Cheating Casinos

Calif. woman pleads guilty to attempting to cheat 29 casinos, including two in Tunica

WASHINGTON — A California woman pleaded guilty today in San Diego to conspiring with others to cheat 29 casinos, including two in Tunica and three others elsewhere in Mississippi, with a card-counting scheme.

Van Thu Tran, 45, pleaded guilty and could face 20 years in prison when sentenced in May. An investigation into the casino-cheating conspiracy dating back to 2007 has resulted in 42 defendants pleading guilty.

The Justice Department announced the plea this afternoon and described the elaborate method used to obtain up to $7 million:

“(The conspirators allegedly) executed a ‘false shuffle’ cheating scheme at casinos in the United States and Canada during blackjack and mini-baccarat games. The indictments allege that members of the criminal organization bribed casino card dealers and supervisors to perform false shuffles during card games, thereby creating ‘slugs’ or groups of unshuffled cards.

“The indictments also allege that after tracking the order of cards dealt in a card game, a member of the organization would signal to the card dealer to perform a ‘false shuffle,’ and members of the group would then bet on the known order of cards when the slug appeared on the table. By doing so, members of the conspiracy repeatedly won thousands of dollars during card games, including winning several hundred thousand dollars on one occasion.”

Among the casinos targeted were Gold Strike Casino and Horseshoe Casino in Tunica, the Beau Rivage and Imperial Palace casinos in Biloxi and the Golden Moon Casino in Choctaw, Miss. FBI field offices around the country, as well as local police, the IRS and the Mississippi Gaming Commission were among the law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation.