[Music]
in las vegas more than 35 million people
try to strike it rich
every year most leave empty-handed or
worse but sheets in vegas are always
looking for new ways to beat the system
and vegas security is just as committed
to stopping them
cheaters cheat because basically they
have the feeling that i am special
because i can do this they'll say
there's an opportunity for me to make
money
they'll go home and they'll practice it
practice and practice it come in and
beat us
but every time the cheaters think they
have the system beat
the system gets better these are the
crimes that push
vegas to up their game these are the
game changers
cheaters have been around since gambling
began in the united states
in the old west you had to see the cheat
to catch it
and justice was swift
[Applause]
today thousands of cameras police every
moment of every game
that means cheaters have to be slicker
than ever
the technology just seems to be never
ending and the biggest
challenge for us is to keep up with that
technology
it's a high-tech game of cat and mouse
but
every once in a while a criminal comes
along who's able to fly completely
under the radar and in the process
changes the game
forever
these men and women would justify you
know stealing
in all sorts of ways the casino industry
is dishonest or some other nonsense
and they would talk themselves into
being okay
with stealing
keeping track of the city's most
notorious cheats is the job of the
nevada gaming control board
their version of the fbi's most wanted
list
called the black book was created in
1960.
had six people that were originally put
in it
and they were all organized crime
figures and these people
were not allowed to enter any casino
but as the old mobsters died off a new
generation of tech savvy cheats took
over
and they were added to the list you have
to be
a threat to the casino industry and
there's about 37 or 38
in the black book right now most are
career criminals who cheated the casinos
for years before being caught
whenever you make an arrest on someone
from a law enforcement standpoint
it's a success so that's kind of how i
view putting someone in the blackboard
once you're in the book you have the
right to dispute it
but no one has ever won their way or
litigated their way out of it the only
way you get out of the black book is to
die
then they take you out
[Music]
one of the most notorious cheats to ever
make the book
targets the city's hardware it is an
ongoing war
in the industry between the
manufacturers on the one side
and the cheats on the other enter
the city's biggest money makers
in vegas there are 120 000 working slot
machines
one for every five residents they're
called one-armed bandits because they're
responsible for more than 75 percent of
casino profits
and with all that money sitting on the
casino floor slots are
and always have been glittering beacons
for cheats
looking for a quick payout
from the earliest days cheats have tried
fooling the machines with slugs
or coins attached to strings that could
then be pulled back out
but as the machines became more
sophisticated so did the cheats
one of the most successful slot sheets
of all time is a former tv repairman
named tommy carmichael for more than two
decades
carmichael designed tools that enabled
him and other cheats to scam
millions from slot machines and every
vegas slot machine you see today
was engineered with tommy carmichael in
mind
the devices that tommy carmichael could
create
would allow a very surreptitious entry
of a machine
and a very surreptitious breaching of
the security features of a machine
that were successful and worked in a
large
population of the makes and models of
slot machines out at that time
this is 62 year old carmichael he agreed
to sit down for this exclusive interview
to reveal
how he took vegas for a ride
it was like a giant atm just wherever
you wanted to go for vacation you
went to withdraw also
the story begins in carmichael's tv
repair shop
a friend of his dropped by with a uh
what he told him was a cheating device
the chi slot machines
and it was called a top and bottom joint
here's how the top and bottom joint
works
in 1980 slots had come a long way from
the earliest machines
originally slotted discs were attached
to the ends of three
spinning reels inside to hit a jackpot
all of the slots had to line up
perfectly and that's how slot machines
got their name
but on the newer machines levers are
attached to the spinning
