They had brains, they had guts and for a while, they had piles of ill-gotten cash. But even the biggest casino cheaters in history couldn't outrun their own greed (and the long arm of the law).
Here are the 17 stories of legendary scammers who scored big...only to lose it all in the end.
Let's kick things off with Tommy Glenn Carmichael, a guy who was an absolute genius when it came to rigging slot machines.
With devices like the monkey paw and light wand, Tommy could basically print his own cash from the casino slot machines. I mean, the level of technical skill is honestly impressive.
If only he had used his powers for good instead of, you know, rigging casino games and getting arrested over and over again.
After making millions from his cheating schemes, Tommy ended up serving time in prison and getting banned from every casino in existence.
These days, he actually helps casinos develop anti-cheating technology. Talk about a redemption arc!
While we're on the subject of impressive but illegal skills, let's discuss Richard Marcus and his Savannah baccarat scam.
This guy was an absolute master of sleight of hand, using a tricky chip stacking technique to make it look like he was betting way less than he actually was.
With a flip of the wrist, Richard could turn a $15 bet into a $500 payout. Genius! For a while, he was absolutely cleaning up in casinos all over Vegas.
But of course, this being a list of broke cheaters, his party had to end sometime. Richard eventually got busted, earning himself a sweet lifetime ban from every casino.
Hopefully those skills can transfer to, I don't know, extraordinarily elaborate card tricks for kids' parties?
Next up, we have the infamous Tran Organization, who took cheating to such a massive scale that they almost seemed like a legitimate company. Except, you know, the whole bribing casino employees and scamming millions part.
These folks from California had a whole network of corrupted casino dealers performing false shuffles on baccarat tables while Tran members tracked the order of cards and relayed it via tiny microphones.
Tech genius meets old-school table games - what could go wrong? Well, getting caught by the feds and losing their $7 million haul, that's what. They must have had delusions of becoming the Enron of the cheating world.
Here's a fun one: Louis Colavecchio, a former jeweler who spent his days... counterfeiting slot machine coins.
Yeah, honestly, it doesn't get more comedically devious than using your legitimate workplace skills to fund an illegal gambling operation.
The Coin, as he was called, raked in millions by slipping his fake tokens into slot machines all over Atlantic City and Connecticut.
Of course, mob ties probably didn't help his case once the authorities caught wind of his little side hustle.
After going to prison, Louis just couldn't keep his nose clean, getting arrested again years later for counterfeiting cash. A tungsten weight around his bankroll, you could say.
I can’t go without writing about the infamous MIT Blackjack Team. This group of whip-smart students took counting cards to absurd levels, racking up millions upon millions from casinos through some seriously advanced math and teamwork.
Just a bunch of nerdy kids living the dream, right? Well, dreams do sometimes become nightmares - the hard way, these brainiacs learned that even genius-level schemes can't outrun casino security forever.
As the teams got bigger and bigger, it became nearly impossible to fly under the radar. While they definitely had an impressive run, sloppy work (and egos?) eventually caught up with them, cutting short their reign as Ivy League heist kings.
You know that uneasy feeling you get when you're absolutely crushing a casino and the pit bosses start sweating?
Well, Dennis Sean McAndrew lived for that vibe. Using crazy high-tech cheating devices and a crew of accomplices, he allegedly robbed Las Vegas and Atlantic City blind to the tune of $16 million from slot machine scams alone.
Of course, pissing off Sin City tends to backfire. Dennis got pinched by the feds and was forced into a cooperation deal to avoid hard times. These days, he's barred from every casino in existence. I can't really decide if that's sadder or more impressive.
Smart, beautiful, and armed with some incredible cheating tech...what could go wrong? In the case of French grifter Monique Laurent, pretty much everything eventually imploded.
Alongside her crew, she rigged a roulette ball with a radio receiver to control where it landed, bamboozling casinos out of $1 million way back in 1973
Sadly, the old distract gross casino owner with your looks maneuver backfired dramatically. Monique got busted on her next go-around after catching feelings for the mark. Rookie mistake! Maybe she can consult on the next Ocean's movie?
In a story ripped straight from a cheesy movie plot, Ronald Harris worked for the Nevada Gaming Control Board as a programmer… who moonlit as a casino cheater.
Using his access, he rigged slots and keno games to randomly spit out jackpots for his accomplices. Somehow, this genius plan failed to remain a secret.
Harris got busted in the mid-90s, did some hard time, and landed himself in the feared Black Book - meaning he can never set foot in a Vegas casino again. What's the opposite of honor among thieves? Because that's Ron in a nutshell.
Here's one of those "took advantage of a loophole" tales that just makes you shake your head. In the late 2000s, John Kane stumbled onto a wild glitch in the Game King line of video poker machines.
Without getting too deep into it, he could infinitely replay any jackpot hand he wanted with just a bit of button trickery.
Kane and his buddy spent years netting over $500k from this super janky exploit before catching the attention of the law.
And sure, maybe they did just push some buttons…but I'm gonna guess intentionally draining casinos dry isn't covered by user agreement.
