Bellagio Craps Scheme

Posted on4/3/2022by admin

Former Bellagio dealer gets 2 to 5 years for craps scheme James Cooper, charged in the million-dollar Bellagio craps scheme, leaves the courtroom after his plead was postponed for next week during. LAS VEGAS - A former Bellagio craps dealer and two friends have been sentenced to at least four years each in prison for using phantom bets to cheat the Las Vegas Strip casino out of more than $1. For nearly two years, a pair of Bellagio craps dealers and two friends stole more than $1 million off the tables, prosecutors said Wednesday. The dealers, Mark M. Branco, 42, and James R. Cooper Jr., 43, along with Jeffrey D. Martin, 38, and Anthony G. Granito, 49, were indicted on dozens of counts of cheating at gambling and theft, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney J.

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lilredrooster

Bellagio Bandit: How One Man Robbed Vegas’ Biggest Casino and Almost Got Away Tony Carleo stole $1 million in chips – then checked himself into casino’s hotel to live like a king. The last defendant in a $1 million craps cheating scheme at Las Vegas’ Bellagio casino has been sentenced to prison. According to a report from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, former craps dealer.

I think this is how it worked: they mumbled 'hops' and some numbers. if the bet won the dealer who was in on it paid. if it didn't the dealer pretended he didn't hear it. according to the report the Bellagio did not have a designated spot for hops bets
https://www.foxnews.com/us/two-men-placed-on-nevadas-black-book-after-running-con-at-bellagio-casino

𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘵: 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵............. ᴍᴀʀᴋ ᴛᴡᴀɪɴ

Nathan

I think this is how it worked: they mumbled 'hops'. if the bet won the dealer who was in on it paid. if it didn't dealer pretended he didn't hear it. according to the report the Bellagio did not have a designated spot for hops bets
https://www.foxnews.com/us/two-men-placed-on-nevadas-black-book-after-running-con-at-bellagio-casino

You Cad. I was thinking of mentioning this thing first crack as soon as I saw it in Google Trending, but I forgot and you best me to the punch. ;)

In both The Hunger Games and in gambling, may the odds be ever in your favor. :D 'Man Babes' #AxelFabulous 'Olive oil is processed but it only has one ingredient, olive oil.'-Even Bob, March 27/28th. :D The 2 year war is over! Woo-hoo! :D I sometimes speak in metaphors. ;) Remember this. ;) Crack the code. :D 8.9.13.25.14.1.13.5.9.19.14.1.20.8.1.14! :D 'For about the 4096th time, let me offer a radical idea to those of you who don't like Nathan -- block her and don't visit Nathan's Corner. What is so complicated about it?' Wizard, August 21st. :D

darkoz

Quote: lilredrooster

You Cad. I was thinking of mentioning this thing first crack as soon as I saw it in Google Trending, but I forgot and you best me to the punch. ;)
Sounds like that old story
The Rooster and the Hare

darkoz

That cant be how it worked. In fact they may have gotten away with it if it worked like that
The article said the casino noticed the high odds bets were paid off quite more than the odds expected. This sounds like they were being paid regardless of valid result
Otherwise the defense would be they got paid when they won - check the tapes
The scam seems to be they mumbled the wager so the pitboss and other legit dealers couldnt hear it. The Confederate dealer paid the result claiming that he heard the wager being made
The table not having a hops bet location to place the chips made the dealers verification of what he heard the key to the scam

For Whom the bus tolls; The bus tolls for thee

Joeman

Quote: lilredrooster

You Cad. I was thinking of mentioning this thing first crack as soon as I saw it in Google Trending, but I forgot and you best me to the punch. ;) Don't feel too bad Nathan, it looks like MathExtremist beat you both by 2 1/2 years!
I guess the news is them making it into the Black Book..

FleaStiff

The collusion was long ago but computers keep track of who was on duty and usually ALL crew members get canned which is why dealers keep eyes and ears open.
Benny Binion of long ago had the right idea. He had a box man who was quite deaf and another who was quite blind, so he had them sit double box... nothing got past them.
Anyone read the utterly absurd comments from the gambling public who just did not grasp the situation

FleaStiff

Some people thought the bet offered would not pay off except once in 450MM times, some thought lotteries offered a better payout. total ignorance.

Wizard
Administrator

Interesting. I'll follow the story, but not much to go on yet.

Casino officials became aware of the con in 2014 after noticing several bets that won despite 452 billion-to-1 odds, according to the Review-Journal.

What is this bet in craps with 452 billion to 1 odds? That is like rolling a yo seven times in a row.
I will be on the Strip tonight and try to confirm the statement that the Bellagio had nowhere to put hop bets, but I'm immediately skeptical. Hopefully one of the big craps players on the forum can comment, but if you catch me making a hop bet, other than in a tournament, then please just put a bullet in the head, which is why I don't know the procedure of how they are handled, if there are not the little circles for them I see on most tables.
I've said this several times, but from my time at the Venetian I learned that what most staff on the floor found more annoying than advantage play and outright cheating was shot takers. People that make an ambiguous bet or decision and then argued if the result didn't go their way. It sounds like they were doing something like this, aided by a confederate dealer, but about the details, I don't know but am interested.
Let's keep this topic going.

