Every year, gamblers flock to the desert to taste the high-end Sin City gambling scene. These risk-takers include some deceitful bettors.
Shocking Las Vegas Gambling Scandals
1. Tommy Glenn Carmichael
Many casinos in Sin City suffered millions of losses at the hands of Tommy Glenn Carmichael. Carmichael is associated with the biggest scandal in the Las Vegas gambling scene. He stole from Las Vegas casinos for two decades.
His main target was slots, and Carmichael devised numerous tricks to rig the machines and take unfair wins from the casinos. When casinos became more vigilant and upgraded their slot machines’ mechanisms, Carmichael also improvised his tricks and continued with the scam.
The monkey paw was one devious trick used by Carmichael. The invention involved inserting a wire in the slot machine via the machine’s payout chute and tricking the machine into releasing the jackpot by tripping the micro switch. Carmichael used the monkey paw for years before it became obsolete when casinos upgraded slot machine technology. However, the upgrades didn’t stop Carmichael from his heinous activities; instead, he devised a new technique.
Carmichael introduced the light wand as his new rigging trick. This new trick entailed using a small light bulb and camera battery. The light wand could blind the slot machine’s sensor, thus tricking it into releasing a win and spitting out coins. According to a statement by the Los Angeles Times, from his daily criminal activities, Carmichael was minting thousands of dollars daily by rigging slot machines in various casinos.
After two decades of stealing from casinos and the Las Vegas gambling community, Carmichael was arrested in 2001 by the FBI after a detailed investigation. He served three years probation and 326 days in prison. He was also banned for life from gambling and entering any casino by the Nevada Gaming Commission.
2. The “MIT Blackjack Team”
The second biggest scandal in the Las Vegas gambling scene was the MIT Blackjack Team, which ran for over two decades, from the 1970s to 1990s.
The MIT Blackjack Team was comprised of a group of experienced students from prestigious learning institutions, primarily from MIT and Harvard. The group devised a unique card-counting technique that wasn’t illegal but gave them an added advantage.
The ring leader of the MIT Blackjack Team was Bill Kapla, who trained cashed out millions of dollars from casinos and trained hundreds of players in his twenty years reign.
Las Vegas and other casinos worldwide ended up discovering the schemes used by members of the MIT Blackjack Team. They were eventually banned from gambling and entering gambling establishments in Vegas. In 1993 the group had eventually broken up, but some members continued being spotted in the gambling scenes way into the 2000s.
The MIT Blackjack Team inspired the creation of the movie “21” released in 2008.
3. Nevada Gaming Control Board Staff
In the early 1990s, an employee working for the Nevada Gaming Control Board as a software designer teamed up with various people to form an army of thieves robbing casinos through the slot machines. Ron Harris worked as a software engineer, and his primary responsibility while working for the Nevada Gaming Control Board was writing anti-cheating software.
But the Nevada Gaming Control Board was unaware that secretly Harris was coding slot machines with a unique and hidden software switch. The software paid massive jackpots to players when they inserted coins in a specific sequence. According to a CNN report, Harris managed to rig 30 slot machines before recruiting several accomplices. His accomplices would play slots and walk away with thousands of dollars.
Harris’ luck ran short when one of his recruits was busted in Atlantic City trying to rig a keno game. According to the Las Vegas sun, in 1996, Harris was caught and pleaded guilty to four counts of slot cheating. He was later sentenced to seven years in prison.
4. Louis the Coin Colavecchio
Louis Colavecchio was famously known as “the Coin,” in the Las Vegas gambling scene. His strategy was slightly different than what other tricksters used when gambling. Colavecchio has an impressive talent for making counterfeit slot-machine coins, allowing him to play slot machines and win thousands without wagering a dime.
