The Vegas Asymmetric Threat

If you have not already seen my post entitled Takin’ Vegas, I recommend you read it first.

Guns don’t kill people. People kill people. And so it is. In Vegas, behind every scam there is a "who" … and it is always a who (or many whos) that lays out strategies, develops plans, recruits actors, trains, adapts, rehearses and ultimately executes the mission – all in hopes of taking home some loot. Undetected.

How do they do this?

For starters, if the actor believes he has already become known to casinos as a subject of interest, he will attempt to defeat recognition through the use of a disguise e.g., changing his hair style, growing a beard, sporting a bandana, slipping into some motorcycle apparel, etc. Some go so far as cross-dressing or pretending to be wheelchair-ridden.

Beyond a new look, opportunists will claim false identities and carry false credentials. There is one particular subject I am familiar with that has used over 30 very different aliases and a handful for different social security numbers and dates of birth. [On a funny but related note, check this out: Be Anyone in Vegas: Get Help Creating a Cover Story Here]

When actors want to expand their business, they recruit. Recruitment can be local or distant. New recruits are trained in rogue facilities so that by the time these new actors appear on the scene, they have superb tradecraft despite having never laid foot in a casino.

One insidious form of recruitment is the recruitment of a casino’s longstanding, high roller to participate in a coordinated covert scheme … or worse, the recruitment of the casino’s own employees. I know of one case where a dealer was coerced into assisting the scammers after being told his wife and children were going to be hurt.

The more significant the opportunity, the more organized the group, which means strategy meetings, business plans, capital raising, operating procedures, training guides, and so on. Attention to detail is essential to increased revenues and the sustainability of the group effort.

Larger teams may establish counter-intelligence measures to reduce the risk of being infiltrated by the establishment or scammed themselves by scammers. Their own team members may be placed under covert surveillance to ensure these trusted insiders have not gone bad over time as trust has a half-life.

Large teams have cells, sub-units that are expected to work together. Some cell members are members of several cells. As with any organization there are conflicting purposes and ideologies, thus membership in cells tend to morph over time.

Often, there is no apparent center of power. New groups emerge simply based on the inspiration of a movie, book, online chat rooms, etc. Groups form, merge, split and dissolve. Some groups just specialize in card counting while others specialize in a certain cheating methods e.g., "bet pressing" – adding to a bet after the outcome is known or the manufacturing of illegal cheating devices. Some groups start with one particular brand of cheating and then branch out into other specialties.

Imagine coordinating a team with 50, 100 and sometimes even more actors! What a challenge!

Well, actually, thanks to the Internet … training, recruitment, soft targets, etc. are at one’s fingertips. Some web sites maintain a level 1 area with limited revelation and benign chat rooms. There are level 2 areas which require the user first undergo a background check before being provided access. At level 3 the member is not only required to have a background check but is also required to have committed a felonious activity. And it is this group that shares even more sensitive information … for argument’s sake this might be viewed as equivalent to a government "Top Secret" clearance. Above this level, much like a military’s Special Access Program, very specialized knowledge is controlled to a minimum and known universe of folks. When the identities of the 12 Nevada dealers with subtle procedural defects in how they dealt hand held blackjack were discovered, such secrets are worthy of such extraordinary controls. The principle: if too many people knew about this weakness, it may be exploited at a pace that would have resulted in casino defection, prompting the casino to quickly close this vulnerability.

The latest challenge? Poker.

Poker is the problem these days. You think you are playing at a table with a fair shot. But unbeknownst to you, there is a team on that table working together against you – even though they make no outward appearance of knowing each other.

Is that slight twitch in the eye "natural" or "a signal"?

RELATED POST:

Takin’ Vegas

IEEE Spectrum Story: Vegas 911

IEEE Paper: Threat and Fraud Intelligence – Las Vegas Style

Web 2.0 – Al Qaeda’s Most Effective Force Multiplier

Comments

[Don - Needs Slot Machine Tips]

Can I add?

Las Vegas problem scenario
An individual barred by gaming regulators from transacting with casinos has just enrolled in your slot club, using a slightly different name and a date of birth in which the month and day are transposed. He’s now playing in your casino, which places your gaming license at risk. How
would you know?

[Kyla Reed]

Excellent post (as usual here...).

You are mentioning high rollers a few times. Can I expand on it a little?

A high roller, also referred to as a whale in the casino industry, is a gambler that wagers large amounts of money. Because of potential windfall these high sums can bring to the casinos, high rollers often receive increasingly lavish "perks" from casinos to lure them onto the gambling floors, such as free private jet transfers, free limousine use and free use of the casinos best suites.

These players often have tables with very high table limits that can shut out almost all other players, allowing the whale exclusive use of a table.

High rollers are said to provide only a small fraction of casino "action." John Eidsmoe, in his book Legalized Gambling: America's Bad Bet, claims that it is actually gamblers from the lower and lower-middle classes in the United States that provide much of the gambling money. "The occasional wealthly 'high roller' does indeed exist, but he is the exception, not the standard. The fact that more than 50% of Nevada's gambling income comes from slot machines as opposed to the card tables should be an indication high rollers are not the main source of revenue."

While high rollers may not provide a significant portion of the revenues in the Casino Industry as a whole as stated above, for the casinos who go after them, they have a major effect on their yearly revenue streams. There are also significant costs associated with attracting the highest stakes gamblers, therefore if a casino takes this chance and the whale wins, it can cause major financial problems for the casino. On the reverse side if the casino's investment pays off and the high roller loses on his visit, the casino can experience significant revenue gains for the year. .

[Keith - Las Vegas]

I had to read this bit twice "sporting a bandana" ..... as I was wondering who'd wear a banana!!!

2009 Is a great year to visit Vegas, already been 4 times from the UK this year, as they are basically giving flights and hotels away. Going back in October.

I'm actually a full-time pro-gamber but go to Vegas for a break from it!! I only spend about 3 days out of the 2 weeks at the poker tables, and being a sarcastic sod it is easy to wind the tourists up so they make mistakes.

[Jenna Collins]

Vegas is still a great place to visit but unfortunately over the recent years 2010 and 2011 since the downturn of the U.S economy it just does not have the glamour and glitz it used to.

Gone are the days of those wonderfull prime rib and lobster buffets which atracted a lot of heavy hitters that where not afraid to spend but not anymore.