The Most Infamous Casino Cheaters of All Time

Since the earliest casinos first started entertaining guests, players have invented new and ingenious ways to illegally gain an advantage at the tables. The idea of ripping off a casino and moving to an island somewhere to live out the rest of your days on the beach has been romanticised in books and movies for eons. 

Not all cheaters get to ride off into the sunset, though. Many get caught and face stiff penalties that don’t involve living in exotic locations with stacks of cash. Most fade into obscurity, but a select few have become infamous for their crimes because of the amount stolen, the length of the theft or how incredibly clever the whole ruse was.  

Here’s our top 5 pick of the most infamous casino cheaters of all time.

#1. Dennis The Slots Menace 

Dennis Nikrasch, also known by his alias Dennis McAndrew, is considered one of the most successful slot machine cheats of all time. The exact amount he managed to steal is unknown, but it's estimated he managed to pillage more than $15 million by rigging slots to jackpot. 

His methods varied. One involved breaking into the slots and replacing the machine's internal computer chip with one he had reprogrammed to pay out more jackpots. For his actions, and leadership of several teams of cheats operating mainly in Nevada and Atlantic City, Dennis was labelled a threat to the whole slot machine industry by the Nevada Gaming Control Board. 

A Man of Mystery 

Very little is known about Dennis outside of his crimes. According to most sources he was born in 1941 and spent his early adult life working as a locksmith. The job would teach him all the skills and technical expertise he would presumably need later in life to break into slot machines. His initial criminal attempts involved working with a Chicago crime family; what he did for them isn't clear but he was arrested and sentenced to prison time in the 1960s. 

Upon his release he went to Las Vegas and turned his skills to breaking into slots and rigging them to jackpot, collecting millions in winnings. He was eventually caught in the late 1980s and spent another five years in prison. By the time he was released again around 1991, security and anti-cheating measures had improved drastically, and his old methods no longer worked. 

It would take Dennis until around 1996 to figure out a new way to rig slots. Using a team of accomplices to help evade security measures, he kept cheating casinos until about 1998, when one of his team reportedly gave up the cheating enterprise for leniency on other crimes.

One Last Prison Sentence 

Dennis was once again arrested and sentenced to more than seven years in prison; however, he reportedly explained his cheating techniques to the authorities for a lighter sentence. He was released in 2004 and banned from casinos for life. It's unknown if Dennis ever returned to rigging slot machines, but if he did, he was never caught. Dennis Nikrasch reportedly passed away in 2010. 

#2. Richard The Savannah King 

Not all casino cheaters used clever devices to rip off casinos. Some like Richard Marcus used subterfuge and quick sleight of hand to great effect. Using a late betting technique, coined as the "Savannah Strategy", Richard and his accomplices managed to walk away with over $30 million in ill-gotten gains over a 25-year period. 

Richard didn't set out to be a cheater; instead, he first tried his hand at professional gambling in his late teens and early twenties. He was relatively successful at first. During his first trip to Las Vegas in 1976, he turned $20,000 he had won betting at the track into over $100,000 at the tables.

However, a short time later, it was all gone. Broke and desperate, he got a job at the Four Queens Casino. At this time, he met a man named Joe Classon and Richards's life would change forever. Joe planned to rip off the casino, and Richard was all too eager to help out. 

The Simplest Scam in the World 

The ruse was simple enough; Richard would shuffle the cards in a certain way before knocking off for the night, so when the relief dealer would deal the deck, Joe and Richard's other accomplices would know exactly what cards were coming out. The method that would earn them millions though was far more straightforward. 

Known as the "Savannah Strategy" Richard would approach the blackjack, roulette or baccarat table and place a wager, but carefully hide a larger chip value underneath. So as an example, Richard would place down two chips; a $5 chip on top visible to all and a $500 chip hidden underneath. 

If he won, Richard would show the higher value chip and get paid, but if he lost, he would carefully remove it and replace it with another $5 chip. If caught making the switch, he would pretend to be drunk, and apologise for the mistake or use another form of subterfuge to cover up his cheating.  

Richard Rides into the Sunset 

It sounds too dumb to work but apparently it did at casinos all over the world. Richard and his accomplices were never jailed or faced any real penalties for their cheating, even after he published several books confessing to ripping off casinos for over two decades. Richard claims to have retired in 1999 and no longer cheats casinos.

#3. Ida the Magnificent

Another cheater who favored clever sleight of hand over flashy devices was Ida Summers, known as the Vegas Vixen. She operated in Las Vegas throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Her cheating method was simple as well: she used her good looks and charm to distract blackjack dealers and anyone else watching, then swap out or remove cards in the deck to ensure she had a greater chance of winning. 

Known as "card mucking", it's not entirely clear how she got away with rigging the deck in full view of everyone; surely nobody is that good-looking and charming, right? To make the whole situation even more unbelievable, after her initial success, Ida became bolder and began swapping out the entire deck with one she had pre-rigged. 

Once again in full view of everyone, her deck-switching antics apparently went unnoticed—a feat that even a master magician would probably struggle to copy. Ida was reportedly extremely skilled at holding everyone's attention and making people feel at ease and comforted by her presence. How much Ida won during her time in Vegas isn’t public knowledge, and neither is how she was ultimately caught. 

