Electronic Roulette Cheating: Inside the Heist That Netted €60,000

Electronic roulette isn’t commonly a target of casino cheaters. After all, it operates electronically and is difficult to manipulate.

However, three people were recently arrested in Spain for cheating electronic roulette machines out of more than €60,000.

How did these cheaters pull this caper off and make so much money in the process? I’ll discuss the incident more in depth below along with how it stacks up to other famous roulette cheating episodes.

Casino Losses Put Investigators on the Trail

Real money casinos routinely monitor their wins and losses from different games. Given they always hold an advantage, they expect to make a certain amount of money from each type of game.

Gambling halls in Madrid, however, began noticing that they were losing far more than usual through electronic roulette. One of these gaming venues was so concerned about the matter than they contacted local police.

The head of the gambling hall in question explained to police that the losses were very suspicious. They cross-checked the matter with other Madrid casinos and found more non-typical roulette losses.

This case went to the National Police, who began investigating. They soon identified three suspects who were at the electronic roulette tables at the same times and dates as when the heavy losses happened.

The authorities also learned that the cheaters used a detailed method of canceling roulette machines’ alarms. They’d then move the plastic domes to tilt balls towards their favored pockets. Meanwhile, one of the players always distracted the casino manager as this was taking place.

Catching the Perpetrators in the Act

After identifying suspects, the National Police began the work of nabbing the suspects. This step proved difficult when considering that the perpetrators briefly fled to Morocco following each cheating run. They often moved around as well to make themselves more difficult to catch.

Nevertheless, the police were finally able to catch the men in the act. They busted the three cheaters as they were leaving a Madrid hotel room.

Authorities have since confiscated a vehicle used by the criminals. They’re also looking into the possibility that other parties may be involved.

In total, the con artists cheated 19 Madrid gambling halls out of over €60,000. This number is impressive when considering that it happened within a relatively short time period.

Other Famous Roulette Cheating Incidents

The story above is the first time that I’ve ever heard of electronic roulette games getting hit by cheaters. However, it’s far from the first cheating incident involving roulette. You can read about some other famed roulette cheating stories below.

Iowa Roulette Dealer and Supervisor Rip Off Their Own Casino

In 2016, an Iowa roulette dealer, his supervisor, and an accomplice player were busted for cheating. They cheated the Horseshoe Casino Council Bluffs out of between $20,000 and $30,000.

The player would add extra chips to winning bets and also place later wagers (a.k.a. past posting). The dealer and supervisor, meanwhile, turned a blind eye to this obvious cheating.

This trio might have fooled the Horseshoe Casino for a while, but they couldn’t trick a certain gambler. A random patron noticed the past posting and additional chips added to wins.

They then reported the matter to the Horseshoe’s management. The latter alerted the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) to the cheating.

DCI investigators went through hours of video surveillance to determine that dealer Jonathan Waugh, table games supervisor Jonathan Rumery, and gambler Cody Schroeder were scamming the casino.

Schroeder and Rumery were each charged with four felonies, which included cheating at gambling, criminal conduct, conspiracy, and first-degree theft. Waugh was only charged with one count of cheating.

Richard Marcus “Pinches” Bets

Richard Marcus is not only an infamous roulette cheater, but also one of the most notorious when it comes to cheating in the casino of all time. He and his team commonly used “pinching” and other techniques to rip off the tables.

Pinching is similar to past posting. It differs somewhat, though, by calling on gamblers to remove chips—rather than add them—from the table following spins.

Marcus used a more-elaborate pinching method than simply taking chips off the table. He’d place a $5,000 chip at the bottom of a stack of low-value chips.

Assuming the bet won, he’d leave the stack as it was. In the event of a loss, he’d use sleight of hand to switch out the $5k chip with a lower value.

European Gamblers Win £1.2 Million Through Cheating

After the Eudaemons team (legally) used roulette computers in the 1970s, gaming jurisdictions began banning electronic aids at roulette tables. The UK, however, didn’t get around to banning them until much later.