reels these levers have metal contacts
on the ends
which rest against a fixed board that's
also covered with contacts
the contacts are wired to a circuit
board and when a jackpot is won
a circuit completes and turns on the
motor of the hopper which dispenses the
money
the cheating device brought into
carmichael's shop that day
hot wires the hopper's motor triggering
a payout
[Music]
[Applause]
this device the top and bottom joint
comes in two parts
the bottom tool is made from a short
piece of guitar string
there's a small wire that went in the
bottom left corner of the uh
of the machine and it went up against
the circuit board that was in there the
wire
draws the current from the circuit board
and sends a low wattage of electricity
running through the slot machine
then the top tool a piece of metal
shaped like the number nine
is inserted into the coin slot this
completes an electrical circuit
powerful enough to activate the hopper
that dispenses money
and the coins come flooding out
carmichael's friend is making money hand
over fist in vegas
while carmichael is barely scraping by
in tulsa
he wants in on the action
so he flies to nevada to try his luck
with his friend's device
in 1980 security cameras aren't around
to capture his activities
in fact they won't be installed
throughout casinos for more than nine
years
carmichael sits down at a slot machine
inserts the top and bottom joint
and suddenly tommy carmichael has a new
career
cheating vegas
carmichael begins commuting to sin city
to run his scam
the machines held about 75 dollars back
then
on a good day by working all day long
you might make 2 000
a day which was good money carmichael's
daily take
is the equivalent of more than five
thousand dollars today
i'd stay out there and let somebody else
run the shop
i'd be out there a couple months at a
time but when i'd come back
it seemed like the shop never made any
money so
i finally just shut the shop down
completely and and moved out there and
started that point actually carmichael
begins
living large he makes and buys new
friends
you know you got vegas and it's designed
to separate you from your money which
it's very good at
so even though you're making larger
money
uh you're also spending larger money
we'd go the show we had some pretty good
dinners
for me fifteen eighteen hundred dollars
per meal
pretty good for four or five people
he found a way to make money faster and
he didn't mind
and probably enjoyed being a criminal
and so he
decided it was worth the risk beating
the machines were never the problem
it was the people around you without
drawing attention you need to get
this money out of the machine without
them noticing it or hearing it
or appearing that you're doing anything
that was the more complicated part of
the whole
whole thing to avoid suspicion
carmichael never stays in one place too
long
for five years he hits casinos
all over vegas then in 1985 the casinos
catch some crooks using the top and
bottom device
in response slot machine manufacturers
develop a way to recognize the surge of
electricity the device creates
they were putting slow blow fuses in
machines and if you
tried to cheat it with the wire in it
would blow this fuse and
and uh it would shut down
soon these upgraded slots are everywhere
and for carmichael it looks like the end
for his easy money
obviously making two or three 400 a day
if you were lucky
because everything was shrinking down to
nothing
to continue cheating he has to find the
old machines to prey on
he would hit several slot machines in
one casino at a time
and empty them and this brought
suspicion on him
on july 4th 1985 tommy carmichael gets
caught
cheating while playing a slot machine
near the strip
enforcement agents from the nevada
gaming control board
arrest him i had the tools on me
and when they searched me they asked me
what's this i said well i believe you
know
and uh that was pretty much it
carmichael
is in serious trouble cheating
especially using a device to cheat
is a felony punishable by up to six
years in prison for your first offense
carmichael is sentenced to five years
but while most people find their careers
on hold during a prison stay
tommy carmichael uses it as a breeding
ground
for his next big scam prison is a
situation you pick your own friends
and there were slot uh players there and
so
we all kind of hung out together one of
these slot sheets is a man named michael
balsamo
balsamo has been in and out of prison
since 1980.
