graves. As there were no specific laws relating to cheating, then the casino bosses decided the punishment and security handed it out. Max remembers a dealer who was stealing chips. "He was in a basement for three days, supposedly without water. He got a beating everyday, and then they threw him out into the street.”

A Bullet Or A Beating?

The owner of the now de-funct Binion's Horseshoe Casino, Ted Binion is clear, "Don’t get caught, whether or not you’re breaking the law.” He recalls looking down at the tables and seeing a cheater. He took out his pistol to shoot him there and then. Luckily security convinced him not to go down that route, but still dragged the poor sap into the street and beat him unconscious. Lots of shit went down in those days. It was nothing personal. Just business. Luckily that can't happen today when you play with these online gambling sites in the US.

Dealing with Casino Cheaters: Getting Soft

Max Rubin looks at the present way of dealing with casino cheaters and card counters and shakes his head. Today, you'll get prosecuted and maybe will pay a fine or do some jail time.“It took more balls to be a cheater in the old days, but, as long as you didn’t get assassinated in your driveway or have your jaw broken on the street, the old way was arguably better. Guys would rather get beat than have the cops come in and wind up in jail. Bones heal. Police records are forever.” Maybe it's better to play from the safety of your living room sofa on Vegas Crest Casino. But the real game is how cheating is always ahead of discovery. As these Russian hackers have discovered. As Rubin says, looking back on his many years in the industry, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen casino cheating on the decline.”