The 13 bandits of "Ocean's Eleven" English version finally arrested!

Is the number 13 supposed to bring good luck? That wasn't necessarily true for our 13 scammers, who roamed casinos for months before being caught by authorities a few weeks ago. For months, establishments had been noticing strange results on certain electronic roulette machines. Just when they thought they could trust technology, these bandits at least had the merit of proving them wrong. In the end, it was the Casino Barrière d'Enghien-les-Bains that gave the signal and helped apprehend the group of criminals. Let's take a look back at a story that will make its mark on the world of English gambling.

Always the same procedure

Around 2013, English gambling establishments started offering their players electronic table games. They replaced some of their dealers with machines, especially in electronic English roulette games.

Casinos thought they were therefore safe from any fraud on such games... A gross mistake! That was without counting on the collaboration between a group of thirteen individuals from Île de France with malicious intent, and a Novomatic technician revealing to them how to exploit a security flaw in these games.

They thus learned that it was possible to stop the game - an option reserved for machine maintenance agents - by activating a lever located under the machine. Thanks to this system, these cunning individuals could then cancel the bets that were about to be lost. To do this, all they had to do was enter a casino, sit together at one of these electronic roulette tables, press the button to restart the machine, and see their respective bets re-credited to them.

They would have thus, according to an estimate established by the investigators, embezzled more than 700,000$ in more than 15 casinos.

Criminals literally caught red-handed

Last May, by analyzing the results of electronic roulette machines, the Casino of Enghien-les-Bains unsealed an anomaly.

They immediately filed a complaint and analyzed the video recordings, which they then sent to the police. In these tapes, there was an individual who activated the said lever, with their hand hidden by a bag.

The time for the investigation to be established, the managers were kind enough to inform other casinos of this anomaly, not without warning them about the deception used by this group of 13 fraudsters. The other establishments only had to keep an eye out, and about fifteen of them joined Casino Barrière after also noticing an unusual payout rate.

The case is progressing, but it is highly unlikely that this story will end well for the scammers. These individuals will likely have to pay a hefty compensation to the casinos and may also face an exemplary prison sentence.