michael balsamo was a career criminal
that was his life that was his lifestyle
and he had pretty much dedicated himself
to
cheating the casino industry carmichael
and balsamo
realize they have a lot in common they
were kind of a loose association in the
sense that
one helped the other out and vice versa
you scratch my back i'll scratch yours
and they started devising a plan of
getting together
when they got out of prison
in 1987 tommy carmichael is the first to
be released
his parole stipulated that he had to
return to tulsa
and stay out of vegas
carmichael has no intention of complying
but since his tv business is long gone
he needs a cover he makes a deal with a
local contractor
he had a construction site and i was
supposed to be in a salesman for the
construction cycle
so he was writing me a check and i would
turn it in as my salary
but i actually was living in las vegas
and every time i had to make a
appearance from probation i would
actually fly from vegas to tulsa here
and uh make my appearance and then i'll
get back off and go back home to vegas
[Music]
while he waits for michael balsamo to
get out of jail carmichael cases out the
casinos
since his old tools no longer work
carmichael needs a new one that will
fool the latest generation of slot
machines
he develops his boldest con yet
impersonating a casino owner
he would go to the actual manufacturers
walk in
uh make himself sound like he was some
sort of a person in the market to buy
some new slot machines
and the sales people would open up the
doors take things apart
show it to him he would talk to
engineers at trade shows they'd show
them the guts of the machine
for carmichael two things are now clear
one
hot wiring the hopper will not be an
option and
two in order for him to even figure out
how to beat this machine
he'll need to buy one the nevada
regulatory
system allows for the sales of slot
machines there are stores where you can
go buy a slot machine anybody can buy a
slot machine
problem is the machine costs a thousand
bucks and carmichael is broke
and so is michael balsamo who also just
got paroled
they decide to raise the cash together
by doing what they
know they travel all over nevada looking
for the last of the old machines that
they can still cheat
we actually went and played the top and
bottom joint the old tool that we
history on we actually played nickels in
order to get enough money
to buy a new machine
once he has it carmichael gets to work
tommy carmichael had the ability to take
apart a slot machine
interrogate its security features and
develop techniques to sidestep them
carmichael soon realizes that the new
machine has a weak point
the counter that regulates the amount of
coins that will be paid out
he discovers that the counter can be
overrun by tripping a tiny micro switch
deep in the machine with the counter out
of commission
the machine just keeps spitting out
money
but carmichael must create a tool that
can access this switch
no easy feat it took about six months to
really come up with something really
good
on it and it was called a slider
it was made out of a concrete trowel and
it was about 11.5 inches long
and it was it was thin metal it went
through an air hole
in the machine once inside the slider
has to slip
underneath a secondary security door
then turn 10 degrees to engage the micro
switch
but if carmichael builds the tool with a
fixed curve
it will get hung up on the hundreds of
wires inside before ever reaching the
door
this is a problem but carmichael has a
stroke of inspiration
he threads piano wire through the nose
of the tool
so it can be adjusted after it passes
beneath the door
it works and it would slide into the
micro switch
and uh stop the count whenever so
the machine was always paying you but
you never knew how much it was paying
you because
you could actually keep it from counting
with the slider carmichael and balsamo
are back in business
they split up balsamo takes a slider and
begins hitting casinos
all over the country
carmichael stays to work vegas that
slider was making about a thousand
dollars an hour
because that's the speed that the
machine would spit quarters out
with the new device carmichael is making
money ten times faster than he ever has
before
and for the next two years he enjoys all
the spoils of his craft
but then in 1989 the casinos find a new
tool as well
advancements in security camera
technology mean the cameras can now be
installed anywhere
and in vegas this means everywhere
casinos are now able to closely monitor
all aspects of gaming
including slot machines for carmichael
and balsamo
avoiding the cameras becomes the number
one priority
they would case an establishment they
would look for obstructions
with cameras because the marketing
department they would hang signs they
would
make the place beautiful they would put
up flowers all of a sudden you know some
of the best cameras for a particular
area
were masked well the tommy carmichaels
of the world
would come into a casino and that's what
they were looking for
[Music]
carmichael gets away with it for a year
