The most famous scam artists in gambling industry
Gambling has always been a target for scammers who wanted to get rich by “breaking the system”. In this article we will talk about the schemes that in theory just look perfect, but in practice almost always work against attackers who intend to take their winnings and soon to hide from the guardians of the law.
Bill Brennan uncovered mystery
September 22, 1992, a guy named Bill Brennan came out of Stardust Casino in Las Vegas. He had been working here for a long time, had a good reputation among managers and did not arouse suspicion among security personnel.
That was the last time he was seen within the walls of a famous casino. Bill just disappeared. $500 000 in cash and chips went missing along with him. No one could find them till this day. That’s how one of the greatest mysteries about the Las Vegas gambling business was born.
Bill was a cashier at a bookmaker’s office that worked at Stardust Casino. He was described as a neat, calm young man who didn’t stand out from the crowd. Richard Saber, the sweepstakes manager, was a colleague of Brennan’s. They had worked alongside each other for a long time, but Richard knew almost nothing about Bill. Brennan didn’t have a girlfriend or any close friends. In fact, nobody saw Bill taking money and chips out of the casino walls.
Lieutenant Joe Greenwood said:
“I think he came out of the casino without being seen by the security cameras.”
When the casino authorities filed a robbery report with the police, the cops immediately rushed to Brennan’s rental apartment. It was empty. The manager of Judy Pope didn’t know anything about the tenant moving out. She called Bill “just a good guy” and couldn’t add anything to the criminal’s description.
There was no hint of where Brennan might have gone. What’s more, it turns out he has virtually no relatives. He wouldn’t let any of them know about him. Brennan’s pet wasn’t in the apartment. Apparently, he took the cat with him.
Stardust sweepstakes manager Scotty Schettler hired Brennan and was his direct supervisor for a long time. He remembered that the guy had high hopes, but then changed not for the better:
“He was influenced from the outside, and his attitude to work changed. He desperately wanted to become an inspector. But because of this change, I couldn’t trust him with all that money.”
Richard Saber thinks that Brennan got involved with a bad company:
“We had a betting client we didn’t trust. He was a dark man. He disappeared from the face of the earth just a couple months before Bill disappeared.”
Later, coworkers began to remember seeing Brennan’s books on how to change identities and start new lives. A lot of people think that the guy got mixed up with the criminal world and was forced to commit a crime. He may have been blackmailed and forced to steal money and then killed to get rid of a witness and not share a share with him.
Saber assumes that Brennan may have gone abroad. Probably to Mexico or Canada. But the more likely version is that Bill was killed by a mysterious partner that the police were also unable to reach. Neither in his home state of Pennsylvania nor anywhere else in the United States has Bill been seen.
Theoretically, another criminal could have robbed the casino, who then got rid of Bill in order to direct the investigation on the false trail. This version was also considered by the police, but reached an impasse. Now the robbery case has been closed, but it could be reopened at any time if new evidence or leads come forward.
Bill Brennan’s name is on the list of the most dangerous criminals: Most Wanted List by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, The One America’s Most Wanted List.
Tommy Carmichael — legendary slot machine hacker
Tommy was born in the 1950s and since childhood was actively interested in electronics and modern technology, surprising his parents and teachers with remarkable knowledge and original inventions. In the 1980s, Carmichael began selling and repairing television sets in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His shop, Ace TV Sales and Service, was the first specialized facility in the city. At first, it thrived, but as competition became more intense, things went down.
Tommy’s life was complicated by problems with the law. He had to attend community service, which the judge sent him to because of drug possession. Three divorces didn’t improve his financial situation either. In short, Carmichael was in dire need of money.
When he was desperate, a school buddy Ray Ming, who lived in Las Vegas, came to see him. The undisputed guest had fundamentally changed Carmichael’s life. Ray called Tommy to the car, opened the trunk and showed him a small Bally slot machine. But the main surprise was a classic slot cracker known as the top-bottom joint. Later his invention will be attributed to Carmichael, but this tool was used by cheaters from the very first years of slot machines.
It’s a simple device consisting of a steel ring and a guitar string. With its help cheaters at the right time to close the electrical circuit in the slot machine, forcing it to calculate payments. Ray couldn’t use it. He was hoping that a technically savvy friend could figure out the nuances of a technique that promises huge profits.
Carmichael took apart the video slot to learn how it worked. Having mastered the theoretical part, he started training for hours. Soon Tommy was ready to put his skills to the test, and his friends went to Las Vegas.
For the practice, Tommy chose a small casino outside the Las Vegas Strip. He sat down for a slot machine and quickly scored thirty five dollars. Having dared, Carmichael went to more solid casinos, giving preference to more and more expensive machines. A primitive device combined with clever hands brought him up to one thousand dollars an hour. By the end of the weekend, he was almost ten thousand dollars rich.
