The sting: did gang really use a laser/phone/computer to take the Ritz for [View All]

£1.3 million?


Steven Morris
Tuesday March 23, 2004
The Guardian

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Detectives are investigating claims that a gang used a laser scanner hidden in a mobile phone and linked to a computer to help beat the roulette wheel. Two men and a woman were able, it is claimed, to place their bets in the area the computer had pinpointed as the ball's most likely resting place. Scotland Yard sources yesterday described the case as "extremely complex". Specialised detectives from the Met's serious and organised crime group are working hard to puzzle out how the alleged scam might have worked. It is a sign of how untested this area of gambling is that no one can say whether an offence has been committed. The laws which cover gaming date back to the mid 19th century - when the possibility of such sophisticated scams were undreamed of.

It is understood that the three suspects, two Serbian men aged 38 and 33, and a 32-year-old Hungarian woman, made two visits to the casino earlier this month. On the first night they walked out with £100,000. They returned on a subsequent evening and appeared to disprove Albert Einstein's conclusion - that the only way to win on roulette was to pocket the money when the dealer was not looking - by walking out with £1.2m. The casino is believed to have paid them £300,000 in cash and written out a cheque for the balance. But, as is routine when such big wins occur, the casino reviewed its security tapes and called in the police. Scotland Yard confirmed that when police arrested the three at a hotel they seized a "significant quantity of cash". Officers are also thought to have confiscated a number of mobile phones. The three were bailed until the end of the month.

It is thought the gang's success may have been based on a theory known as "sector targeting". The theory is relatively simple. A player determines the point at which the ball is released and the point it passes after one or two spins. He or she can use these figures to calculate the ball's "decaying orbit" and so anticipate the area of the wheel - or sector - the ball is likely to come to rest in. The system cannot reliably predict the slot the ball is likely to fall in but by determining the sector greatly sways the odds in the favour of the punter. The problem is that it is almost impossible to do such a calculation using mental arithmetic.
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More:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,2763,1175810,00.html