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Oceans 11-type heist: In a scene reminiscent of the film “Ocean’s 11,” a man scammed $33 million from a casino in Australia.
(Ted Aljibe/AFP/Getty Images)
Melbourne’s Crown Casino was breached by a foreigner who is said to have accessed the facility’s surveillance cameras that are directed at players and dealers. In the operation, the man apparently was able to receive information from the cameras about how he should bet as he played cards at the casino, reported the Herald Sun newspaper.
The newspaper interviewed staff at the casino, but they did not notice anything suspicious about the foreigner. He was said to be polite and personable towards people there.
The Australian Associated Press said the man played eight hands of cards at a high-stakes area.
A spokesperson with the Crown told the AAP that “Crown’s surveillance department recently reported concerns over a sophisticated betting scam. A Crown investigation is under way and is ongoing.” Police have also been notified.
The Crown said that a staff member from the VIP gambling area was fired and the foreigner was banned after the scam was discovered a few weeks ago.
In Ocean’s 11, characters played by Brad Pitt and George Clooney try to rob a series of casinos in Las Vegas. In one case, they use a staff member who knows about casino security.
Baron Stringfellow, a casino security expert, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that it would be easy to intercept some types of surveillance systems in casinos.
“It’s very easy to intercept the signal from many casinos that don’t take precautions,” he said. “The problem with casinos is that they think they’re unbeatable but we see over and over again that they’re not.”
However, he said that he has never seen a scam similar to the heist depicted in Ocean’s 11.
“Ocean’s 11 is a great movie,” he said, adding that “I’m not aware of a casino that’s been robbed the way that Ocean’s 11 purported it. We do see the snatch and grab, we see the cage robbery, we see counterfeit chips, card counters, inside jobs and slot machine cheaters,” according to The West Australian.
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