Inside Asian Gaming

21 they’d get their suckers’money. Within hours the two cheats were ahead fifty grand. The stakes had started at $300/$600, then after an hour gone to $500/$1,000. After two hours, they were $1,000/$2,000. The thieves had the money to cover it; but more importantly, so did their marks. All eight were packing large. Each had a hundred grand cash on his person, and hundreds of thousands more in safe deposit boxes in their hotel rooms or at the casino cage. A few had already made round-trips to fetch more cash. The grifters had told their marks that they had the suite at their dis- posal for the entire summer, which would have been true if they needed it. But it was expensive; they were secretly paying three grand a night to set up their marks in its lav- ish confines. They did not have the whole summer to burn on these unlucky pigeons. The victims would run out of money and leave Atlantic City without ever seeing the tournament. But what did the grifters care? There would be plenty more well-heeled suckers to take their places. If enough of them continued hitting the beachside gambling town, they would stay there all summer, maybe even into the fall. Who knew? All they did know was that this was their big score, the one that made hustling their entire lifetimes worth it. For the mastermind of the scam it was the ultimate risk, for he was the most well-known and respected anti-cheating consultant to the casino industry. Casinos worldwide had been paying him tens of thousands to teach them how to thwart cheaters. This guy wrote the books. He even authored a chapter on how people could protect themselves in high-stakes private games. Talk about the ultimate betrayal. So it had to be worth it.They would all get rich and then retire to a velvety white beach somewhere. Maybe Rio. Maybe Tahiti. Wher- ever, it would all be over, no regrets. Just bags of cash under the sun. And if ever they got too lavish and spent too much of their booty, there was always another palatial suite wait- ing for them in a hotel staging a major poker tournament. There was always the World Se- ries of Poker in Las Vegas,always more big ac- tion and suckers. Like a house of cards But something unforeseen was about to happen. The scam would soon come tum- bling down, though no sign of the end was yet evident at the poker table inside the posh suite. In fact, at the very moment the Their plan was to fatten up their bankrolls and then invade the tables at Atlantic City’s richest poker tournament, the Borgata Sum- mer Open, which was to begin in two weeks, with an entry fee of US$5,000 and a cool half- million going to the winner.