but then in 1990 surveillance officers
notice him
acting suspiciously at a machine they
call in agents from the nevada gaming
control board
who follow carmichael home and stake out
his apartment building
they were sitting in the parking lot and
was going to try to catch me in the
casino
but carmichael gets a lucky break
and for some reason that night they
pulled off me to go do something else
and when they came back the next day i
was gone i had moved into a house
and of course we were getting everything
under different names and everything so
when they came back i had disappeared on
them
it's a close call carmichael will have
to be more careful
in the future months later casinos
unveil the latest slots designed to
protect the money counter
[Music]
overnight carmichael slider becomes
obsolete
in the game of cheats versus casinos the
casinos are back on top
but once again carmichael isn't willing
to give up the fight
i was asked one time did i ever feel
guilty about
about taking the money from the casinos
and i have actually asked myself i said
yeah
you know you've tried reasoning these
things out and
i'm thinking well
[Music]
honestly do i and i felt no
i don't the gaming industry is so
misleading
with cards or live type gaming
it's happening in front of you and you
got some kind of
fair chance when it comes to slots
you have no chance
in 1990 carmichael is ready to cheat
again
but there's a problem his cheating
device is useless
the slot's mechanical counters have been
replaced by state-of-the-art optics
sensors
this optic was a little light beam and
what it did had a transmitter
and it would transmit a beam across to
the receiver
and the coin would pass through this
light and that was how we count the
money
once the machine has counted the
allotted payout it stops the flow of
coins
so i came up with a tool that actually
went up in there with a little light on
it and supply the beam of light
to the receiver so that when the coin
passed
the machine never knew it as long as the
light was lit
the machine was not counting coins as
they came out of the machine
so they got a lot of coins that they
weren't entitled to
carmichael dubs his new cheating device
the light one
and with it the game has changed again
this time
in his favor
carmichael also realizes that he can
make more money
outside the casino by selling light
wands his customers
fellow cheats and hustlers to make one
probably cost you two or three dollars
he would sell them for 10 or 12 thousand
dollars quite a markup
[Laughter]
with the illicit sales of light wands
plus his own slot cheating carmichael is
making more money than ever before
oh it was fun it was a lot of fun
nothing but
disneyland more or less it was just a
great big party most of the time
atomic carmichael's operation was a huge
threat to the casino industry
because he had so many cheaters involved
using devices that he had created
they were stealing thousands and
thousands of dollars a day
but carmichael doesn't restrict himself
to just cheating vegas
he and his fellow scammers take the
light wands on the road
i went all over the united states and
we'd drive up to reno just for something
to do or lake tahoe or
atlantic city or biloxi
he hung out with a drug crowd they
partied a lot
remember at their core they're all con
men so it's not like they were buddy
buddy
like you know it wasn't like they were a
seal team where everybody trusted
everybody they were waiting for the
knife in the back
but with so many people using
carmichael's light wands
there is more room for error light wands
get
stuck in machines and abandoned only to
be found by casino workers who hand them
over to the nevada gaming control board
here's the actual device the black
shrink
tubing and black electrical tape were on
there because we had to repair the
device it had become
broken just now julie's going to
demonstrate how it's
inserted through the coin return and
positioned properly
inside the game notice that the credit
meter
remains at six credits go ahead and cash
out
gaming agents create a video to show
slot machine manufacturers how their
machines have been
compromised
[Music]
so out of the six credits that the game
thinks it paid out
these are the quarters that actually
came out
obviously significantly more than six
when they realized what was happening
the slot machine industry
in introduced a delay so if you heard a
payout
where the coins are following about
every six or seven seconds
there would be a slight delay the delay
was to
outsmart the light beam and so the light
beam would stay on
and the delay would say whoops there
should be no light
so the machine would shut down the good
guys are ahead again
but not for long carmichael modifies the
light wand
so the cheater can quickly turn off the
device during the lag time
you just had an off and on switch it was
probably the most simple electrical
circuit there is
problem solved it's back to business as
usual
but then in 1996 alert surveillance
officers
finally catch carmichael in the act
they noticed the money was coming out
and the foreign count was stopped