Let's be honest here - if you have the guts to swindle dozens of casinos to the tune of $37 million through sheer paper trickery, you deserve some sort of demented respect.
The Roselli Brothers posed as wealthy high-rollers, enlisted hackers, created fake financial identities, and basically strong-armed their way into astronomical credit lines around Vegas and AC.
When they inevitably skipped out on their massive debts, it took ages for the schemes to fully unravel. Of course, they enjoyed roughly zero percent of those millions after going on the run. Call it a cautionary tale about keeping your scams at least reasonably small-time?
In the 1960s, a femme fatale named Ida Summers started turning heads in Las Vegas...and not just for her striking beauty.
Known as the Vegas Vixen, she was an expert at sleight-of-hand cheating, adding or removing cards from blackjack tables with supreme cunning.
As her skills escalated, Ida even started using prearranged cooler decks to guarantee herself wins.
Of course, all that ingenuity went out the window when the FBI inevitably caught wind of her schemes. Ida faced charges, though her looks may have scored her just probation.
A tragic waste of potential, if you ask me - she could have been doing Vegas revue shows with those skills!
In the world of old-money trust funds, you generally don't expect to find big-time casino cheaters lurking.
But then there's the brazen gang known as The Cutters, who literally reeked of old money and good breeding.
These dapper South American con artists managed to nab millions globally through a stone-cold basics move: they'd simply prevent dealers from shuffling the deck completely, allowing them to track the cards like a Word document.
All through sheer charm and bluster without any flashy gadgets required! For a while, the high-society Cutters lived an Ocean's 11-caliber fantasy...which came crashing down when they finally got made, of course.
If the Roulette Crew's raucous ripping off of East Coast casinos doesn't immediately scream gritty Scorsese flick, I don't know what does.
This colorful gang of miscreants from New York pulled off one of the all-time great roulette scams - using good old-fashioned chip switching techniques to turn tiny bets into five-figure payouts in a flash.
Of course, it wouldn't be fun without some delightfully convoluted choreography.
These slick operators used accomplices posing as wait staff and patrons to distract pit bosses during big switch moves.
For years, they played out this intricate little dance at casinos up and down the Eastern seaboard before their curtain finally fell.
Now, here's a real "bet you can't do this at home" scenario. In 2004, a roving gang of scammers made up of two Russians and a Hungarian hit up the ultra-posh Ritz Casino in London.
Their ultra-high-tech gambit? Using laser scanners on their phones to actually predict where the roulette ball would drop.
For a while, this real-life Mission: Impossible plot paid off handsomely, netting the group over $1.3 million before the jig was up.
Naturally, the use of such advanced cheating gadgetry wasn't covered by any laws back then, so most of the crew walked free. Maybe they can consult on the next Bond film?
Of all the colorful casino cheaters profiled here, none quite embodied the roguish spirit of the game like Steve Maverick Forte in the 90s.
This former magician was an absolute savant with a deck of cards, using sleights of hand and psychological manipulation to gain an outrageous advantage.
Also, the dude could literally change his appearance at will to elude security - now that's dedication!
Forte's card tricks ultimately got him busted at multiple properties, including taking Trump Castle for over $225k.
The hammer really fell when he got tied to the infamous Borgata Poker Tournament cheating scandal in 2008, in which his crew used hidden cameras to rip off pros blind.
Maverick spent some years in the slammer for that one. While he insists he's reformed now, I think I'll keep my cards close, thanks.
Sometimes, the most audacious casino heists start with the simplest of plans. In 1992, Bill Brennan was just your average Las Vegas casino cashier, staring down an existential fork in the road at his job at Stardust Hotel and Casino.
So he did what any of us would do - he casually strolled out the door weighed down with $500,000 in cash and chips in a grocery bag.
The craziest part? Brennan was so slick that not a single camera picked up his exit. That, or the universe, just wanted this disgruntled everyman to find freedom from his tedious 9-to-5.
Bill pulled off the heist of a lifetime and was never, ever seen again. Maybe he's living it up on some remote island paradise as we speak.
Or decomposing in the desert after realizing the grass always ends up being 'pay dirt?' We'll probably never know.
For a long time, Phil Ivey cultivated his reputation as the unflappable Tiger Woods of Poker. All that fell apart when he racked up a whopping $20 million in tainted winnings from an edge sorting baccarat scam.
The idea was to convince the dealer to rotate valuable cards just so - using their intricate patterns to gain an outrageous advantage. Slick, right? Well, it's not slick enough, as the courts ruled edge sorting was straight cheating.
Ivey's tainted winnings were clawed back from both Borgata and London's swanky Crockfords Casino, leaving his once-sterling reputation in tatters.
While he insists the schemes were just taking advantage of manufacturing defects, few in the community bought that excuse.
These days, Ivey keeps a relatively lower profile - hoping, I'm sure, that his disgraceful Big Con phase is permanently in the rearview. me
So there you have it - 17 stories of remarkably clever folks who did remarkably stupid things with their talents.
Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to remove this Bluetooth earpiece before placing my $5 max bet on an online slot...