In 1997 Colavecchio was arrested and found guilty of making counterfeit currencies. He was convicted and sentenced to 27 months. By the time he was arrested, the “Coin” had 750 pounds of counterfeit slot-machine coins stashed in his car. In 2018, the “Coin,” now aged 76 years, was busted again by cops after making 2,400 fake $100 bills. He was arrested in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
5. John Kane’s $500,000 wins
Playing casino games requires mastery and a keen eye, which made John Kane win more than $500,000 while playing video poker in various casinos. Kane noticed a software bug in the Game King line of video poker machines, and this glitch allowed wagers to replay hands using different base wagers. Thus a payer could sit for hours playing a video poker machine, wagering with one cent until he scored a jackpot-winning hand. He could use the same hand to play again, this time, wagering with $10 and getting a minimum payout of $10,000.
Kane had a friend Andre Nestor, who was his accomplice in the scheme. Even though the two were eventually arrested, they were released. The federal prosecutors could not justify and prove the conspiracy and hacking charges. According to Kane’s attorney, “All these guys did is simply push a sequence of buttons that they were legally entitled to push.”
6. William John Brennan
William John Brennan is still a wanted man for stealing chips and cash worth $500,000 in 1992. Brennan used to work as a sports book cashier at the Stardust hotel (now demolished) on the Las Vegas Strip. Despite the high level of security systems implemented by the casinos, Brennan walked out of the casino with cash and chips worth more than $500,000 and has never been seen again.
According to News 3 Las Vegas, Brennan had been tasked to count the money after a “Monday Night Football” broadcast at the sportsbook. Instead of wrapping the money for a deposit, he opted to steal it. Many are still shocked at how Brennan managed to leave the premises without being detected by the security cameras. Thirty years later, the case remains unsolved.
7. Richard Marcus – Betting Scams
After moving to Las Vegas, Richard Marcus was soon homeless and without money. According to his website, he secured a job as a baccarat and blackjack dealer. He managed to learn everything about the game and discovered several ways he could cheat the system. One of his most famous tricks was the “past posting,” or late betting. When using the “past posting” strategy, Marcus would wager low amounts, craftily swipe the low-denomination chips with the higher-value ones, and hence get high payouts when he wins. A win worth $300 could turn out to be $10000.
Law enforcement officers caught him after he defrauded millions of cash from various casinos in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, he wasn’t convicted due to a lack of sufficient evidence. Currently, he works as a casino protection consultant. He is also an author telling the gambling community about his escapades.
8. The Bellagio Scammers
Mark William Branco was a craps dealer at Bellagio Casino. Branco and his two friends, Anthony Grant Granito and Jeffrey Martin, came up with a scheme that robbed Bellagio casino of more than $1 million. According to a report by the Las Vegas Sun, Granito and Martin would go to a craps table where Branco was the dealer. They would then place high-value bets or phantom “hop bets,” where a specific number combination would appear after the dice rolls.
In two years, the trio played the trick 76 times. Their luck ran out when the casino personnel noticed that the trio’s luck defied the expected 452 billion-to-1 odds. After being arrested and convicted, the Clark County District Court Judge ordered the trio to pay a large sum of money in restitution. Branco is ranked No. 36 in the Nevada Gaming Commission’s “black book,” he will be charged with a felony if he enters any casino.
Top Casinos in Sin City to Gamble
The Las Vegas gambling scene continues to attract millions of people daily. If you are a risk taker and want to try your beginner’s luck at gambling, the following Las Vegas casinos should be your first pick.
Caesars Palace
- Address: 3570 S Las Vegas Blvd
- Phone: 866-227-5938
- Website: https://www.caesars.com/caesars-palace
Wynn Las Vegas Casino
- Address: 3131 Las Vegas Blvd S
- Phone: 702-770-7000
- Website: https://www.wynnlasvegas.com
MGM Grand Resort and Casino
- Address: 3799 S Las Vegas Blvd
- Phone: 877-880-0880
- Website: https://mgmgrand.mgmresorts.com
ARIA Resort & Casino
- Address: 3730 S Las Vegas Blvd
- Phone: +866-359-7757
- Website: https://aria.mgmresorts.com