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Story URL: http://www.silicon.com/research/specialreports/gambling/0,3800010160,39153954,00.htm

Technology can't beat casino cheaters
RFID, optical scanning, facial recognition...? 'Bring it on'...

By Will Sturgeon

Published: Friday 04 November 2005

A notorious casino cheat has suggested many of the technologies being touted as anti-cheating measures are doomed to expensive failure – criticising the effectiveness of controversial solutions such as RFID and facial recognition.

Richard Marcus told silicon.com he is now "more or less retired" but is widely regarded as a leading authority on casino cheating, having scammed a reported $5m during a 25-year in Atlantic City, Las Vegas, London and Monte Carlo.

And despite seeing a raft of high-tech measures brought in to thwart his kind, Marcus has warned the casinos they're making the wrong bet by backing technology.

But that doesn't mean the cheaters are going to prosper, he said.

"Almost everybody gets caught," said Marcus, who has never been convicted of any crimes against casinos. "But it's not because of the technology. Casino cheats are desperate people and they do stupid things. Most people get caught because they get too much exposure."

"I don't have to go back into a casino to know my moves will still work," said Marcus, whose stock trick relied upon slight of hand – switching in high denomination chips in place of lower value chips on the layout following a winning bet. At his peak his team were replacing three black $100 chips with two brown $5,000 dollar chips beneath a single black chip in a technique know as pastposting. So $300 liabilities were reaping payouts of $10,100.

Such a technique could theoretically be spotted by the use of RFID technology or optical readers but Marcus said it's unlikely that will ever be the case.

The same he says is true of improved surveillance techniques and advanced facial recognition which Marcus claims is easily foxed. "Facial recognition is an absolute zero. There's not one person alive who's ever been caught by facial recognition," he told silicon.com.

Marcus argues that such technology is still only as good as the people working in the casino – who he fooled for years - and if the cheater doesn't draw too much attention to themselves and gets onto and away from the table quickly it's unlikely the records will be checked.

"And even if they do check I'd be long gone," said Marcus, who argues having such technology to fall back on is actually making pit bosses and dealers less attuned to what might be happening right under their noses.

"These people rely upon their technology too much," he said. "There is no room for manoeuvre in their thinking. I don't have to fool the camera or the technology I only have to fool the dealer or his pit boss. If I fool them the technology doesn't come into play."

However, one casino – the new Wynn resort – has already put RFID technology in all its casino chips but Marcus believes this will do little more than improve management of chips within the cage as it will be too fraught with difficulty to use it effectively at the tables, citing other systems which have come and gone and proved more trouble than they're worth.

"Let's say they do eventually get this stuff working on the table, a really good cheating team is going to come up with some way to screw around with the chips and the signal," said Marcus.

Similarly he agreed that it is possible to run systems and behavioural analysis which could identify the difference between luck and probable cheating, as claimed by the CIO of casino giant Harrah's, but he said an experienced cheater won't stick around until those findings come to light.

"If somebody is winning excessively then obviously there is more of a chance that cheating is going on," said Marcus but he expressed doubts that any cheat who knows their trade well would stick around exploiting an improbable 'lucky streak'.

Marcus said the greatest value casinos will get out of high-profile security rollouts is the deterrent factor which will immediately take out the low hanging fruit of the cheating world.

"Most cheaters when they hear about technological advances being made by the casinos get scared. They change their game or their tactics or they move on to something else."