One of the greatest gambling scams of all-time did not take place at a poker table but it was certainly hatched on one. Believe it or not, it happened onboard the Titanic, the night before the great ship hit the iceberg. The guy who pulled it off went down with the vessel, but before dying he recounted the scam to a young stowaway while they lay clinging to a life raft in the icy waters of the North Atlantic. The first thing the bowled over lad did upon his rescue was to tell anyone else who’d listen.
Among Europe’s elite and wealthy on the passenger manifest for that fateful voyage was a good old Anglo-Saxon con artist. His name was Piers Mason and he was as dashing and charming as they came. He travelled with a well-heeled and very attractive woman named Isabel, who for some reason resented the upper crust of society and liked teaming up with Mason to rip off its elegant members.
Mason was quite aware of the roster of fortune holders making that historical crossing and wasn’t about to miss it for the world. He had called in all his markers and then begged, borrowed and stole every penny of front money he could without knowing exactly how he’d use it on the ship. The one part of his plan he was sure of was that removing those rich pigeons from their money had to be done through some form of gambling.

Read the rest of the story over at Richard Marcus Books.

Here is a bit more history:
First, they noticed that a lot of Americans liked to gamble. It was hard not to notice this, since many people would go to the reservations for their games. They did that because a majority of states (Nevada and New Jersey are notable as exceptions) have strict laws regulating or forbidding gambling, whether casino based or private games.

Second, the tribal leaders began to realize that their reservations were islands of legal gambling within the states. To take one example, Michigan simply forbade casino gambling until the mid-1990s. To take advantage of this, the tribes on the Isabella Indian Reservation, near Mt. Pleasant, built the Soaring Eagle Casino: a first-class resort hotel and casino, complete with five-star restaurants and spas. Soaring Eagle is only a few hours north of metropolitan Detroit, and is a well known vacation destination in Michigan and Ohio.

The final thing the tribal leaders saw was the sheer quantity of money to be made from operating casinos. This writer has been to the Isabella Reservation; casino profits have paid for new school buildings, fire and police stations, emergency vehicles, and an ambulance service. Verified tribal members are entitled to a percentage of annual profits, as well. The reservation can set its own gaming regulations, and pays no taxes to state for Federal governments.

The effects, both positive and not
Most tribes within the US made the same realizations, and Indian casinos have popped up all over. The income from them has permitted tremendous improvements in the standard of living at most reservations. Several of the tribes used their unique regulatory status to get around Federal regulations and enter the Internet gaming market, as well. Canada, with a similar history to the US, is home to the Kahnawake Gaming Commission.

The picture, of course, is not completely rosy, but it’s not likely to change anytime soon. Most legal gambling in the US is based on Indian reservations, in the Indian casinos.

In Macau,China on the Cotai Strip there looms a new hotel that is a monster. Largest enough to scare the crap out of Vegas elites. Macau will soon become the gambling capital of the world growing faster than Vegas did during its rise to the top.

The Venetian is the 40-story, $1.8 billion anchor for the 7 upcoming hotels to be constructed on the Cotai Strip. With a 10,500,000-square-foot surface, the hotel is built after its sister casino in Las Vegas, being the largest single structure hotel building in Asia and the second-largest building in the world.