What happened in Ritz Hotel Casino in London ???

[plruzza]

RITZ CASINO HIT BY £1.3M LASER SCAM Mar 22 2004


Three arrested over roulette 'sting'

By Jeff Edwards, Chief Crime Correspondent


A HI-TECH gang may have taken one of Britain's most exclusive casinos for £1.3million in an amazing sting.

Two Serbian men and a "beautiful" Hungarian woman are alleged to have used a laser scanner to predict the spin of a roulette wheel at the Ritz casino in London last week.

It is claimed the device, hidden in a mobile phone, was linked to a micro-computer which calculated where the ball would drop.

As the ball was spun, the information was delivered back to the gamblers by pushing a button on the phone and bets were placed before the third spin of the wheel, which is allowed.

Police arrested the trio at a nearby West End hotel for "obtaining their winnings by deception" after the casino became suspicious.

On their first visit, the three won £100,000, but they scooped £1,200,000 the following night.

When the group left the club, they were given £300,000 in cash and a cheque for £900,000.

But after reviewing tapes from surveillance cameras, the club, which is underneath the Ritz Hotel, called in police.

Officers from the Metropolitan Police Clubs and Vice Unit, which investigates casino con tricks, seized the cash and several mobiles.

They are being examined and now Scotland Yard's Serious and Organised Crime Squad has taken over the investigation.

Yesterday, a senior police source said: "Casinos allow gamblers to place bets during the first three revolutions of the wheel. The three were betting in this narrow window.

"The device can't predict the exact number, but it does reduce odds from 37-1 to possibly 6-1.

"The trio is made up of two Serbian men, aged 39 and 34, and a very chic and beautiful Hungarian woman of 33."

They have been released on police bail until the end of the month.

There is no offence of "cheating" at a casino, but, under a Gambling Bill to go before Parliament next year, any attempt to use outside influences would be an offence.

A senior source within the casino industry said: "There have been rumours about a device that could compute the rate at which the speed of a roulette wheel and the ball degrade for several years.

"But there has been no hard evidence before that such a device has ever been used.

"Whether it is a crime at all is a moot point because the scanner does not actually interfere with the wheel or the ball.

"In the end, the only thing that the Ritz may be able to do is refuse to allow them in."

The casino refused to comment.

AMERICAN gambling giants will invest £5billion in Las Vegas-style casino resorts in Britain if the Government goes ahead with plans to deregulate the industry.


My question is:

What you think, did they used extra equipment built in cellular phones or they used usualy cellular phones with ugraded software (Infra red + software or....?)?

[Medz]

Woooow ...

After all this story wich looks like mosion imposible movei , whou may care ?!!.

[Wings]

Man Do U belive this !!!! :-)

BR

[paygee]

they have used a camera fone [may be a 3g] to send photo rather movie for rotation count.

[DABOSS]

Where did you find this story?

[blackcat]

Dejan Kaljevic?

[silvester]

Originally Posted by DABOSS

Where did you find this story?

It was discovered in mass media last week.
Check BBC site.I suppose I have seen it there also.

[mickeyblueeyes]

This story has been reported in the UK press.

The casiono owners called the police but it is still in doubt whether any offence was committed. Casinos like to fix the odds for obvious reasons, and do not like to lose too often.

I doubt such technology if it exists will be freely shared for quite a while. By the time it is I expect all Casinos will have signal blockers installed in their premises.

[farrell]

The mobile phones were physically modified to conceal a laser scanner. Precision is crucial for that type of calculation! Maybe only a mobile phone housing was used.

[plruzza]

@farrell

Are you sure???

Two things:

1. Laser beam is visible (red light), isn't it?
If they used laser beam it was visible during game. But Casino found that
something is not normal after reviewing tapes from surveillance cameras !!!
Women was "shoot" with her mobile phone on wheal and two men look in
they mobile phone screen.
2. I read comment that equipment with laser and computer which support all
that must have 10 kg minimum, it is impossible to put in mobile phone.

I think that they used normal mobile phones with some especially software but Casino and police can't tell it ....we all know reason...

@paygee

3g phone...movie!!?? Maybe, maybe....Stroboeffect...???

[paygee]

Originally Posted by plruzza

@farrell

Are you sure???

Two things:

1. Laser beam is visible (red light), isn't it?
If they used laser beam it was visible during game. But Casino found that
something is not normal after reviewing tapes from surveillance cameras !!!
Women was "shoot" with her mobile phone on wheal and two men look in
they mobile phone screen.
2. I read comment that equipment with laser and computer which support all
that must have 10 kg minimum, it is impossible to put in mobile phone.