of the machine and here we go again here
comes the security
carmichael responds quickly he pulls the
light wand from the machine
and i sling the tool and the tool
goes clear across the casino well the
security all go over there and they're
looking all over the place for this tool
can't find the tool i told them i said
there is no tool
but eventually the light wand is found
it looks like carmichael's luck has
finally run out
or has it but they didn't have a case
because
where did that tool come from i mean is
it mine or is it somebody else's they
already had or
i had a real good attorney the
prosecutor didn't feel there was
sufficient evidence the surveillance
cameras
were not on the machines enough to show
him actually using the device in the
machine
and authorities can't bust him on being
in las vegas illegally
since his parole expired four years
earlier
so they dropped the charges against him
carmichael has
eluded justice but once again he's high
on the radar
at the nevada gaming control board and
his next misstep
could easily be his last
[Music]
carmichael keeps his operation under
cover then
in 1999 prison buddy michael balsamo
re-enters the picture he had done well
for himself with carmichael's cheating
devices in the past
and he's eager to take advantage of
carmichael's latest technology
i think tommy carmichael would tell you
that his fatal mistake
was involving michael balsamo
in his cheating group because balsamo
was kind of out of control
and didn't really care what he did or
how he did it
balsamo has big plans armed with the
light wand
he takes off for fresh casino territory
throughout the us
three months later balsamo's arrested
and the light wand is confiscated
and turned over to the fbi
an investigation is launched when agents
pull balsamo's phone records
a number from las vegas keeps showing up
tommy carmichaels the nevada gaming
control board teams with fbi agents
to tap carmichael's phone yeah i've got
some incredible news
his days of cheating vegas are coming to
an end
but instead of pouncing right away
agents listen
goes in through the coin slot carmichael
who has no
idea authorities are on to him is hard
at work on a new cheating device
because once again slot machine
manufacturers have caught up to his
game-changing devices
they've just introduced machines called
ticket in ticket out
the ticket in ticket out is when you win
money instead of winning money you get a
ticket
and then you go and cash the ticket in
carmichael's light wand is useless
because the new slots have no
coin release to manipulate
so he buys a ticket in ticket out
machine
like the older slots the machine still
accepts bills and coins
so carmichael devises a tool to trick
the slot machine
he calls it the tongue it was like a
tongue depressor
and it actually went in where the coins
went in and
what i was doing is i was taking over
the
coin acceptor with a with this device
carmichael's tool takes advantage of a
flaw in the design of the machine's
optical counting system
after a coin is put in it falls straight
down past a series of three lights
but carmichael discovers he can trick
the counter by moving his tool back and
forth in front of the middle light
[Music]
by blinking the center light even if the
other two
were off it wouldn't matter it would
think that coins were going through that
pass stuck together
in less than a second carmichael's
tongue tool
triggers the machine into giving him
hundreds of dollars worth of playing
credits
the same as sticking money in and now
you cash it out it's our problem
it's a new device and i've just created
carmichael asks several of his fellow
cheaters to test the device and help him
work out the kinks
they're called the tongue we would
follow them to these locations and watch
them do it
and steal money it's a very backed off
surveillance package but
we're doing it for a reason we were
building a bigger case
the tipping point the reason that we
dropped the hammer on them
is that they had perfected and
successfully tested
a 25 cent coin device and
uh they were upgrading the thing to a
five dollar coin in device
a five dollar machine can lose lots and
lots of money in a very short period of
time
it had the potential for millions of
dollars worth of losses
we were going to shoot it making a
couple million dollars a piece
and then just retiring this one works
completely different everything else
went up
carmichael still has no idea the feds
are onto him
he is moving fast so now the fbi
has to act when carmichael flies to
atlantic city to score some easy cash
agents are waiting for him he is caught
red-handed with his tools
and arrested
in 2000 the cheater who changed the
security game by defeating
every bit of technology he encountered
pleads guilty to running an illegal
gambling enterprise
always looking for a good angle
carmichael gets a lighter sentence
by agreeing to show authorities how all
his tools work
it was fun i mean 20 years it was 20
years of just
go to the wheels fall off you know but
there are still dozens of other cheaters
out there
using the tools carmichael created and
