Three Jailed in Monte Carlo Casino Roulette Scam

Three UK residents have received lengthy prison sentences for their involvement in the Roulette scam taking place in Casino de Monte-Carlo between April 2014 and June 2015.

Monaco court slapped Sadjid Rashid and Qamar Hussain with 30-month jail time, whereas their accomplice Zahidul Haque Khan escaped with a 10-month sentence.

The trio was found guilty for scamming the Monte Carlo Casino for almost €3.7 million over a 14-month period, but they were surprisingly ordered to repay just €850,000 of said earnings.

Casino de Monte-Carlo Shortcomings Exposed

Rashid, Hussain and Khan took advantage of the casino’s odd policy of roulette tokens having no face value and continuously passed off €10 tokens as €1,000 tokens, thus earning huge amounts of money.

What they would do is purchase Roulette tokens for €10, conceal them in their pockets and then bringing them back into play after raising their buy ins to €1k.

With the casino personnel painfully unaware that there was any foul play involved, the three men were even comped a suite in a luxury hotel based on their alleged high roller action.

The UK residents were finally uncovered and arrested in June 2015, with Sadjid Rashid found to be the leader of the group. Said gambler had previously served 14 months in prison for similar scams in UK brick and mortar casinos.

And with these kinds of scams now pretty common in land-based casinos, it is hardly surprising that online casinos are becoming increasingly popular among players and operators alike.

Meanwhile in Las Vegas

Craps dealer Mark Branco and his accomplice Anthony Granito joined James Cooper and Jeffrey Martin in pleading guilty for the scam that saw them cheat the Bellagio Casino out of $1.5 million over a period of two years.

And while Cooper is likely to receive a reduced sentence for his cooperation with the authorities, his three accomplices could be jailed for up up three years for their involvement in the scam.

The four men pulled off an intricate craps scheme that involved Granito and Martin placing fake hop bets and Branco and Cooper paying them off regardless of the outcomes.