Card Cheat Facing Possible Prison Sentence

Unemployed 61-year old Mihai Lacatos, was able to cheat numerous casinos across the UK by leaving dents on the cards. Romanian National is also responsible for entering casinos that he has been banned from with the fake ID cards and driver licenses.

Mihai was spending hours at the casino tables while leaving tiny dents and bends on the cards, marking them so quickly that his cheating went unnoticed for years. Before being discovered he used his technique to cheat at poker tables in numerous casinos all over the UK including casinos in Leicester, Salford, Nottingham and Birmingham.

Card marking is a well known cheating method. To be effective, marks must be visible on the observer's sides of the cards to help the cheater to identify what other players at the table are holding. Mihai Lacatos was obviously using one of the effective cheating techniques as he managed to commit frauds during the six years spree while he was living at different locations in the UK.

Mihai is certainly skilled cheater and he proved that by cheating the Playboy Club in Mayfair, London out of more than £40,000 in just one week. When his card marking was noticed at the Playboy club by the casino staff, parent company Caesars Entertainment has contacted the MPS Gaming Unit which immediately circulated his image to casinos in the UK.

It didn't stop him from using his cheating technique, however, and on the March 31 2014 he was recognized at the Rubicon Casino. The police arrested Lacatos and seized £1,485 from him He was released on bail and, while waiting for the trail, he decided to get back to his old habits.

Mihai was due to show up at the court in May 2014 but failed to do so. The detectives tracked him down and caught him at the Luton Airport where he was arrested as he tried to flee. Mihai Lacatos admitted 14 fraud charges and he will also be charged of possessing false documents. With all the fraud charges, he is looking at the possible prison sentence which will be decided on 16th March when he is returning to Southwark Crown Court. Some of these charges include casinos in Stockport, Swansea, Portsmouth and Sunderland.

There are numerous cases in the history of the casinos where people have tried to trick the staff and other players in order to win money. One of the famous scams worth of mentioning is Richard Marcus’s scam. Marcus had a job as a blackjack and baccarat dealer in a Las Vegas casino, but spent his free time cheating at other casinos. His scam was pretty simple; using a basic sleight of a hand to replace the chips with smaller denominations when he would lose his bet. His cheating technique worked for years until he got arrested and banned from the casinos. This didn't stop him either, as he continued to serve as a mentor to other cheats.

Photo: rudebaguette.com