Casinos in Asia, take heed: There is no such thing as a foolproof high-tech system for catching professional cheats.
That's the warning from former swindler Richard Marcus, who says he ripped off US$20 million from the world's gaming tables over more than two decades.
Marcus, 50, is now a consultant to the casinos he used to cheat.
PHOTO: AFP
He was never caught despite the array of surveillance gear installed by gaming operators in Las Vegas, Monte Carlo, Macau and Australia, he said in a recent interview.
"I was the most wanted casino cheater ever in the history of the world. They just could never catch me," Marcus said, his face beaming with pride at his 25-year track record.
He said he remained at large partly because casinos are too reliant on technology to catch the conmen.
Asia's gaming industry is undergoing an unprecedented expansion and will face the same problem, said Marcus, an American now living in Paris.
"There is never a foolproof system because it depends on people. Never 100 percent," he said on the sidelines of a regional gaming conference in Singapore.
"No matter how many millions of dollars they invest in surveillance systems, if you don't have the people, if the people are not smart, they are going to get beat anyway and that's the problem," he said.
Even Asian casinos run by Las Vegas Sands and other heavyweights of the industry are ill-equipped to handle professional cheats because their local staff lack experience, Marcus said.
Sands spearheaded the expansion of gaming in Macau, when Sands Macau opened in 2004.
Las Vegas Sands is also developing one of Singapore's two multi-billion-dollar gaming complexes. Malaysia's Genting International has broken ground on the city-state's other gaming and entertainment development.
Early last month, Macau said it had overtaken the Las Vegas Strip as the world's biggest casino draw, saying it raked in more than US$7 billion last year, five years after the sector was liberalized there.
"All the cheating teams -- especially the ones that are good -- they are going to converge in Macau more and more because you have big, brand new casinos with inexperienced people," Marcus said.
"So they are going to get killed," he said.
Marcus also foresees a similar "big problem" in Singapore when the Sands and Genting-run complexes open by 2010.
He said that casino operators can limit the financial damage from professional cheats by following his advice and placing more emphasis on training staff to detect deft moves at the gaming tables.
He also trains casino surveillance teams. But security is not just their responsibility -- no one from the dealers to the one monitoring the video cameras can afford to relax, he said.
Marcus said he quit cheating in 2000 because he had made enough money and that it is "almost like a natural crossover" to go from casino swindler to consultant.
"I do it mainly because I need to be doing something to keep my mind going," he said.
He has written five books about gambling cheats, including American Roulette, a memoir of his own experiences as a jet-setting casino swindler.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
‘FAILED EXPORT CONTROLS’: Jensen Huang said that Washington should maximize the speed of AI diffusion, because not doing so would give competitors an advantage Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday criticized the US government’s restrictions on exports of artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China, saying that the policy was a failure and would only spur China to accelerate AI development. The export controls gave China the spirit, motivation and government support to accelerate AI development, Huang told reporters at the Computex trade show in Taipei. The competition in China is already intense, given its strong software capabilities, extensive technology ecosystems and work efficiency, he said. “All in all, the export controls were a failure. The facts would suggest it,” he said. “The US
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
French President Emmanuel Macron has expressed gratitude to Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) for its plan to invest approximately 250 million euros (US$278 million) in a joint venture in France focused on the semiconductor and space industries. On his official X account on Tuesday, Macron thanked Hon Hai, also known globally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), for its investment projects announced at Choose France, a flagship economic summit held on Monday to attract foreign investment. In the post, Macron included a GIF displaying the national flag of the Republic of China (Taiwan), as he did for other foreign investors, including China-based
RSS