STEFANO AMPOLLINI
In 2013 a French court handed down a two- year jail sentence to Italian, Stefano Ampollini, who wore infrared contact lenses to count cards marked with invisible ink. Ampollini nicknamed ‘Parmesan’, managed to win as much as much as £60,000 in a single night at a casino in Cannes.
Ampollini told a criminal court that he was a ‘player and cheat with an international reputation.’
Ampollini also told the judge he bought the special lenses online from China, for which he paid around £1,800 and had given other pairs to “friends.”
Two corrupt casino workers gave the cheaters decks of card, which were then marked with invisible ink, placed under cellophane and returned to a casino cupboard.
Ampollini was assisted at the stud poker table by another Italian codenamed ‘The Israeli’, who sniffed or snorted to guide the selection of cards.
Marc Concas, barrister for the owners of the casino, said: ‘Security found his behaviour rather strange as he won very easily and, above all, because he folded twice when he had an excellent hand, suggesting he knew the croupier’s cards.’
An investigation commenced and he was arrested after returning alone and winning $28,000.
He was fined nearly £88,000 and handed down a prison sentence of two years along with his two Italian cohorts.
District Judge, Peter Breen, said Harris, 41, had betrayed both state gaming regulators and the public trust “There is no question the depth of your betrayal was complete," Breen told Harris. He was
charged with various crimes, including computer fraud and theft, and ultimately sentenced to seven years in prison. He was released after serving two years.
TOMMY GLENN CARMICHAEL
Starting out in the TV repair industry, perhaps one most inventive cheats in gambling history, Tommy Glenn Carmichael stole millions of dollars by rigging slot machines in casinos across the United States and the Caribbean.
Of all his inventions, the most famous was the “the slider” or “monkey’s paw.” This consisted of a wire which he would insert through the machine’s payout chute to trip the micro switch, tricking the machine into releasing a jackpot. He also developed other cheating tools and techniques, which he used to exploit vulnerabilities in the machines.
As slot machine technology improved, so did Carmichael's techniques as less than two years after he invented the “monkey’s paw” fresh innovations in security rendered it obsolete. Afterwards, he invented a “light wand,” which consisted of a camera battery and a small light bulb, which could blind a slot machine’s sensor and trick the machine into dispensing coins. The device was quickly adopted by other criminals all across the United States.
However, it couldn’t last forever. In 2001, Carmichael was working on his latest invention “the tongue,” which would have enabled him to steal two thousand dollars per second by loading up machines with credits and then cashing out when he was caught by an FBI investigation. He served 326 days in prison and three years’ probation.
RONALD DALE HARRIS
Ronald Dale Harris worked for the Nevada Gaming Control Board in the early 1990s and was responsible for detecting flaws in software that runs computerised casino games. A change of heart saw Harris go in the exact opposite direction. Harris illegally modified certain slot machines to pay out large sums of money when a specific sequence and number of coins were inserted. Harris did this by devising a computer programme for the laptop computers used by field agents to check to see if the slots were operating correctly. The cheating programme was then installed so that a jackpot would hit whenever there was a predetermined sequence of coins bet.
From 1993 to 1995, Harris and an accomplice stole thousands of dollars from casinos, and won jackpots in Las Vegas, Reno and Lake Tahoe.
Towards the end of his stint, Harris shifted his focus to Keno. When Harris’ accomplice attempted to redeem a high value winning keno ticket at Bally's Atlantic City Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, New Jersey, casino executives became suspicious and notified New Jersey gaming investigators.
District Judge, Peter Breen, said Harris, 41, had betrayed both state gaming regulators and the public trust “There is no question the depth of your betrayal was complete," Breen told Harris. He was charged with various crimes, including computer fraud and theft, and ultimately sentenced to seven years in prison. He was released after serving two years.
WIRE / PULSE / INSIGHT / REPORTS P57
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