Ken Uston was a larger than life personality who would, prior to his death, appear on TV detailing all of his various schemes and exploits. As result he was certainly more high profiles than most in the same ‘line of work’.

So what was the claim to fame that led to this public interest? Well it was his reputation for starting one of the first blackjack ‘card counting’ teams. He is known to have won millions and but in part responsible for casinos tightening the rules around individuals who came overcome the house edge through one mechanism or another.

His success resulted in bans in various establishments. He went to court over a ban at Resorts International Hotel in Atlantic City. The court agreed because the ban was based on his skills as opposed to him cheating. They instead further tightened their rules as result of no longer being able to ban card counters.

Dennis Nikrasch doesn’t do things by half measures, and is known to have carried out the largest slot machine scam in Las Vegas casino history. He profited from his scam to the tune of $16,000,000+ and the scheme itself falls more under opportunism than ingenious.

Nikrasch and his motley crew would distract slot machine mechanics with the aim of making an imprint of the key to enable them to unlock the machine. They would then later return and set the reels to the jackpot winning combination. In 1986 this technique worked for them to the tune of $10 million.

Amazingly many casinos still hadn’t got wise to the scam and they repeated it in 1998 winning another $6 million. They were eventually caught, but how much they really made over the years is to this day a mystery. Some have suggested it could be as much as $4,000,000 a year.

An author of several gambling books (such as Professional Blackjack, first published in 1975), Stanford Wong had an analytical approach to his card playing. He even released a blackjack hand analysing software program in the early days of computing. Some would say he was ahead of his time.

He came up with a technique, known as ‘Wonging’ which involved watching rather than waging until finally betting when the count is in the players favour, and only during that time. His technique was so successful that casinos now typically have a “No Mid-Shoe Entry” sign up, forcing them to play directly after a shuffle rather than at a time of their own choosing.

At one point he finances a team of advantage players that would play card games at various casinos across Las Vegas. His last contribution as an author is the Complete Idiot’s Guide to Gambling Like a Pro.

The Tran Organisation were a criminal gang operating in the 2000s. Led by Van Thu Tran they embedded themselves into US casinos, originally hatching the plan as a husband and wife team at Tribal casino in San Diego, California. With knowledge of the low wages and low hours they took to trying to bring numerous dealers and table supervisors into their plan.

The plan involved one member of the team noting down all of the hands that came out, and a dealer who performed a false shuffle. A series of earpieces and microphones meant that members of the origination had a keen awareness of which hands would be coming out.

They were eventually found out and Van Thu Tran received a three year prison sentence and had to pay back several million dollars.