Swiss Casinos Zurich Busts Global Cut-Card Scam

The World Game Protection Conference (WGPC)paid its tributes to Swiss Casinos Zurich, which helped tackle an international gang of baccarat scammers, CDC Gaming originally reported.

The conference, which focuses on the gambling industry’s integrity and pays specific attention to scammers, such as card counters, chip pocketing, and more, has been an annual meeting place for stakeholders to exchange know-how on how to prevent such rogue players from succeeding. 

Originated in Macau, Got Busted in Zurich 

Swiss Casinos Zurich was distinguished by its success in detecting and stopping a scheme known as Chinese Eleven, the largest ever committed in a Swiss casino, and costing gambling operators about $175,000. 

While originating in Macau, the scam was finally dismantled at Swiss Casinos Zurich, with WGPC founder Willy Allison highlighting its global footprint and explaining the inner workings of the “cut-card scam.”

“What I thought was fantastic about this case is the way they detected it and apprehended the 11 culprits. They secured successful prosecutions, which is hard to achieve when dealing with collusion. They worked with a local producer making a documentary of this,” he added. 

Allison also confirmed that a detailed breakdown of how the scam worked and how it was busted would be released in English next month, with the documentation helping other operators and land-based properties around the world shield themselves from this type of fraud.

The scam was, in a sense, obvious. The player would record the cards as they were split and fanned out, with a phone recording them, and specifically the corners of each card. 

Cheating at Casinos in Card Games Is More Common Than You Think

Then, the player would walk away from the table and sit to watch the video, figuring out what face-down cards were. The players did have some success at first, which forced the property to pay attention to them closely when the pattern emerged.

The player would frequently get up and walk away and come back at similar intervals. 

Sometimes, a player would have a camera inserted in their sleeve and would volunteer to cut the deck, stepping away to review the video, and then offer information about what sequence of cards to expect to co-conspirators who were still at the table.

Unfair advantage in card games is not uncommon in casinos. Phil Ivey, a respected poker professional, was actually embroiled in a huge scandal in both the United Kingdom and the United States over “edge sorting,” the practice of figuring imperfections in the cards’ edges and using this to his advantage. Ivey agreed to settle a case with the Borgata in 2020.