Pennsylvania casinos seeing more counterfeit bills
Eduardo Sicard Martinez is charged with forgery for allegedly passing counterfeit bills at Sands Casino. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO, THE MORNING CALL / June 21, 2013)
Eduardo Sicard Martinez strolled up to the blackjack tables at Sands casino in Bethlehem and, authorities allege, plunked down a stack of bogus $50 bills. He walked out of the casino with a handful of $25 chips, likely believing that he'd successfully laundered the counterfeit bills officials say he'd bought earlier in the night.
What Martinez, of Wernersville, Berks County, may not have realized was that even as he collected his chips, the dealer was marking the bills as suspicious, and a casino surveillance team had security cameras trained on him as he made his way to the parking lot.
If convicted, Martinez, 36, would join a growing number of people trying to pass counterfeit bills at Pennsylvania casinos. And, as it turns out, he'd be part of a small fraction of them who get arrested for it.
Over the past four years, the number of counterfeiting incidents at the state's 11 casinos has more than doubled — to 1,370 in 2012, according to crime numbers reported by state police at each casino.
Still, less than 1 percent of the people passing them are arrested.
It's a number state police and U.S. Secret Service are trying to improve.
"Casinos are really the only place where every counterfeit bill is investigated," said Capt. John Evans, state police assistant director for the Bureau of Gaming Enforcement. "The success rate isn't real high, but we continue to do it because we think it's worth it."
The Secret Service attempts to investigate every counterfeiting incident, but there are few places better equipped to trace fake money than a casino. Every casino's counting machine flags any bills that don't have the unique paper, water marks and color-shifting ink of legal tender, and casinos in Pennsylvania have surveillance cameras covering every inch of the gambling floor.
The usual result is the fake money is removed from circulation, but occasionally the casino police actually get the counterfeiter.
In the case of the Sands, where Martinez was arrested April 19, more than 1,000 surveillance cameras are capable of watching almost every movement on the 100,000-square-foot floor. In some cases, the camera feed is so crisp security guards can read the serial number on a bill being passed, said Sgt. Robert Caprari, commander of the state police office at the Sands casino.
Evans said it's not surprising that counterfeiters are trying to pass their fake cash at casinos. Unlike a convenience store cashier who may only see a handful of $100 or $50 bills all day, casino table games dealers routinely takes dozens of large bills every hour. And with casinos taking in massive amounts of cash — Sands counts more than $1 million daily — counterfeiters might think their bills will be lost in the shuffle.
In Martinez's case, state police at the Sands casino allege that he bought the $50 bills earlier in the evening in the hope of laundering them at the blackjack tables. A dealer almost immediately noticed the bills were suspicious and a pit supervisor quickly concurred. By then, police were already looking for Martinez.
That's because over the previous week, he allegedly had passed 31 other fake bills at the tables. When the casino counting machine identified the bills as bogus, officials were able to trace them back to the tables where they were passed. From there, surveillance crews were able to use the overhead cameras to determine who had put them into play.
It's a method Evans said state police hope to use more often, though opportunities have been rare.
"I always say, bank tellers are the best counterfeit detectors we have. They can almost feel bad money in their hands," said Cynthia Wofford, special agent in charge of the Philadelphia office of the Secret Service. "We're trying to get [table games] dealers to that point and I think we're making progress."
There is no shortage of chances to apply that training. According to the self-reported crime numbers, counterfeiting incidents at Pennsylvania casinos went from 610 in 2009 to 1,370 last year. That includes 141 incidents at Sands last year.
"It's almost daily," Caprari said. "Sometimes a dealer will catch it, but usually the counting machines catch it."
Sometimes, it's a single bill likely passed by someone who didn't even know it was fake, Evans said. Other times it's a series of bills passed by someone like Martinez, who police say told them he had bought the money from a counterfeiter at half face value. The dozens of bills officials say he passed had only three different serial numbers, a tell-tale sign of a fake.
Other signs include paper that's not the 75 percent linen, 25 percent cotton paper combination used by the U.S. Mint, or lacks the embedded polyester threads, or the water mark or the security mark that reveals a colored thread when held under ultraviolet light.
Casino counting machines detect all of those flaws. In the future, dealers may learn to detect many of them.