I think that they used normal mobile phones with some especially software but Casino and police can't tell it ....we all know reason...

@paygee

3g phone...movie!!?? Maybe, maybe....Stroboeffect...???

there r invisible lasers aswell . yes it could be a stroboscope or some soft based on stroboscope.

u know a continuos laser operation requirs a lot of power, and it is not possible in moderen cell fone [miniature series] it could be a old motorolla ''ultra light'' which was mesured almost half of a human arm

but these r guess,,,may be we could find out here what method exactly was used or may be some 1 find out more sophisticated way

so carry on and send ur ideas.
what about the ''electro megnetic power generated by the transmitter of a cellfone?? old 1's had pretty enough, may be some sort of special frequency modulated on a carrier to jam the spinning deveice??

if some 1 have details how these casino machines work?

[farrell]

Yes, I am sure.

1. A laser is a device that emits highly amplified and coherent radiation of one or a combination of frequencies. The most common laser uses of atoms in a metastable energy state that, as they decay to a lower energy level, stimulate others to decay, resulting in a cascade of emitted radiation (a beam). The product of this laser, can be a BEAM (hence laser beam) of radiation within the range of the electromagnetic spectrum detectable by the human eye: VISIBLE LIGHT!

I think it would be impossible to reach their level of precision by using the poor visible light conditions available in a casino, soi an optical camera in a phone would be impossible. They could use a powerfull source of infrared light, for example.

2. The parent of this thread says:
"The device, hidden in a mobile phone, was linked to a micro-computer which calculated where the ball would drop."

The mobile phone is in communication, not containing, the "microcomputer"

You can find the source of the parent here:
http://www.casinoguru.net/modules/ne...pic=0&start=15

Regards,


Jan Farrell

[farrell]

You can allways find out more at the Britney Spears' Guide to Semiconductor Physics, very entertaining:

http://britneyspears.ac/lasers.htm

[Medz]

The all operation is summarised in Tech. it is a complex rputein , but we can immagine in some steps :
1- the stroboscope - it must be non magnetic cause the wheil is non magnetic to avoide cheating ( so no electromagnetic I/O used ) . come to ' Ray ' , it must be invisible ( infrared is visible in cameras but invisible for human eyes only ) so it could be excluded . now comeing to laser , they can use it ( the invisible one , I dont know if it visible to the cameras or not ) .with a point of invisible spray or a paint ( just visible to the alser detectors) on any part on the wheil , So the counter formes.
Sending data to a PDA ( by a blue tooth device ) compleetes the data line bus.

2- The computing , wich is verey simple cause it is a small equation from dynamics , and with a game like software they can detect the point of ball starting and the area expectable to stop.

3- Rmains the big problem , it is mainly in the floating of the ball over the wheil during it's runing , it kicks here and ther hazardly , the ball jumps , runs , and floats over the wheil . Here comes the question ........ How to compute this !!! ??

Brs

[farrell]

1. most cameras cannot detect infrared light, they just detect visible light.

2. & 3. You say the computing is easy, but then you say it isn't. You can either study many throws, and detect a probabilistic area for the ball to end, taking into account the variables:
- initial rotational velocity of the roulette.
- direction of the ball at a series of moments before the third rotation of the roulette.

But if you want to be able to do this for any roulette, i suppose you wouldn't be able to study each one for a long period of time, so you would have to implement into your equations the constants for each roulette:
- The deceleration provoked by friction: how fast the wheel stops (can be measured fast within a handful of turns)
- The size/weight/elastic properties of each ball (is this standard for all roulettes?)
- The size/inclination/shape/material of the roulette wheel (is this also standard?)

Actually, if I think about it, I can suppose that after two turns of the wheel, the ball may be rotating inside the wheel at a relatively constantly decreasing rate, so by studying the rate of decrease in rotational speed of the roulette, and by studying this same property of the ball, you can easily calculate an approximate destination. However, this would be very difficult if within the three turns, the ball is still bouncing very erratically.

Thinking about these methods, you would only need a few "pictures" of the roulette, at extremely precisely timed moments, and extremely good quality, so a very sensitive infrared camera and/or with a good "light" source, would be enough, as well as, of course, connecting it up to a pda (or...?) to make the velocity calculations. Then, just earn unhealthy wads of money.

It seems that these people must have been extremely stupid to have got caught, as it looks like something very easy to get away with, unless you get greedy and try and earn too much money in a single casino. Just go to las vegas and earn $50000 in each, no-one would ever realise you aren't just plain lucky, especially if you are loosing 75% of the time.

Don't forget that life is a sexually transmitted disease.