French authorities have arrested a 63-year-old Ukrainian and a 37-year-old Latvian on suspicion of perpetrating a sophisticated, hi-tech poker and blackjack cheating scam in casinos throughout Europe.
The as-yet unnamed men were detained Monday at the Casino Barrière Enghien-les-Bains in the Paris suburbs, France Info reported Friday.
Certain details are thin on the ground. But, acting on a tip, police installed special surveillance equipment inside the casino on Sunday night after they were informed about certain players’ “abnormal results.”
‘Microscopic’ Earpiece
Police were able to ascertain that one of the men who was playing at the poker table was equipped with an earpiece so tiny that it had to be removed from his ear with a magnet.
Le Parisien claimed the earpiece was “microscopic” and “invisible to the naked eye.”
Meanwhile, the suspect’s mobile phone had been modified to include a camera on the side angled very slightly upward. As it lay flat on the table, it could glimpse the undersides of cards dealt by the dealer to other players in the game.
The phone modification was described as “complex” by Commissioner Stéphane Piallat, head of the Central Racing and Gaming Service (SCCJ) at the national directorate of the judicial police (DNPJ).
The suspect’s accomplice was sitting in a car in the parking lot viewing the stream and relaying information about the values of his opponents’ cards back through the earpiece, according to police.
‘Unique’ Cheating System
The two men were arrested by police at around 1 a.m. on Monday. A search of their hotel rooms and vehicle uncovered numerous access cards to casinos all over Europe.
Authorities believe the men are part of an East European cheating syndicate that has been fleecing casinos and poker players of “several tens of thousands of euros each night” they hit the tables.
Piallat described the cheating system as “unique,” – and contradictorily, “unknown in France and very little documented in Europe.”
Piallat encouraged casinos to “take measures to ensure that this type of fraud can no longer take place.”
The two men have been charged with “organized gang fraud” and placed in pretrial detention as part of a judicial investigation by the Pontoise prosecutor’s office.
Investigators hope to identify additional members of the network.
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