Man who scammed casinos out of $30 million now helps to catch cheaters
Richard Marcus was banned from most casinos after devising the cunning 'Savannah Strategy' cheat, and now helps venues catch other cheaters
A man who famously managed to scam casinos out of $30 million now helps catch cheaters, having devised what industry insiders apparently told him was the ‘best casino cheating move ever’.
Richard Marcus first fell in love with gambling at the races, winning an incredible $100,000 (£88,000) before things took a turn for the worse on his 18th birthday.
After he ‘lost all of it’, Marcus took a job at the Four Queens Casino – where he was approached by a player called Joe Classon, who wanted to join forces for a cunning plan that would win thousands of pounds.
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Marcus, who was born in France but raised in New York would shuffle the cards in a certain way, meaning that when the relief dealer picked them up, people playing knew what was coming.
While scheme earned them $21,000 (£18,000), his most successful plan involved late betting, when Marcus would change the bet after the outcome was revealed, or when it became obvious what it was going to be – something now known as the ‘Savannah Strategy’.
Discussing the move – which was illegal in casinos and punishable by law – Marcus told The Sun: "People in the business say it was the best casino cheating move in all history.
"Why? Because it was so stupid and easy.
"...There was a lot of psychology involved in it but it gave us a raw basic idea.”
Explaining how it worked best on the roulette table, Marcus – who was threatened with imprisonment over the move in 1982 – continued: "Because a roulette table is a lot longer, the distance between the dealer and the bottom of the table where the last players are is like a metre and a half.
"The dealer could see that there were two chips there but unless the dealer came all the way around and look underneath, which they never do or did, the dealer would just assume it was $10.
"You would think that the dealer would catch me taking it back and that's what we thought.
"But it turned out that most of the time the dealer never even noticed it."
As it was such a low bet, no one suspected a thing, meaning Marcus and his teammates were able to make an estimated ($30 million (£27 million) over his 25-year career.
But after being banned from most casinos, Marcus decided to give the scam up, and now attends conferences to give casinos advice on how to dodge scammers, and also provides help on his website globaltablegamesprotection.com.
"Nobody ever heard from a real professional successful casino chief before at these conferences,” he said.
"For 25 years, all I did was travel around the world, London, Monte Carlo everywhere and cheating casinos professionally."
He has even written several books about the topic, including one titled The Great Casino Heist and American Roulette.
Marcus added: "When I wrote my book, I was contacted by people in the casino industry, surveillance and the security industry, inviting me to speak at these conferences.
"Then casinos started to hire me and asked if I'd come in train their staff.
"Now I do it all over the world."
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Topics: World News
Jess Hardiman