It's not whether you win or lose; it's whether or not you had a good bet.

FleaStiff

it is obviously a poorly written article and most definitely a poorly understood one.
its 'this guy made xnumber of hop bsts and won them all.....the odds are 'collusion'.

FleaStiff

Of course there is the famous guy who called out fifteen on some bet, perhaps an odds bet and the dealer intoned fifty prompting a rebuke from the player who was of course an idiot since the bet had hit.

Bellagio Craps Scheme App

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I don't know how the scam worked in exact detail, but assuming it was done over many sessions...the player doesn't have to win every bet. He doesn't even have to win half. Or a quarter. Or even 10% of them. He could be betting 'legitimately' most of the time, but every now and then, turn a losing bet into a winning bet. Being a boxman on a busy table, it can be pretty tough to keep up on the action if someone's routinely making hop bets for different numbers especially without a place to put the bets. IME, at least with a lazy boxman, box basically just lets the dealer handle it and doesn't care what's going on.
You have a guy who (theoretically) is betting $500 on the passline with max odds, maybe some place bets, those couple hundred dollar bets on hop-bets don't really seem all that important. You got other people at the table also betting several hundreds or thousands. You're not going to notice he's winning way more than expected, because a bulk of his wins/losses (normally) may come from his regular bets like pass/odds/place bets....at least not in a day-to-day analysis or short term. But long term, you'll see it.

FleaStiff

Whatever was happening obviously came to the attention of someone and the casino had to go thru miles and miles of tape to manually assemble a record.
I'm sure there was some cover betting but probably not enough.

Wizard
Administrator

I do not know what bet that is and your 7 times in a row yo seems too low than 452 billion

I said it was like rolling seven yo's in a row, not exactly the same probability. However, for the perfectionists of the forum, it is like rolling a yo 6.895027494 times in a row.
I was at the Bellagio briefly last night but forgot to check the craps tables. However, I did check one at the Park MGM (same company) and it did have spots for hop bets. However, I think this is not the issue.
A non-forum member told me the gist of the scam was, as mentioned by others, taking ambiguous verbal bets, called 'call' bets, when they won and ignoring them when they lost. I thought most casinos had a policy of no call bets, for exactly the reason exposed in this scam.
In the movie Rain Man there is a scene where Raymond makes a large call bet in roulette, that I don't think would have been accepted at most casinos.

It's not whether you win or lose; it's whether or not you had a good bet.

AxelWolf

This isn't the first time we heard about this story, There must have been another thread talking about this when it first happened.

♪♪Now you swear and kick and beg us That you're not a gamblin' man Then you find you're back in Vegas With a handle in your hand♪♪ Your black cards can make you money So you hide them when you're able In the land of casinos and money You must put them on the table♪♪ You go back Jack do it again roulette wheels turinin' 'round and 'round♪♪ You go back Jack do it again♪♪

SiegfriedRoy

When I'm taking care of the dealers at the craps table, sometimes the dealers conveniently hear or don't hear my call bets in my favor. That's huge EV+.

FCBLComish

A non-forum member told me the gist of the scam was, as mentioned by others, taking ambiguous verbal bets, called 'call' bets, when they won and ignoring them when they lost. I thought most casinos had a policy of no call bets, for exactly the reason exposed in this scam.

The 'NO CALL BETS' on a craps table specifically is for people who call out bets when there are not enough chips in the rail to cover the bet.
These players had plenty of chips in the rail.
Craps bets are booked verbally all the time. To correctly book a bet, the dealer needs to repeat 3 pieces of information: The bet, the amount, and player. Example 'easy 6 hopping for $5 each, next to stick'
What was happening in the scam was the player would drop some cheques on the layout, and the dealer would point at him and say 'BET'. Yes, the other dealers on the crew, and the supervisor were in on the scam. They picked their spots where there were no other personnel around at the time. There would also be other things going on to get the floor supervisor away from the game, like a large buy-in on the other side of the pit, or a girl in a low cut top shooting the dice.
They only need to do this a couple times per session to have a huge advantage.

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FCBLComish

When I'm taking care of the dealers at the craps table, sometimes the dealers conveniently hear or don't hear my call bets in my favor. That's huge EV+.

Huge EV+ and also cheating.......

Beware, I work for the dark side.... We have cookies

SiegfriedRoy

Huge EV+ and also cheating.......

I always do the right thing and drop my chips to pay for my lost call bet, but sometimes if the dealer says he didn't hear anything and refuses to take it front of the Pit, who am I to argue?

Bellagio Craps Scheme Rules

Wizard
Administrator

When I'm taking care of the dealers at the craps table, sometimes the dealers conveniently hear or don't hear my call bets in my favor. That's huge EV+.

I would call it cheating. Scheme

It's not whether you win or lose; it's whether or not you had a good bet.

billryan

I would call it cheating.

I agree, but what would you do?
Recently, I was playing, occasionally tipping but enjoying the dealer, who was entertaining the table. I have a $25 bet out. My 18 loses to the dealer but the dealer calls it a drawer. We locked eyes and it certainly seemed like he was telling me it was not an accident.

Bellagio Craps Scheme Meaning

Do you correct him?

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