Casino Cheating Ring Caught

I hadn't heard about this anywhere else and I find stories like this very interesting. The scheme involved an estimated 18 casinos and netted an estimated $3 million.

The scheme began around March 2002. According to federal prosecutors, members of the Tran Organization bribed pit bosses and recruited card dealers, paying them up to $1,000 a day to "false wash and shuffle" cards so that groups of cards would remain in the same order. In the game, eight card decks are typically used and dealt from a rack called a "shoe." The "false shuffle" allowed players involved in the scam to know when to place big bets so they could win several consecutive hands as the group of unshuffled cards was dealt back into play.

I bet as the whole story comes out that the scheme failed either because of a stupid mistake by the gang or they got greedy and went back to the well once too often.

I also found this interesting:

Jacob Nickels, the 25-year-old son of Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and former pit boss at the Nooksack River Casino, is among those named in the indictments for allegedly accepting a $5,000 bribe to participate in a plot that cheated that casino out of $90,000.

Normally when a politician is mentioned - his party affiliation is noted except when that politician is a Democrat and he is connected to "bad news". When I saw that no (R) or (D) was noted - I just knew Greg Nickels was a Democrat (and he is). It is so predictable.