In the meantime, Caprari is hoping the fate of Eduardo Sicard Martinez will send a message to would-be counterfeiters. His case is expected to be heard in Northampton County Court this year. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison for each of the 31 counts of forgery he's charged with.
What Martinez, of Wernersville, Berks County, may not have realized was that even as he collected his chips, the dealer was marking the bills as suspicious, and a casino surveillance team had security cameras trained on him as he made his way to the parking lot.
If convicted, Martinez, 36, would join a growing number of people trying to pass counterfeit bills at Pennsylvania casinos. And, as it turns out, he'd be part of a small fraction of them who get arrested for it.
Over the past four years, the number of counterfeiting incidents at the state's 11 casinos has more than doubled — to 1,370 in 2012, according to crime numbers reported by state police at each casino.
Still, less than 1 percent of the people passing them are arrested.
"Casinos are really the only place where every counterfeit bill is investigated," said Capt. John Evans, state police assistant director for the Bureau of Gaming Enforcement. "The success rate isn't real high, but we continue to do it because we think it's worth it."
The Secret Service attempts to investigate every counterfeiting incident, but there are few places better equipped to trace fake money than a casino. Every casino's counting machine flags any bills that don't have the unique paper, water marks and color-shifting ink of legal tender, and casinos in Pennsylvania have surveillance cameras covering every inch of the gambling floor.
The usual result is the fake money is removed from circulation, but occasionally the casino police actually get the counterfeiter.
In the case of the Sands, where Martinez was arrested April 19, more than 1,000 surveillance cameras are capable of watching almost every movement on the 100,000-square-foot floor. In some cases, the camera feed is so crisp security guards can read the serial number on a bill being passed, said Sgt. Robert Caprari, commander of the state police office at the Sands casino.
Evans said it's not surprising that counterfeiters are trying to pass their fake cash at casinos. Unlike a convenience store cashier who may only see a handful of $100 or $50 bills all day, casino table games dealers routinely takes dozens of large bills every hour. And with casinos taking in massive amounts of cash — Sands counts more than $1 million daily — counterfeiters might think their bills will be lost in the shuffle.
In Martinez's case, state police at the Sands casino allege that he bought the $50 bills earlier in the evening in the hope of laundering them at the blackjack tables. A dealer almost immediately noticed the bills were suspicious and a pit supervisor quickly concurred. By then, police were already looking for Martinez.
That's because over the previous week, he allegedly had passed 31 other fake bills at the tables. When the casino counting machine identified the bills as bogus, officials were able to trace them back to the tables where they were passed. From there, surveillance crews were able to use the overhead cameras to determine who had put them into play.
It's a method Evans said state police hope to use more often, though opportunities have been rare.
"I always say, bank tellers are the best counterfeit detectors we have. They can almost feel bad money in their hands," said Cynthia Wofford, special agent in charge of the Philadelphia office of the Secret Service. "We're trying to get [table games] dealers to that point and I think we're making progress."
There is no shortage of chances to apply that training. According to the self-reported crime numbers, counterfeiting incidents at Pennsylvania casinos went from 610 in 2009 to 1,370 last year. That includes 141 incidents at Sands last year.
"It's almost daily," Caprari said. "Sometimes a dealer will catch it, but usually the counting machines catch it."
Sometimes, it's a single bill likely passed by someone who didn't even know it was fake, Evans said. Other times it's a series of bills passed by someone like Martinez, who police say told them he had bought the money from a counterfeiter at half face value. The dozens of bills officials say he passed had only three different serial numbers, a tell-tale sign of a fake.
Other signs include paper that's not the 75 percent linen, 25 percent cotton paper combination used by the U.S. Mint, or lacks the embedded polyester threads, or the water mark or the security mark that reveals a colored thread when held under ultraviolet light.
Casino counting machines detect all of those flaws. In the future, dealers may learn to detect many of them.
In the meantime, Caprari is hoping the fate of Eduardo Sicard Martinez will send a message to would-be counterfeiters. His case is expected to be heard in Northampton County Court this year. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison for each of the 31 counts of forgery he's charged with.
Read more: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-pa-casino-counterfeit-bills-20130620-25,0,6109801.story#ixzz2WuaQRj6R
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