In 2004, a team comprising of two Serbian men and a Hungarian woman took advantage of the situation. The trio figured out how to beat the Ritz casino using a laser scanner and computer.

Through an elaborate system, they used these electronics to win £1.2million in just two visits. However, they attracted the attention of the Ritz’s security personnel when doing so.

Security eventually cracked the code on how the players won. They then contacted London police, who promptly arrested the gamblers and froze their winnings.

Prosecutors were unable to find any crimes committed, though, based on the UK’s gambling laws at the time. While the three gamblers would’ve broken laws in many other jurisdictions, they didn’t technically do anything wrong in London. Therefore, they were released and allowed to keep the £1.2m.

Al Capone’s Casinos Cheat Players

Players aren’t the only ones who’ve scammed roulette games. In the 1920s, the infamous gangster Al Capone ran a series of underground Chicago casinos that bilked gamblers.

It wasn’t until 2016, though, that Capone’s roulette cheating methods were uncovered. A game restoration expert in Surrey, UK discovered how the rigged tables worked.

Each table features four hidden buttons that were powered by batteries located in the table legs. The dealer could push any one of the four buttons to control a different leg. Depending upon which leg they activated, the table would move that way and, subsequently, nudge the ball in a different direction.

Pierre Dugal “Gaffes” Roulette Wheels Overnight

Pierre Dugal perhaps went further with his roulette scheme than anybody else in history. He literally hid in French casinos overnight during the nineteenth century to pull off his scam.

Dugal would visit the bathroom as a casino was getting ready to close down. He’d then hide in the bathroom and wait until the staff left for the evening.

A carpenter by trade, he’d come out of the bathroom with a set of tools that he’d previously stashed. Dugal used the tools to gaffe the wheels, which refers to the process of altering a wheel to favor certain pockets.

One way to gaffe wheels is by shaving down the frets in between pockets, thus improving the chances that the ball lands in them. Another example involves deadening certain pockets to boost the odds of the ball settling in them.

It’s unclear which exact method Dugal used. The point, though, is that he indeed gaffed wheels in some manner and won big in the process.

Dugal might have gotten away with the caper had it not been for his wife. She found out that he had a mistress and turned him in to the casino.

Monique Laurent Ignites the French Cigarette Pack Scandal

A beautiful French woman, Monique Laurent scammed casinos in the 1970s. This story began when Monique’s brother started dealing roulette tables at Casino Deauville.

She and her brother eventually devised a way to cheat roulette using a small radio transmitter. After putting a receiver in the ball, Laurent could effectively control where it landed with a high degree of accuracy.

The only problem is that Monique would clearly give herself away by holding the transmitter. The siblings found a way around this, though, by concealing the transmitter in a pack of cigarettes.

This setup effectively led to the French Cigarette Pack Scandal. Laurent, her brother, and her husband, who later got involved, netted $1 million through their cheating method.

Casino Deauville eventually became suspicious after losing so much money. But security couldn’t figure out exactly what was going on.

Monique’s beauty is what led to the team’s downfall, though. The casino’s owner flirted with her and was rejected.

He began paying even more attention to her afterward and noticed that she never actually smoked the pack of cigarettes. The owner had security confiscate her cigarette pack and investigate it.

They discovered the transmitter hidden within the pack. The trio was arrested but avoided prison time. They merely had to return the $1 million in winnings.

Monique Laurent, meanwhile, became quite infamous afterward. The French press called her “La Belle Voleuse,” which means “The Beautiful Thief” in English.

Conclusion

The €60,000 electronic roulette heist won’t go down as the most-famous roulette cheating incident ever. After all, it has heavy competition with the French Cigarette Scandal and European players using lasers.

However, it will certainly be known as one of the more-unique casino scams of all time. Again, this is the first story I’ve ever heard involving electronic table games.

In this situation, the cheaters figured out how to silence the machines’ alarms and move the plastic dome. They were effectively able to move the ball where they wanted it.

Their €60k prize certainly won’t be worth it in the end. They’ll no doubt be ordered to return the money and possibly do jail time.