For the next few years, Carmichael was touring the casino. He was ripping off places, perfecting tools and inventing new tricks. From time to time, the police paid attention to him, but they lacked the evidence to bring him to justice. Over time, large institutions began to introduce more sophisticated machines everywhere that were protected against this type of fraud. Tommy was forced to move into cheaper gambling houses that were not keeping pace with progress.
In small casinos, it was harder to get lost in the mass of customers, which played a cruel joke on him. The police tracked down the cheat and started following him, collecting evidence. In 1985, cops detained Tommy in a parking lot outside Denny’s. Carmichael couldn’t even get rid of the evidence. They found a top-bottom point in his jacket pocket. The cheat tool was the main evidence during the trial.
Tommy didn’t run out of probation for drug possession, so he couldn’t get away with it. He went to jail. At Tommy Carmichael prison, he met Michael Balsamo, who was serving his sentence on the same charge. The guys were not going to get better and did not plan to give up profitable activities in the future. They didn’t waste time in the bunk and planned how they would cheat the casino after they were released.
Later the accomplices came to the conclusion that their previous methods were outdated. Modern video slot production technologies did not allow primitive mechanical devices to interfere with the machines. Even small casinos passed slot machines that functioned on microprocessors and random number generators.
Thanks to Tommy, the arsenal of scammers was expanded with a device that went down in the history of casino scams called “light wand”. He invented it after visiting the IGT product show. An unsuspecting employee of the company opened the video slot, demonstrated its internal device and explained the principles of all modules.
Carmichael bought this model. Next, a technically savvy crook had no problem figuring out a way to hack into the slot machine. He made a primitive device by attaching a tiny flashlight to a piece of steel wire. Tommy injected it into the body of the machine and a beam of light dazzled the optical sensor, forcing the slot to issue coins.
Together with Michael Balsamo and several other accomplices, he visited most casinos in Las Vegas, Atlantic City and other cities where gambling establishments worked. Their circuitry worked like clockwork without malfunctioning. While his partners were distracting security and administration, Tommy was successfully hacking into the slot machines.
Carmichael’s group thrived for four years. The first alarm bell was heard on October 4, 1996, when they visited Circus Circus Casino. Tommy didn’t notice the hidden camera and got caught in the heat when he was hacking into the video slot with a “light wands”. He managed to get rid of the evidence when he was arrested, so the cops had to let him out in 24 hours.
Ever since then, they’ve been trying to track him down with casino security. In 1998, he was detained again, but he escaped punishment again. And then the FBI took over.
Tommy is now in Nevada’s black book. He’s not allowed at the casino. The Nevada Gaming Board has put him on the list of the most dangerous people for the gambling industry.
But Carmichael himself says he doesn’t want any more trouble with the law:
“There’s plenty of time for reflection in prison. You think about what you’ve done, mistakes and how to fix them. You either realize everything, or at least you’re getting better.”
The Ritz Casino scam
London Ritz Casino is one of the most expensive, famous and fashionable establishments in the British capital. Looking at its exquisite interior and a solid audience, it is hard to believe that such a luxurious gambling house was a victim of scam artists.
It all began with the fact that the three players who made a big score, suspected of roulette fraud. According to the administration, they used miniature computers to determine winning numbers. The investigation was conducted by the best detectives of the legendary Scotland Yard, who unanimously recognized the case as incredibly complex and confusing. Let’s try to figure out what happened.
The defendants in the case were three gamblers: two men from Serbia and one woman from Hungary. In 2004, when the described events took place, they were between thirty-two and thirty-eight years old.
In March, they twice visited the Ritz Casino, where they invariably played roulette. The first night brought them a hundred thousand pounds, and the second round was even more productive — 1 200 000 pounds. They say they were paid only £300 000 in cash at the time, and they were given a receipt for the rest.
Suspecting a problem, the management of Ritz casino called Scotland Yard employees. The police detained three people in a hotel room, where they also seized a large sum of money and mobile phones. Just a few days later, the suspects were released on bail. Then an investigation began, which shed some light on the details. So, the attackers (in any case, they were considered to be casinos) acted as follows:
- Laser scanners were built into their cell phones, which could read the speed of the roulette;
- In addition, the laser recorded the speed of the ball launched by the dealer on the track. It was set when the ball made two laps;
- This data was transmitted to a computer. It calculated the ball’s trajectory and compared it with other parameters;
- It was almost impossible to calculate the exact number, but it was possible to determine the sector in which the ball was supposed to stop. This information was enough to gain significant advantage over the casino;
- The data was transmitted to the members of the group, who made the appropriate bets, closing chips numbers from the specified segment of the roulette wheel;
All necessary calculations were made by the computer in just a few seconds, which allowed the scammers to act quickly and smoothly.
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