Cheats often target casinos: Cops

Cheats often target casinos: Cops
By TOM GODFREY, Toronto Sun

OPP investigators say casinos across the province are often targeted by world-class cheats.

The force’s casino enforcement unit dispatches officers to monitor Ontario’s 27 gaming institutions to 24-hours to weed out cheats.

Chief Supt. David Crane said 23.4 million people visited Ontario casinos last year and 39 charges of cheating at play were laid by police.

“There aren’t that many cheating charges laid,” Crane said. “We lay more charges for provincial violations.”

He said 234 provincial charges were laid in 2010 for offences that can include trespassing or being under age in a casino.

Crane said that groups like the Tran organization, which preyed on casinos in Canada and the United States, are sophisticated and challenging to stop.

“Groups like this don’t come around often,” he said. “They were the last international cheat group we investigated.”

Fifteen people — including three Casino Rama employees — were rounded up in May 2007 when investigators busted up the Tran ring. Nearly all those charged were convicted.

Police said mugshots of the convicts are circulated to casinos across North America where they are downloaded into a computer system containing facial recognition technology. Casino cameras alert officials if a banned person tries to return to play.

In a separate investigation, the OPP arrested a six-member South Korean ring last August for scamming about $210,000 during a two-day period at Casino Rama.

And, in 1999, five members of one of the world’s top roulette wheel cheat teams from Italy were arrested at Casino Niagara.