A Disappearing Act for the Ages 

Some rumors suggest a scorned lover informed the law about Ida’s cheating; others say she just ran out of luck after two decades of pulling the same scam in Las Vegas. What is known is that the FBI arrested Ida, and despite her prolific cheating, she only received one year's probation as a penalty and then disappeared from history altogether. Nobody has ever been able to find her, despite several attempts from casino officials to track her down and recoup some of the stolen cash.

#4. Tommy The Master Inventor

One point casino cheats and law enforcement can agree on regarding Tommy Carmichael is that the man was one of the cleverest cheats ever to rip off a casino. Arguably the most interesting thing about Tommy's slot cheating is that every time he was caught, or a new measure to prevent cheating was implemented, Tommy would always find a way around it using creations like a Monkey Paw, a Slider, and his light wand. An exact figure for how much he stole isn't available but it's believed to be extensive. 

Tommy didn't start out as a slot machine cheat, though. In 1980 he apparently owned a TV repair shop and spent his days tinkering to help people. However, after a visit from a friend, Ray Ming, who showed Tommy a way to make slots pay out using a "top-bottom joint", he decided his new calling would be rigging slot machines. Top-bottom joints have long since become obsolete. It had two parts: the top, which was a metal rod bent into a “q” shape, and the bottom, a long thin wire, which was fed up into the hopper to trigger a payout. 

Another Prison Stint for Tommy 

Tommy used the top-bottom joint to great success in several locations until around 1985, when the police caught him. With his rap sheet already growing heavy with two small-time drug convictions and a few juvenile mishaps, he received a sentence of five years in prison. By the time he was released in around 1987, slots had become harder to rig, and the trusty top-bottom joint didn't work anymore. 

In the 1990s, Tommy went back to Las Vegas and created a "slider", or “monkey’s paw”, — a device that used spring steel and guitar wire to snake its way up into a slot's payout chute and trip a switch that fooled the hopper into releasing its bounty. Tommy claimed that by using the slider, he could take around $1000 out of machines every hour with minimal effort.

The slider's effectiveness wasn't to last though, and improved tech used in slots prevented this tool from working. Undeterred, Tommy put all his time and energy into coming up with a solution. Posing as a customer, he inspected slots and got the slot engineers to answer his technical questions. Eventually he came up with the "light wand." 

The Light Wand Changes the Game 

The light wand blinds the slot’s optical sensor, so it couldn't track how many coins had been deposited or paid out. Using the light wand, Tommy could turn every win into a big payout. By 1992, Tommy was also supplementing his income by selling the light wand to other cheaters. There were always upgrades to slots security and anti-cheating measures, but Tommy claimed later he always found a way around it.  

Tommy used his cheating tools in Las Vegas, Connecticut, Atlantic City, Louisiana and many other locations. He also went on several cruises, scamming the onboard casinos, and even tried his tricks at overseas venues to great success. Using accomplices as lookouts, Tommy made sure he was always one step ahead of security as well. 

By 1996 though, his luck had started to run thin when he was caught red-handed and his light wand was confiscated. The charges were eventually dropped, as were further charges in 1998 when he was caught again. By 1999 his luck ran out, he was arrested again in Atlantic City. Unknown to Tommy and his gang of accomplices, an FBI task force had been watching them. Informants had supplied the authorities with critical intel, and wiretaps had caught them all discussing their criminal acts. 

End of the Line 

Seven from the gang were arrested, and they all pleaded guilty. In 2001 Tommy was sentenced to time served: 326 days in prison, three years’ probation and was not allowed to set foot in a casino again. In a final twist, Tommy claimed to have seen the error of his ways and decided to help casinos stop cheaters. He reportedly created a device that prevented all known cheating methods: the Protector. However, it's unclear if it ever saw widespread use, because casinos and regulators were understandably concerned Tommy's invention was just another attempt for him to get back into ripping off slots. Tommy reportedly passed away in 2019.

#5. The French Cigarette Pack Scandal

To round out the list, the pick of final infamous cheaters is Monique Laurent, the apparent mastermind of what would later be called the "French Cigarette Pack Scam". Very little is known about Monique beyond her one-time stint as a casino cheat. She was reportedly born in France around 1948 and had one brother who helped with the scam, along with her husband. 

Monique's brother got himself a job as a croupier at the Casino Deauville in 1973, but it's unclear if this was part of their plan to rip off the casino, or if he just got a job and the idea for the scam came later. Either way, while her brother was working at the roulette table one week, Monique's husband approached and started playing, winning vast sums.

Unknown to everyone but the trio of cheaters, the roulette ball at this particular table had been replaced with one created by the gang. Inside it was a receiver. While her brother ran the game, and her husband wagered, Monique sat in a corner and used a transmitter concealed in a pack of cigarettes to control the ball. 

After extensive testing, the group found they could make the ball land on one of six different numbers after each spin with a roughly 90% accuracy. Even with the margin for error, the group scored over $1 million in winnings during the week. However, their success also caught the eyes of casino employees. Nobody had ever won so much, and so consistently. 

The roulette wheel was examined, Monique's brother was watched closely, along with a few other quick investigations by casino officials. When they found nothing, it appeared Monique and her two accomplices would be able to keep ripping off the casino. That was, until, one manager remembered a woman he had seen in the venue several times, who always had a pack of cigarettes but never smoked or played any of the games. 

On a hunch, he asked the woman, Monique, for a cigarette, and the transmitter was soon uncovered. The whole ruse unravelled from there and the trio were arrested. Despite being caught red-handed, the group’s worst penalty was having to give back the money. What happened to them after is unknown, as all three disappeared from public records after their one-time attempt at casino cheating.