Casino croupiers rob £23,000 by fixing roulette wheel in ‘Ocean’s11’ style plot

Have you seen the great movies out there where the plot focus’s around a group of highly intelligent individuals carefully plotting out ways in which to carefully remove thousands upon thousands of pounds from a casino or gambling facility? Sometimes in real life people actually attempt the impossible and execute robbery’s with precision, but more than not, they get caught.

Bring it down a few notches to Blackpool where a group of casino croupiers ‘fixed’ a roulette wheel in a plot to steal thousands of pounds from the casino in which they worked, a court has being informed.

The casino workers in question are Craig Walker, 26, and Daniel Johnson, 29, who devised a secret signal code of scratching their heads – to tip off their stooge Kevin Traynor, 32, in a scam bid to raise his stakes.

Amazingly the team managed to scam the Blackpool casino out of a massive £23.000. The victim casino is Coral Island Casino.

It would seem that the group didn’t think out the scam quite well enough as its victories where only short lived, managers at Coral Island became suspicious when it became apparent that Traynor’s winnings were rather disproportionate to his bets and, checking CCTV, unveiled the not so clever scam.

Preston Crown Court had been told that Walker and Johnson were both working together on a quiet shift at the casino when they discovered it was possible to perform a ‘ho spin’ on the wheel – fixing it so the ball stayed in the same slot.

They decided they needed outside help and enlisted Traynor, a close family friend of Johnson’s who was happy to also be a part of the scam. His role was to visit the casino and place a number of bets for the plan to fall into place. When he was given the signal, Traynor increased his bet from £25 to £100, ensuring he secured a win and therefore splitting the cash with his two accomplices.

Walker received a 14-month jail sentence, while Johnson received a lesser 12-month sentence. Traynor, of Prestwich, Greater Manchester, as he was the accomplice was given an unforgiving a nine-month sentence suspended for two years and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.
Upon sentencing the men, Recorder Nicholas Clarke QC said: “On eight occasions you operated the game in such a way that your stooge, who you brought in from Manchester, could come in and play the game to win.

“You gave a signal, a no spin was arranged which prompted an increased bet and so secured a larger win than you would by playing by chance or without the knowledge of the wheel.”

Although the men thought they had fooled the system, they failed in getting away with it and were unable to curb their greed. Gambling has a strange effect on people even causing them to think they can trick the casinos which is always simply not possible