Swindlers Target Asian Casinos

Asian casinos are the new target of cheats who leave no stone unturned to take the gambling world by surprise. Casinos in Asia generate billions of dollars each year and are, thus, an obvious target of cheats. Moreover, in a clear trend, the gaming industry in the Western world is stagnating, while in Asia casinos are generating impressive growth.

Asia – The New Gambling Hot Spot

The gaming revenues of the Las Vegas Strip grew by merely 4% in 2010 to hit US$5.8 billion. Revenues from the Atlantic City casinos declined by 10% to US$3.6 billion in the same period. Now consider this: The southern Chinese city of Macau witnessed consistent growth in the gambling industry, despite the global economic meltdown. This double digit growth is expected to continue at least till 2013. Macau is tinier than one-sixth of Washington DC, but its gambling revenue exceeds that of the Atlantic City and Las Vegas combined, as it stood at US$ 23.4 billion in 2010. Singapore and Vietnam are also becoming major players in the gaming industry. No wonder Asian casinos are now in the eye of storm.

The Philippines Swindling Case

A casino in the Philippines was targeted by cheats in May 2011 when a group of gamblers used a camera to track the sequence of a game. The incident happened in Paranaque city. One of the members hid the camera in his sleeves and filmed the sequence of cards in a deck. The film was then seen in slow motion by another gang member, who later returned to the baccarat table to win the game. This incident took the casino security by surprise, who otherwise keep a hawk eye on the visitors.

Swindlers Know All The Tricks

The bag of tricks never seems to be empty for cheats. Split chips, loaded dice, and reflective materials are some of the ways of taking an edge in gambling. Some of the other tricks include false shuffles, card palming, or even memorising a deck of gaming cards.

What’s the Solution?

Casinos are laying great emphasis on increasing their security set-up. Sophisticated technology is being employed to track swindlers who use their tricks to gain an unfair advantage in games. However, some of the casino swindlers who were never caught claim that it is next to impossible to have fool-proof security systems. One such man is Richard Marcus, who claims to have robbed casinos in the US of at least 20 million dollars over a period of more than two decades. Marcus’ viewpoint is that casinos rely heavily on technology which is not sufficient to spot cheats. He says that casinos must train their staff well to spot conmen. Marcus, who now works as a consultant for casinos, is of the view that every staff member in a casino must be extremely vigilant to fight the menace of casino swindlers.