Poker Cheaters

Invisible Ink Helped Man Cheat At Poker At Two Casinos

A New Jersey gambler was busted in 2013 for allegedly cheating at the Mohegan Sun. The marked the cards with an ink-like substance that was invisible to the naked eye and could only be seen with special infrared contact lenses. Bruce Koloshi, a 59-year-old from Summit, New Jersey, allegedly also used the technique in a stud game at a casino in Louisiana before that. It’s unclear how much he was able to win using the invisible ink.

Koloshi has been caught cheating before in Las Vegas, Reno and Iowa. After his arrest in Connecticut he gave authorities a fake name, but his fingerprints revealed to the cops his real identity. He was charged with a few crimes, including cheating, conspiracy, criminal impersonation, and being a fugitive from justice.

UK Casino cheater jailed

In 2014, Mihai Lacatos, a 62-year-old unemployed Romanian national used fake ID cards and driving licenses to gain entry to casinos he had been banned from. He then engaged in "card marking" to cheat at three-card poker at the Playboy Club in Mayfair. Card marking involves using slight-of-hand tricks to bend specific cards, so that he would later be able to tell what cards the dealer and other players had been dealt, giving him a big advantage. His card marking was so fast, and the dents so subtle, that his cheating initially went unnoticed.

Detectives began investigating the incident after they were contacted by the casino owners. The police circulated his picture to casinos across the UK and he was later arrested at the Rubicon Casino in Northampton after the staff working there recognized him and called police. Officers seized £1,485 from him and he was taken into custody.

After he was bailed out, he failed to return to the Police Station, and continued to commit fraud in at least three more casinos. Officers began searching for him again and managed to arrest him again in the departure lounge at Luton Airport when he was trying to escape abroad. The police seized about £3,000 and Lacatos was sentenced to 18 months in jail.

This is the Metropolitan Police's first conviction for marking cards.

Poker Cheaters Arrested in France

Three people were arrested for cheating in poker games by marking the cards with invisible ink at a casino in Cannes. The three arrested include a Frenchman, a poker dealer, and another who is part of the staff of the casino. They were also accused of being members of organized crime. French gaming officials believe there is a possibility that the trio have been doing it for quite some time all over Europe.

The three individuals were suspected of cheating prior to their arrest when they cashed out with more than $60,000 in a single night. They were not arrested because casino staff members could not get any confirmation of the scam at the time. Later on, the casino set up a trap for the cheaters if cheaters came back. They did in deed come back, winning a total of $41,000.

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HPG ADMIN on June 3, 2015