High-Tech Aussie land casino scam scores millions

Over just eight hands of cards a team consisting of a high roller gambler and a hi-tech hacker managed to make off with around A$33 million at a Melbourne land casino two weeks ago, reports the Bloomberg news agency.

The team hacked the casino surveillance system cameras meant to protect the establishment, and used them to gain an advantage in the high stakes card games that followed.

The gambler was caught, but not before the money had been transferred and the hacker had disappeared.

The Sun Herald newspaper described the high stakes gambler element in the cheating team as a known foreign “whale” who regularly bet and lost large sums of money at the casino. He had been accommodated with his family in an opulent villa at the Crown Towers in Melbourne when the scam occurred.

According to authorities, accomplices gained remote access to the casino’s high-resolution cameras and turned them against the casino by using them to spy on card hands being played by the house and other guests in the casino’s VIP high-roller’s room.

The “frontman” gambler was then fed information based on the cards his opponents held. He was still in the luxury villa when the fraud was discovered, and he has been banned for life as a consequence.

A casino spokesman said it had hopes of recovering “a significant portion” of the money.