High-Tech Russian Cheat Team Called The "James Bond Mafia"

TenPercenter · Tweet this Post! #1 06-29-2009, 08:29 PM

This is not at all news but i found it very interesting:

Thursday, November 06, 2008

New Details Revealed About High-Tech Russian Cheat Team Called The "James Bond Mafia"

russian camera in a stack of chips.jpg
That high-tech Russian casino cheating team I have recently written about has been active in Moscow and other casinos in Eastern Europe. In one Moscow casino, their team of Caribbean Stud Poker players had ingeniously hollowed out a stack of 100 dollar chips and incorporated a mini camera with battery, the signal was transmitted using blue tooth technology, in order to read the dealer's cards as they were being dealt from his hands, fortunately the scam was discovered before it even developed legs because the casino itself was deploying equal high tech equipment, in the form of mini camera scanners to discover this type of action. Russians and Ukrainians are leading the cheating world with this type of scam, in an even more recent coup a group of Russians were arrested in a casino in Northern Cyprus; their equipment was so high tech it led the press to dub the scammers the James Bond mafia.Labels: high-tech casino cheats

JM · Tweet this Post! #2 06-30-2009, 11:21 AM

interesting, looks like maybe they were using BJ chips there.

Not sure why they picked that game though, I'd think there's better money to be made at BJ or Let it Ride.

rogwadd · Tweet this Post! #3 06-30-2009, 11:59 AM

I think Caribbean Stud makes sense. With BJ or Let it Ride, you stil have remaining cards coming out. In Caribbean, the dealer needs at least AK to qualify. So right there, you'll know whether to bet or fold.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JM

interesting, looks like maybe they were using BJ chips there.

Not sure why they picked that game though, I'd think there's better money to be made at BJ or Let it Ride.

JM · Tweet this Post! #4 06-30-2009, 06:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rogwadd

I think Caribbean Stud makes sense. With BJ or Let it Ride, you stil have remaining cards coming out. In Caribbean, the dealer needs at least AK to qualify. So right there, you'll know whether to bet or fold.

Yeah but you don't make any money if the dealer doesn't qualify. With the others you can make more money (e.g. double down in bj or let it ride) or save money (surrender or pull back your bets). Just seems like if you're going to do it, may as well get the most bang for your buck. I'd go with LIR so I know if I am going to make my trips with a small pair or my str8 or flush draws.

Mistakenly · Tweet this Post! #5 06-30-2009, 06:46 PM

I'm pretty sure you win even money if the dealer fails to open.

Also, if you knew what the dealer had you could save yourself a bet every time you're beat.

What I can't work out is how the camera would see the dealer's cards. Imagine putting your head on the table and trying to eyeball what the dealer had. That's difficult enough. Then consider the fact that the quality of image from a camera that small would be pretty ordinary (not to mention all the bright lights contantly fooling the automatic exposure). I'd say this is a near impossible cheat to accomplish.

What I do find cool is the hollowing of stacks of chips. It'd be a great way to carry or hide a bankroll.

JM · Tweet this Post! #6 06-30-2009, 07:04 PM

Well the way its played here is you put up an ante and then if you want to play the hand, you put up a bet which is twice the ante. So the ante is gone each time you lose. If you play (put up your 2x ante bet) and the dealer doesn't qualify, you don't get paid on your bet, you take that back and get paid on the ante. Only if you beat the dealer's qualified hand do you get paid on the bet and then its only 1:1.

On LIR, you would end up betting the same amount (3 bets one at a time instead of 1 + 2 for ante + play) and can only lose the equivalent of the ante BUT the big difference is you get paid odds on your winning hands.

The other aspect here is that I believe the dealer gets 6 cards and uses the best 5 to make his hand (or is that caribbean draw?) so the camera has to see 5 or 6 cards. That's tough! Something like LIR you only need to see 2 cards, which seems like it'd be much easier to see on a tiny camera. Even 3 card poker would be better I think since you need to see just 3 there.

I"m wondering if they were just getting the kinks worked out playing this game before they moved on to the money maker games.