one of the boldest
is michael balsamo who has now taught
his entire family to steal
michael balsam was about michael balsamo
and he got a lot of people into hot
water
in las vegas balsamo's wife stephanie
and his mother-in-law
lavonna soon master the art of slot
cheating
they use the light wand preying on older
casinos that haven't upgraded to the
ticket in machines yet
surveillance footage shows the family in
action
stephanie was the one who was primarily
doing the work she was the one
who was stealing inserting the cheating
device i'm collecting the money
the role of her mother was to sit next
to her and have a very large purse put
in a strategic position
where it was a blocking agent so that
the
cameras could not see exactly what was
going on
but all of it was orchestrated to draw
attention away from the activity that
they were doing which was cheating
stephanie balsamo is extremely adept at
using the light wand
it is literally less than a second
maneuver
to get it from her person out you just
see her hand go in her purse typically
come out of her purse and go into the
hopper if you watch it
in real time you will never see it she
is that good and that fast
when the video is slowed down you can
barely make out the edge of the light
wands handle
the way it's designed it fits in the
palm of her hand and it follows the
curve of your fingers so that you don't
see it
for at least a year the balsamo family
wins the battle of cheats versus casinos
but the game is far from over on april
28
2006 balsamo's wife stephanie and her
mother
draw the suspicions of security officers
all over southern nevada
in less than an hour they had hit three
separate casinos 10 miles apart
and they had never ever lost at least
stephanie never did
if she sat down at a machine she walked
away with buckets of coins
after reviewing hours of surveillance
video gaming officials
finally have enough evidence to bust
them
on june 5th 2006 michael balsamo
his wife stephanie and his mother-in-law
lavonna are arrested
and charged with several counts of
manufacturing and possessing a cheating
device
in 2008 they all go to trial
balsamo's mother-in-law is convicted but
given probation
balsamo's wife stephanie is convicted
and sentenced to between
16 and 32 years in prison
as for michael balsamo he never made it
to trial
while out on bail he disappears
michael balsamo fled to argentina and
we received reports from his family
members that he
passed away there is some doubt
that he in fact has died because he is
such a scam
artist and so to this day he still
is listed as being alive
in vegas at least balsamo is out of the
picture
and carmichael is back in oklahoma
banned from ever
entering a casino in nevada again
as for slots they continue to evolve to
become
more secure the slot machines are
computerized today they're computers
and so to cheat a slot machine this day
and age you pretty much
have to be a computer expert a hacker
and without question
there is someone like tommy carmichael
trying to find a way to beat them
tommy carmichael and michael balsamo
spent the better part of two decades
cheating vegas there's no way to know
for sure
exactly how much they stole but experts
believe
it was in the millions and in an ironic
twist of fate
tommy carmichael the slot cheap
mastermind who is now banished to tulsa
still isn't done with vegas he has one
more hit
carmichael develops and patents an
anti-cheating device
which he tries to market to the casinos
it had been approved by gaming
and it had all the licensing and
everything done to it
but soon as they found out that i was
the inventor of it
they said no
the gaming industry which had lost
millions thanks to carmichael and his
inventions
wants nothing more to do with him it is
game
over tommy carmichael is a very bright
person
who had he used his intelligence for
good
probably would have been a much richer
man than he is today
but it's not just cheaters with
technical know-how that casinos have to
look out for
other criminals change the game by using
sheer force
the heart of every casino is the cage a
highly secure area
where money is counted and chips and
tokens can be exchanged for cash
the cage does run a lot like a bank but
honestly this is more secure than any
bank
this is where all the money is so we
take our security here more seriously
than any other place
for years cages were considered
rock-solid fortresses
even though a few unarmed casino guards
a couple of cameras
and a dark reputation were their only
protection it was perceived that
organized crime
had a lot of influence in las vegas and
that they were owners or part owners of
all the casinos
popular consensus was that anybody who
robbed a casino would
end up dead the next day buried out in
the desert someplace
but in the 1990s corporations started
building and buying casinos
cages still had millions on hand but
security hadn't changed
and without the mythic layer of mob
protection the once impenetrable
fortress became vulnerable
no one knew it but a violent outside
force
was about to change the game of cage
security forever
