Richard Marcus has been infamous in Las Vegas for his con artistry for quite some time. Marcus and his accomplices stole thousands of dollars from casinos in Las Vegas by using a practice called “past posting.”
Marcus and his friends were able to cheat casinos out of even more money once they developed the “Roulette Mix-Up” and “The Savannah” tactics while risking very little of their own. For 25 years, he defrauded a global network of dealers out of $25,000,000 without anybody suspecting him as the scheme’s architect.
How He Cheats in Las Vegas
An individual by the name of Joe Classon stopped by Marcus’ baccarat table. One night, Classon asked him to meet with him after his shift to convince him to take part in a baccarat scam at the Four Queens casino. If he opted to participate in this fraud, he guaranteed him a sizable piece of the income.
Marcus was the one who came up with their plan’s execution strategy. Richard came up with a strategy to shuffle the cards so that his replacement dealer would deal the predetermined hands without being aware that the odds were in Classon and his teammates’ favor. This strategy helped them win more than $21,000.
Marcus joined Classon’s late-betting (past-posting) strategy team, which is when he experienced his real breakthrough. Their strategy involved placing a wager after the cutoff for official wagers had passed. They wouldn’t lay a wager until the game was over or it was clear how it would end.
His creation of the “mix-up” roulette strategy, in which he would add a few more high-value chips after being assured that his bet had won, was his greatest gift to the team. While waiting, other coworkers would search for strategies to temporarily divert the dealer’s attention so he wouldn’t be seen.
These late-betting techniques were seen as being very illegal in casinos, and in certain extreme circumstances, were even criminal by law. In 1982, Marcus was charged with late betting and given a maximum sentence of ten years in prison. He pretended ignorance as usual and left without being persuaded.
After twelve challenging years, he quit Classon’s company intending to start his team. His dreams were realized when, in Las Vegas, he ran with Andy “Balls,” a former classmate, and urged him to join him in his scheme to swindle the casinos of even more money.
Marcus called Pat Mallery, another old friend, after deciding that working in groups of three would be ideal. Together, the three went back to Las Vegas to carry out his boldest strategy yet.
Marcus came up with a creative way to cheat at games like roulette, baccarat, blackjack, and poker by hiding $5,000 in casino chips under $5 chips and tilting the $5 chips slightly in the direction of the dealer to hide the bottom chip. They would swiftly flip the chip back to a $5 one if they lost, losing only $10 on that wager, but if they won, they would expose their hidden $5,000 chip and collect $10,010.
Marcus and his friends would play the “drunk player” card, stuttering and claiming they hadn’t even seen the ball dropped if the dealer was paying attention and noticed the swap. Later, this complex system came to be known as the “Savannah Strategy.” Before casino officials and game authorities caught on, Marcus’ crew was able to get away with this sort of thing hundreds of times.
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