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Casino Surveillance at Mohegan Sun: Two of a Kind

The biggest challenge for Mohegan Sun's security and surveillance team? Catch the crooks before they leave the casino with the loot.

October 01, 2003 — CSO — In the wee hours of a Monday morning, four guys sit down at a mini-baccarat table at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Uncasville, Conn. They are unremarkable in their appearance, demeanor and play. But their luck is anything but ordinary. In a matter of a couple hours, they ride their cards to a six-figure payout.

It could be chalked up to staggering good fortune. But in an industry where the odds are heavily stacked in favor of the house, and the schemes and scams vary from the legendary to the ludicrous, Dave Todd and Jim Friel have learned to be skeptical when Lady Luck pays an extended call. "Luck is always an intricate variable when trying to figure out if someone is cheating, and we evaluate their play to make that determination," says Todd, who is vice president of security and surveillance for the casino. "But sometimes we watch extremely lucky people, and they really are just that. Lucky."

In the case of the mini-bac players, there was reason to believe that they had more than just a well-worn rabbit's foot working in their favor. "Some people were of the opinion that these guys were lucky, but I knew something was wrong," says Friel, Mohegan's director of surveillance. A couple of details stood out for Todd and Friel when they arrived Monday and learned about the previous night's big payout. First, the win had occurred during a graveyard shift, the casino's 12 a.m. to 8 a.m. shift, when would-be cheaters assume there's a light surveillance staff. Second, the players had refused the free Player's Club cards that allow gamblers to rack up points toward food, merchandise and entertainment but that also require a valid I.D. for enrollment. Still, the dealer, floor person and pit manager noticed nothing unusual about the way the men played. Perhaps they were no-frills guys out for a late-night gamble and didn't feel like getting bogged down in paperwork and comps.

Friel didn't buy it. He suspected that if anything untoward had happened, it was likely to have occurred during the shuffle. In mini-bac, eight decks of cards are used at a time, and while eight decks are in play, another eight decks are shuffled in a large glass-enclosed machine to the side of the dealer. Friel examined the casino surveillance video.

What couldn't be seen with the naked eye, Friel could see unmistakably through the camera's filtered lens. He noticed a small infrared beam emanating from the wrist of a gentleman sitting next to the shuffle machine, illuminating the cards as they were shuffled. The man—who to the casual observer was simply a player—was, in fact, a techno-savvy grifter, recording the cards with a high-speed camera tucked up his sleeve. After the shuffle, he left the casino floor to review the film and give the sequence of cards to the playershis four accompliceswho then played the next round knowing whether the banker's or the player's hand would win.