Phuong Quoc Truong doesn’t operate by half measures. In 2011 he amassed a 30 strong team of card counters and blackjack dealers in a bid to make some serious money in South Californian casinos. The dealers would pretend to shuffle the packs while in actual fact keeping the pack in a preferred order. A signaler then passed on what was on the table before a ‘smoker’ informed another member of the team what to bet. It sounds convoluted but with so many people in on the scam it was bound to pay off in the short term at least. And that it did to the tune of $7 million from 25 different casinos.
All good things come to an end though, and the group were eventually caught by the Gaming Commission. The group all plead guilty with sentences ranging from probation to six years in prison. They even had to forfeit properties and jewelry as part of the sentence. Clearly on this occasion, crime didn’t pay!