Legislators to weigh curbs on casino cheaters

Friday, Jan. 2, 1998 | 9:44 a.m.

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Connecticut is facing a relatively new problem -- people who try to cheat casinos -- and state legislators will consider a number of new proposals this year in an effort to combat it.

While language is still being written, the proposals are based on New Jersey's laws, which, for example, make it illegal to possess counterfeit chips or to use a magnet to take money from slot machines.

Kevin T. Kane, an assistant state's attorney for New London County, where there are two casinos owned by Indian tribes, said it was difficult to prosecute cheaters without such laws. If a person brings an altered quarter or a counterfeit chip to a casino, prosecutors now must prove that the person had intended to cheat and estimate how much money someone might have won illegally, Kane said.

Penalties are also weaker than prosecutors would like, he said. Sixth-degree larceny is a misdemeanor that carries up to a three-month sentence and/or a $500 fine. Kane said he would like to see those crimes made into felonies that carry up to a five-year sentence and/or a $5,000 fine.

The state police and casino operators say the problem is steady, though not rampant. Sgt. Patrick O'Hara of the state police casino unit estimated that people were caught cheating or investigated for cheating about four or five times a month.

In addition, the casinos may find at day's end that a slug has been used, but with little way to trace the crime, those incidents may not be reported to the police, said Arthur Henick, a spokesman for the Mashantucket Pequot tribe, which runs the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Ledyard.

"It's not a chronic problem, but it is a problem," said Tom Ocevedo, chief-of-staff for the Mohegan tribe, which owns the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville.

Mohegan Sun has about 750 surveillance cameras and Foxwoods has about 3,000, in part to watch for unusual behavior that might indicate cheating, the police and casino officials said.

The figures do not include counterfeit money, which shows up several times a day, O'Hara said.

While New Jersey introduced many of its anti-cheating laws when casinos opened in 1978, Connecticut did not, probably because casino gambling began here after the tribes won federal recognition, allowing them to open casinos on their reservations, rather than through Connecticut's changing its laws.

New Jersey makes about 200 cheating investigations or arrests a year, said a spokesman for the state Division of Gaming Enforcement, Keith Furlong.

Connecticut's chief state's attorney, John M. Bailey, called for the new laws as part of his annual legislative agenda. A similar measure was passed by the Connecticut legislature's judiciary committee last year but did not go any further.

State Sen. Kevin B. Sullivan, the Senate president pro tem, said he did not expect any opposition to the proposed laws.

"Given that we are home to the world's largest and most active casino," Sullivan said, "it only makes sense that we have statutes to deal with these crimes."