A pair of gamblers have taken a French casino for hundreds of thousands of euros thanks to state-of-the-art technology that records cards as they are dealt, police have claimed.
The daring duo, arrested late last month in France‘s Val-d’Oise region just north of Paris, are said to be part of a criminal gang that has amassed huge winnings in casinos across Europe thanks to their imperceptible and highly technical approach.
In scenes reminiscent of a glitzy Hollywood blockbuster, the suspects – a 37-year-old Lithuanian and a 63-year-old Ukrainian – allegedly used two minuscule cameras to capture the moment the dealer pulled the cards from the card shoe.
With one lens concealed on the body of a smartphone and the other taped underneath a shirt, the players were able to snap low-angle pictures of each card.
The images were sent live to an accomplice outside the casino, who quickly checked the cards and relayed instructions back to the men at the table through a nearly invisible earpiece.
This complex scheme meant they were able to turn over France’s Enghien-les-Bains casino for a whopping €200,000 in a single night – and investigators believe they had performed similar feats in several establishments across the continent.
The daring duo, arrested late last month in France ‘s Val-d’Oise region just north of Paris, are said to be part of a criminal gang that has amassed huge winnings in casinos across Europe
The Eastern European men were nabbed on the night of July 28 as they relaxed in the Enghien-les-Bains resort – a decadent spa and entertainment destination of which the casino is a part.
Police claimed they received a tip-off about their activities in June and spent weeks surveilling the players, who rotated between poker and blackjack tables, before finally moving in for the arrest.
Stéphane Piallat, the head of France’s Central Service of Racing and Games (SCCJ), told French media the method used by the crew was previously ‘unknown in France and barely documented in Europe.’
‘They are seasoned gamblers with meticulously studied methods.’ said Piallat.
‘They’re not hoodlums mixed up in drugs or pimping. They’re clearly specialised in this type of crime,’ he said, adding that the miniature earpieces used by the pair to receive instructions could only be removed with a magnet, underscoring the sophistication of their operation.
‘It looks like they’ve been going from country to country, hitting casinos one after another, and then moving on. It’s what every gambler dreams of, winning big every time.’
With one lens concealed on the body of a smartphone and the other taped underneath a shirt, the players were able to snap low-angle pictures of each card as it was dealt
Neither of the detainees had criminal records, but searches of their persons and their hotel rooms uncovered fake IDs and multiple casino cards, suggesting to investigators they had likely refined their technique at several other casinos prior to being caught.
With the pair now in pre-trial detention and facing charges of ‘organised gang fraud,’ investigators are hoping they can uncover other gang members using the same techniques elsewhere.
‘Now that we’ve understood how they were going about it, we’re going to be able to warn casinos so that they can take measures to prevent this kind of cheating,’ Piallat concluded.
While the two gamblers were detained, police were unable to identify their accomplice who remains at large.