the aladdin casino tourists work the
slots
players huddle around the gaming tables
at 9pm black and white surveillance
cameras capture
a suspicious group entering the casino
they've got masks on
they've got guns they start yelling
hitting people
knocking people down they make their way
to the cage
the bandits are small enough to dive
under the 15-inch clearance below the
cage bars
they open up all the drawers grab all
the money they could
as quick as they could as they ransacked
the cage
casino staff offered no resistance
they're not supposed to fight these guys
just let them take it back off no amount
of money is worth your life
the thugs inside the cage leap out and
race for the door
in less than two minutes the robbers
bagged 47 grand
in cash this was the first time anything
like this had happened
a flat out takeover of the casino cage
area
casino cameras see it all but after
review of the grainy black and white
footage
they still don't know the identities of
the masked bandits
they could see enough skin color under
their masks
to know they were black but nobody was
going to be able to identify
we didn't have any real leads to go on
there's really no physical evidence that
would lead us to anybody
two days later lapd was serving 28
search warrants related to
a gang homicide the police rolled up at
one of these locations
and bag comes flying out lands
practically at their feet
they look in the bag and there's a bunch
of
aladdin casino money wrappers in there
of course that's our first clue that the
guys who robbed the casino
had a connection to l.a but no one is
sure exactly what the connection is
the lapd immediately calls las vegas
police
and since the investigation has crossed
state lines
the fbi gets involved all three agencies
focus attention on a potential la gang
connection
but nothing comes of it and the
investigation goes cold
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two months later the flamingo another
casino with easy access to the cage
is hit four guys come running in guns
out
all masked up bought the counter grab
the money
they all leave get in a stolen van take
off
took less than two minutes and they were
out of there with 150
000
once again the robbers leave behind no
clues little evidence
and no suspects desperate to avoid a
mass
exodus of customers vegas increases
camera coverage
and adds security on casino floors the
reason that
everybody was so concerned about this
robbery series was that they didn't want
it to affect tourism they didn't want
anybody not to feel safe in a hotel in
las vegas
and that's what this gang was making
people feel unsafe they were unsafe
nobody wants to go to a hotel that you
know looks like you're in baghdad
but there's no stopping the bandits
two days later they hit harrah's only
this time
they amp up the attack
four young men come running in they
pissed a whip a lady
they hit another guy in the head two of
them ball to counter
they grab another guy by the hair hold
the gun to his head
while the two behind the counter rifle
the drawers
jump back over the counter they all run
outside with a little over ninety seven
thousand dollars
they crash through a gate and they go
into the harris parking garage
where they switch to another vehicle
police officer sees this van coming out
with its lights off
three in the morning he starts following
it
the van takes off the chase is on
they get the helicopter up squad cars
converge
and there's a 20 minute high high-speed
chase through vegas
the subjects ram a police car that's at
a roadblock
lose control hit a fire hydrant crash
into a telephone pole
and everybody's scattered police k9
units pursue on foot
30 harrowing minutes later they bust all
four thieves
plus the getaway driver
unmasked authorities discovered that the
terrifying casino cage attackers
are just teenagers from los angeles
gangs hoping to build up their street
credibility
the gangs will use kids for a lot of
stuff they'll use them as lookouts
they'll use them as couriers they'll use
them to pass messages
sometimes make deliveries or carry money
because they know that even if they get
caught
the kid will have no incentive to talk
because
he won't be looking at that much time
he's a juvenile plus the younger they
were the
dumber they were to put themselves at
this kind of risk
that means one thing to authorities we
didn't have the guys who had been
setting this up and was responsible for
robbery after opera
so that's what we were trying to uncover
the cops put the squeeze on the attack
crew interrogating them for hours
in search of the ringleaders but whoever
is running this dangerous scam has been
careful
the teenagers don't even know the names
of the guys they're working for
a year goes by it took so long the time
kind of worked in our favor
because these gang members they were
continually getting in trouble with the
law
and when they would get jammed up bad
enough they'd be looking for a way to
get out
they'd be thinking well you know i know
a little bit about this casino robbery
so we got a lot of bits of information
