Some years ago in London if I remember correctly, a team of cheats made off with a huge sum of money at Punto Banco. This is a game that is dealt from a shoe like blackjack and is very similar to Baccarat. It was amazing what these guys did and although the facts are a little hazy now, they removed a large part of the deck or decks from the shoe unseen and then went into the toilet and stacked the deck. When this was finished they then proceeded to bring the cards back and without being seen slipped them back into the shoe.
Now obviously the table was empty during this time and had no dealer or inspector watching it. But what it also shows is in how close circuit television screens are really only supervised and inspected during incidents. There simply isn’t enough action for people to watch these every minute of every day and you could never justify the salary to pay someone like that. But as it transpired then these guys proceeded to bet to the maximum for this shoe only and then cashed out a sum of money that was believed to be around £150,000.
Clearly this is something that is difficult to get away with and what many cheats fail to take on board is that in this instance then the process of getting the cards out of the shoe unnoticed, stacking them and then getting them back into the shoe unnoticed is really only the first stage of the process. Even after the dealer has paid you out and you are sitting there with £150k then you still have to physically get those chips cashed out. Even if you manage that then CCTV can be pretty damning evidence when passed to the police who then have a photo fit of someone who has committed a crime.
