The Top 3 Roulette Cheating Habits of Millionaire Gamblers

How casino high rollers try to cheat

We expose the top three cheating strategies big-time gamblers use to try to beat casinos and take home the cash.

If you ask any casino dealer if gamblers cheat while playing, every one of them will say yes. This applies to high rollers as much as to standard players. Cheating is, in fact, fairly commonplace. It’s not condoned, of course, and casinos do take action. Cheating is not something that’s out of the ordinary however.

In terms of the action that casinos take, it’s not like in the movies. Casino don’t have burly men that unceremoniously bundle cheaters out the door. At the most, you can expect to get barred, but even that’s rare in some casinos.

Another thing that’s not like the movies is the methods that people use to cheat, particularly high rollers. The things you see on movies are methods like counting cards and sleight of hand. Both of these methods are typically far too complex and require particular skills and lots of practice.

Another method of cheating seen in movies that’s not really used in real life is marking cards. It just isn’t practical.

The Methods That Cheaters Do Try

While the movies may have casino cheating wrong, there are some things that punters do try. Here are three of the most common:

Claiming to Have Bet the Wrong Chip

This is a very simple ploy. It basically works by a punter putting down a series of very similar bets. Then they get a win. Only then do they tell the dealer they made a mistake and meant to put down a bigger chip—a £100 chip instead of a £5 one for example. In other words, they pretend to have intended to bet more than they did just because it’s a winning bet—they want the bigger pay-out.

Strangely, this tactic sometimes works, but only if the casino knows you well and you have spent lots of money with them over many years. It’s more of an indulgence than a casino policy.

Claiming to Have Misplaced the Chip

This is most commonly seen at the roulette table. The punter makes a bet and the ball then drops close to where they have bet. They then try to claim the bet was placed wrong and they actually wanted the winning number in the first place.

Another ruse is to place the bet in a split and then try to claim they actually wanted a specific number when the ball drops favourably. Of course, they would win on the split too, but the direct win would return much higher winnings.

Again, this method of cheating is usually only indulged by the casinos if you are known to them as someone who comes regularly and/or spends lots of money.

Claiming a Bet That Wasn’t Placed Would Have Been

This is another unsophisticated way of cheating that sometimes works—if you are the right person. It usually involves someone placing a consistent bet over time, for example, betting on the same number at roulette for spin after spin. Often this occurs night after night, week after week, until the casino knows you as a player who always bets on that number when at the roulette table.

You can’t stay at the roulette table all the time though. Sometimes you have to go to the toilet or get a drink at the bar. This cheat occurs in those situations. While at the bar or toilet, the number the person has been betting on lands. They didn’t bet, though, as they weren’t at the table. They claim they would have bet, however, and demand to be paid out.