Then I was asked by Willy Allison to be the lead speaker at the 2007 World Game Protection Conference, which I did. Image: Richard Marcus Casino Table Game Protection Consultant and TrainerĬould we commence this interview with a brief history of you and how your journey has taken you to becoming a highly regarded International Casino Table Game Protection Consultant and Trainer?īeing a game protection trainer was an even bigger surprise to me than becoming a professional casino cheat! It started with the publication of my book “American Roulette” (“The Great Casino Heist” in the UK), which chronicled my 25-year career cheating casinos all over the world. He took a $3,000 score and parlayed into relocation to Las Vegas-and life was never the same after that.

Gambling was more of a draw than schoolwork, so he dropped out and started playing the ponies. After losing his entire baseball card collection in amateur gambling with his pals, Marcus moved on to playing craps during downtime in school. Marcus started as a suburban New Jersey kid who fought the boredom of long car trips by making bets with his parents what color of car they would pass next. As far as the agony of defeat goes, I never thought about it then and surely wouldn’t if I got back into the fun, which sometimes was almost as great as the money.” Marcus may be reformed but he is unrepentant, having gone on record as saying, “If something extraordinary happened in the gambling world, such as the opening of casinos in Miami Beach, I might get the chips that I hung up at the turn of the century and put them back on. His views make interesting reading and, indeed, he has put them into a book: American Roulette. Unlike many casinos, Marcus makes clear-cut distinctions between cheats, card counters and edge sorters. This experience enables Marcus to put his casino clients inside the mind of a cheater. Marcus got his start as a dealer, performing false baccarat shuffles in Las Vegas over 40 years ago, back when game protection was far removed from its current sophistication, although he is skeptical of some of the purported technical improvements, such as biometric recognition. Set a thief to catch a thief,” runs the old adage and casinos looking to protect the integrity of their table games turn to former casino cheat Richard Marcus, now a thoroughly respectable game-security specialist.

Richard Marcus, Casino Table Game Protection Consultant and Trainer, chats to Peter White

Casino table game cheating