London Device Scam

The following is a direct quote from the BBC Ceefax service....

'Laser scam' gamblers to keep �1

A group of gamblers who won more than �1m at London's Ritz casino by using laser technology have been told by police that they can keep their winnings.

The trio- a hungarian woman and two serbian men- were arrested in March but police have apparently decided that they did not break the law.

A laser scanner linked to a computer was allegedly used to gauge numbers likely to come up on the roullette wheell.

But poluce said the case had now been closed, with no charges brought.

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In England the device law forbids using a device to influence the outcome of a bet but it doesn't outlaw devices that merely predict the outcome. Shark

I was playing BJ some 18 months ago in an east european capital. I was approached by two men ( a serb and a russian). They wanted to know about roulette's table limits in various middle eastern countries. They said they had access to a new laser predictive device that had never been used before.

I didn't think being in a company of this couple would enhance longevity , so I cut the conversation short. I still run into the russian guy in other casinos during my trips to that capital. Shark

By bj21's resident sith lord Michael Barnettius the laser is basically an optional extra. It is kind of like when computers were poorly understood by the public a few decades back and whenever they were mentioned people assumed they could do virtually everything. All a laser can do is give you a much more accurate timing device than a hand-operated device like a stopwatch. In both cases, the edge is fantastic compared to any kind of conventional AP. Thorp was doing this stuff, albeit for small stakes, three and a half decades ago.

If you want to take out a few million, rather than a few hundred thousand, as this team seemed to want, the laser helps a big deal. You basically eliminate timing error by using the laser. If you want to get a film and a lucrative book deal out of a gambling heist, then a few million counts for a lot more than a few hundred thousand.

London's evening standard says that the laser reduces the 37-1 shot to a 6-1 shot. The laser users were betting a quarter of the wheel at a time which I would assume pays 9-1, so I think in the long run they were winning 3-1 per spin.

I may be way off here as I have never played roullette and my knowledge of the game extends to knowing that if black has come in 10 times continuously red HAS to be next LOL