Entries from August 2008 ↓

Irish Student Exposes Gaming Cheats

Casinos didnt take long to develop a system to track card counting in Blackjack. Sucks to be a professional cheater.

An IRISH mathematician could help to clean up the world’s casinos after devising a system for detecting cheating in Blackjack, one of gambling’s most popular card games.

Wesley Cooper, a PhD student from Trinity College, Dublin, has created an automated surveillance system that can spot if a player is “counting” cards. Using “smart” video cameras and statistical analysis, Cooper’s system can build up a profile of players and spot anomalies during a game.

“Blackjack is beatable if you have a good maths brain,” he said. “At the moment, casino surveillance staff have to watch the tables and try to identify suspicious play using their experience and instincts. This system does the same job automatically using computer-vision techniques and algorithms.”

Nevada man gets 16 Years in Prison

Shooting people is stupid. Shooting people on video is even dumber.

A Nevada man was sentenced to 16 years in prison for shooting two people at Caesars Palace after a fight.

Richard Shepherd shot into the lobby as retaliation against a man who insulted his sister.

He admitted the shooting was quote — one of the stupidest things he’s ever done in his life.

The shooting was captured on casino security videotape.

Shepherd faced 40 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted murder charges.

The shooting wounded two people, neither of who was directly involved in the scuffle with Shepherd.

Source

Ex Regulatory lawyer now works for casinos

An ex Regulatory Board Lawyer now works for 3 casinos in Pennsylvania. Im guessing his insider information will only help those casinos smooze up to the regulatory and oversights board there in Pennsylvania.

Mexican police nab hitman in casino

In Tijuana, federal police chased a suspected hitman through the streets until pinning him in a local casino, where they scared the crap out of local and tourist gamblers forcing everyone to the floor before arresting the hitman gambling.

Mexican police say they chased a suspected drug cartel hit man through the streets of Tijuana and into a crowded casino, arresting him and an accomplice after hundreds of frightened gamblers were ordered to the floor.

Mexico’s federal Public Security Department said the suspects arrested Friday are believed to be Ruben Rios Estrada, a key gunman for the Arellano-Felix cocaine cartel, and Hector Manuel Mora Mendoza, another suspected gang member. They were flown to Mexico City under heavy guard, the agency said.

Cashier Killed in South African Casino

Africa is a violent place to live. Toss in casino work and you are bound to have a problem job. Take this gal for example.

A woman was killed in a robbery at Gold Reef City Casino south of Johannesburg, police said on Saturday.

“There was a robbery this morning at about 08:00 at Gold Reef City Casino…eight armed men disarmed a security guard of his firearm and communications radio and proceeded to the casino [which] they held up taking cash from the tills,” said police spokesperson Superintendent Thembi Nkwashu.

“Unfortunately a cashier was shot and fatally wounded…she was in her 30s.”

The robbers escaped with an undisclosed amount of money.

Police investigations are continuing.

Small Casinos inking big profits in Vegas

As Big Casinos have seen downturns because of the lagging economy smaller casinos are seeing budgeted growth patterns as a result of better management. Much of this is a result of keeping it simple and smart. Family friendly casinos off the beaten path that dont give away a lot of freebies are the ones seeing high end profits.

Part of the upswing experienced by some smaller properties is a function of the peculiarities of the business they are in rather than the discovery of a miraculous secret. Small casinos don’t have hotel rooms — first required for new casinos by Clark County in 1991 — and therefore cater to a narrower customer base of gamblers than bigger properties, which have more amenities.

3 Indian casinos coming to Ohio

State and Local officials in Ohio might have taken a golden pill and swallowed hard. Possibly allowing 3 new indian gaming casinos tax free permission to open in Ohio.

Instead of a single casino that generates $240 million for Ohio counties, the gambling measure on the November ballot could lead to three casinos that pay no state and local taxes, opponents of the measure said yesterday.

The gambling measure, designated as Issue 6, would provide a boost to an Oklahoma-based Indian tribe that’s been struggling for years to win federal approval to open one or more casinos in Ohio, the Vote No Casinos committee said.

If the Eastern Shawnee tribe succeeds, the wording of Issue 6 would allow the operators of the Clinton County casino to lower their tax rate from the 30 percent in the ballot measure to as little as zero. The measure states that if a second casino opened in Ohio, the original casino would pay “the lesser of the rate taxed on another casino or 25 percent.”

Casino thief headed to the bighouse

One former Canadian Casino employee who managed to hoodwink 11k dollars worth of loot out the front door has been sentenced.

A Casino Regina employee played a dangerous game of chance and inevitably lost when he stole almost $11,500 from his then-employer over an approximate one-year period.

Paul N. Novenski, 32, pleaded guilty to three counts of theft from his former workplace when he appeared in Regina Provincial Court on Tuesday.

Pittsburgh Casino Financing in place,finally

Pittsburghs big casino project finally has financing. Its about time. Now time to start pushing forward fast growth on this new casino.

After more than 18 months of false starts, the money is in place to build Pittsburgh’s casino, the new owners announced Tuesday.

The investment team that took control of the casino last week closed on more than $550 million in loans, said Dan Fee, spokesman for the owners. Workers returned to the North Shore construction site shortly before the deal was finalized and began preparing equipment idled at the end of June, when former owner Don Barden ran out of money.

“With the closing of the financing, we are excited to restart construction immediately and build and operate a world-class facility of which Pittsburghers can be proud,” said Greg Carlin, CEO of Holdings Acquisition, the company that will operate the casino. Carlin runs the casinos owned by Chicago billionaire Neil Bluhm, who leads the investment te

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Poker Cheating Scandal leaves a black mark on the industry

The recent Absolute Poker Scandal unearthed by Gambling911 is just sickening and leaves the whole industry with a nasty taste in its mouth.

It will be interesting to see if this story has a good ending. Its hard to know but im somehow guessing it wont.

A representative from Absolute Poker has denied that a story published on Gambling911.com spotlighting alleged poker cheat – Allan Grimard – has any validity.

“He (Allan Grimard) just bought a brand new Toyota Prado Land Cruiser,” a source told Gambling911.com. We were also advised that Grimard (also known as AJ Green) purchased a new yacht and was building a huge mansion in Los Suenos, Costa Rica.

“The listed ‘facts’ in the article mentioning AJ Green are not factual,” a spokesperson for Absolute Poker told Gambling911 on Tuesday.