The MGM hotel and casino in Springfield, Massachusetts is pressing charges against an alleged cheat named Daniel Ruiz, who took the casino for an estimated $30,025 using one of the oldest cheats in the book: past posting.
Past posting, or late betting, is where a player places their bet (or increases it) after betting closes on a game or event. This can be slipping extra chips onto the stack of your winning bet at roulette or – as in the movie The Sting – getting your bet in after the post horn has been sounded in a horse race. The latter is where the name past posting originates.
In this case, Ruiz is accused of having sat at the MGM Springfield’s four-card poker tables. He would play straight until after he was dealt a guaranteed winning hand and he would then distract the dealer while he slipped a few more chips onto the pile in the betting circle.
The charges are the delightfully phrased “cheating and swindling” as well as the more straightforward “larceny”.
What seems striking in this case is that the ~$30k he took the MGM mugs for was won over the course of a year, suggesting patience and consistency which is admirable, even though it suggests his moral compass might need re-magnetising.
A date has not yet been set for trial.