from a lot of people and we put the
whole thing together
authorities uncover not one but two
ringleaders behind the violent cage
raids
melvin foster and chet govan are
unlikely partners
from rival los angeles gangs loyalty to
the gang
really goes out the window when it comes
to making money
melvin foster was a member of the los
angeles bloods gang
he had gotten the idea for the robberies
after he traveled to vegas
and recognized a serious flaw in casino
cages
belvin foster was well aware that most
of the casinos didn't have bars and
stuff they looked more like a bank
counter
but there was a lot more money behind
the counter than you would find at the
typical bank
foster had mapped out a plan he started
by choosing casinos with cages close to
exits
and with the fewest cameras and security
guards
foster was ready but he wanted to
increase his odds of success
for that he needed a partner someone
street smart
someone like him but who could he trust
family he turned to his cousin dion
chappelle
chappelle suggested a partnership with
her boyfriend
from the rival crips gang his name was
chet govan
who went by the street name short dog
in 1994 los angeles on a normal day
these two gang members would kill each
other before they would ever talk
guys are supposed to be rivals supposed
to be trying to tear each other's head
off but next you know they involve that
kind of activity together
foster had the mind and govann had the
medal
they needed each other even if no one
could understand the partnership on the
street
foster and govan used young gang members
from la's toughest neighborhoods to
storm the vegas casino cages
unchallenged finding young men
in the streets that were willing to get
involved especially they thought they
could make a quick buck
it was really easy because they know
they're willing to go out and do
something crazy
after the heist the gang used two escape
cars
the first was for the getaway from the
casino the second car was waiting in a
parking garage
then they switched into that car with
the money and headed to los angeles
the masterminds waited nearby czech
governor melvin foster wouldn't be
anywhere near the casino during the
robbery
when they got word the heist was pulled
off govan
and foster made their way back to south
central los angeles
in their own car this way they would
never be connected with
either the robbers the physical evidence
from the robbery or even the money
incredibly foster and govan didn't give
a dime to the brazen young gang members
who pulled off the heists
the guys they're working for are not
planning on sharing it with them i'm
going to use them up until
they can't use them anymore you know
they move on to the next youngsters that
will do something stupid for them
once foster and govan are arrested the
two rivals quickly flip on each other
the authorities now have enough to put
them away
foster gets 18 and a half years in
prison
govan is sentenced to 22.
the five men who we had caught after
harry's robbery
they all played and they got between 10
and 18 years apiece
for las vegas the robberies were game
changers when it comes to cages
in today's modern casino the cages are
deliberately set in the back
far from exits making a fast getaway
virtually
impossible they are also being watched
from
every angle i have more cameras per
square foot in this area than anywhere
in the casino
i've got 60 cameras in this small area i
have cameras embedded in the bars
but in addition to that we're more
vigilant in front of this cage than we
ever were before
we have security that is staged here 24
7 and not just one officer several
the cage interior has also been revamped
making the money less
accessible because those those
individuals were able to slide
right into the cage we had to look at
that and say that really didn't work did
it
it was a very glaring weakness that
nobody had really thought of
but when it was demonstrated to us at
that point all the bars came down lower
so that somebody cannot do that anymore
the lowered bars are only the first new
layer of protection
the initial door you walk in to get into
the cage leads you into the chip bank
area
where they're going to be conducting
transactions taking chips to the table
bringing chips back that have been
redeemed from a game today
the cage is no longer an open area it's
a labyrinth
of multiple rooms beyond that door
that's going to have a cage
going into the main cage but then next
to that is going to be another door
so you go in one door that door is going
to close and lock behind you
both doors can't be open at the same
time and then to get actual
entry to the cage you have to go through
another door
and then usually behind that we're gonna
have our count areas
so you're gonna be going through three
to four doors to get to the count area
where we're actually counting the money
still in spite of all the new defenses
the casinos put in place
there will always be another game
changer who will come up with ways to
beat the system
the only thing everyone in vegas can
bank on is that the battle
against cheats will never end
[Music]
you