The Highest Club Casino in Europe by John Connolly

This article is mostly about me and casino openings in Switzerland, so if you wish to stop reading, do it now.

I was hired in March 2002 by a large casino company in Europe to open one of the first casinos in Switzerland. I was first interviewed at some expense for the position of director for Grand Casino Lucerne but they didn't want to meet my asking salary and I didn't want to "pick their Swiss directors up of the floor" their words not mine. So that was a no go.

Lucerne was the first casino to open in Switzerland and low and behold they were inundated with cheats "The Italian Team" from day one, at some expense to the above-mentioned directors. Their surveillance department copied all the cheating incidents which later they brought and showed to me in Casino St.Moritz.

Fig 1.

I was eventually hired by the same group as Casino Manager for the soon to be opened Grand Casino Kursaal Bern. As in what had happened in Lucerne the cheats started arriving as soon as the doors were open. (tens of them)

At that time my hobby was already cheat detection so I recognised most of them as they were already in my database which today is known as FINGER. So together with the security team we either evicted them or didn't permit them to enter. That was a long afternoon's work but by evening the casino was running smoothly. We did manage also to mugshot some of them in the cool room for my database, however, all the video footage of that day was lost by the new digital installation in the Cctv room. Pity.

A few months after that I quit my job in the amateurish Casino Bern because I envisioned a new career in Cheat Detection. When the same casino group opened their next venture in Schaffhausen I applied to assist their security & surveillance departments in the opening and I was hired for a short two-day contract. I hope that was enough because they didn't hire me for the opening Gala night, mistake, and although I prevented a handful of the Italian team from going to work the following day, who knows what happened after that, again they arrived early and right on cue as soon as the live game started. They were busy on their mobile phones and so their team members were saved the journey up North and the expense of a fruitless visit plus hotel expenses etc.

As casinos were opening up in quick succession it wasn't long before casino Zürichsee opened. I was afforded a longer two-week contract this time. Although mostly when they see how you treat them on the opening day they know it is not worth returning until sometime later when they are unexpected. Again we apprehended and mugshot a handful of these cheats who never got the opportunity to exercise their dirty work on the gaming tables.

These are roulette past-posters or pousettisti as they are known in certain European countries a part-time occupation which has existed for more than a century in Europe.

We are now in November of 2002 and Casino Lugano is about to open, so I applied for a contract, they were keen to hire me as they had heard about my exploits in Bern and just prior to their opening a Casino in the small town of Mendrisio had opened.

Mendrisio is right on the Italian border and the largest casino in Switzerland by the number of gaming tables and particularly roulette. They got hammered, the cheats had synchronised their watches and all began cheating at the same time 23:00 hrs. It was a mess because nobody knew who they were and amongst hundreds of genuine Italian players, who would? This cheating went on for days because even though these Italian cheats are evicted from the property they return the next day disguised and with new identity documents. They were dropping high-value chips on red and black, odd or even, high and low (the simple chances) and dragging back the losing bets when the ball landed and disappearing into the crowd as it was a very crowded gaming floor. Apart from past-posting onto the winning numbers a very profitable action. See video of typical past-post

So I was hired on the 29th of November for the Casino Lugano's inauguration night's gala a grand affair with 1,500 specially invited guests. One can read about it in a previous article which I wrote "below". I stayed there for one week because my work permit wasn't in order and I was hired to return for the Christmas and New Year's holiday period.

In the meanwhile on Friday the 14Th of December 2002 the Casino St.Moritz opened, the highest club casino in Europe. I had an eight-day contract and it was like a stakeout, the snow was so thick on the ground they don't bother to clear it as it snows incessantly at that time of year. The journey up the mountain is hazardous but many people attempt it for the fabulous skiing, it's a beautiful resort frequented by the rich and famous. The casino, however, was small like a club and quiet with few guests, so we waited all week for a cheat to arrive, none did, we were bored but entertained by surveillance officers who had brought with them cheating videos from Casino Lucerne which were most interesting, a Maltese past-poster who was hitting numbers in the first dozen with 10 - ten Swiss franc chips, very rewarding but none of the gaming staff saw anything, so good are their tactics to disguise their actions. This is why I am a confirmed believer in knowing who they are, over and above what they do.

Now, this brings us back around to today and the Club Casino St. Moritz is moving to new premises, good luck to them.

This brings me to the close of the stakeout when on the following Saturday the last day of my contract a carload of Italians ventured up the mountain. Only one Italian entered the casino and I had virtually only seconds to identify him, before he disappeared into the dark recesses of the casino, hiding among the slot machines. He didn't stay long as it was only nine o'clock in the evening and the casino was too quiet for them to work in. As he left the casino we could only observe the back of his head as the camera positions were not advantageous.

I had in my database only one image of him which now was 10 years old but I had remembered him and so I had a hard time convincing the operators in the surveillance room, one might remember as he is now surveillance director of a huge casino in Australia. I was so sure he was a cheat and so the casino director was called into the surveillance room to see if he would verify our observations which were only about three frames of a facial image as the cheat entered the establishment, from a distant camera and compare him to a 10-year-old photo although of reasonable quality but still 10 years old. The casino director couldn't be sure either but I was convinced and tried my best to convince the others.

Fig 2.

At the time I said that he would either go on to the next casino which is probably a three-hour drive away or return at around midnight with his friends. He did return later that night and as he stood at the bar drinking a beer he could be seen shaking his head from side to side in disappointment as he had noticed the casino director pointing him out to the pit-boss, "to be forewarned is to be forearmed" and so as he finished his beer and attempted to leave when we apprehended him, mugshot him and scanned his above Fig 2 identity card, which was a fake.

For more information on this subject and much more contact the author at [email protected]

John Connolly

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