Suspect in scam convicted in another case 12 years ago

Thursday, June 11, 1998 | 9:36 a.m.

Dennis Nikrasch, 56, was one of four people arrested Tuesday in a scam that took at least $6 million from casinos.

He was convicted with his wife in 1986 of participating in a similar scheme, in which the scam artists illegally won $10 million.

In the 1986 case, U.S. District Judge Howard McKibben sentenced Nikrasch to 15 years in prison, calling him a professional criminal and the mastermind of the plot.

Cooperating witnesses in the latest plot said Nikrasch was a computer expert who used a hand-held, concealed device that programs slot machines to win.

The complaint said Nikrasch has a slot machine at his residence and practiced his tampering techniques on the machine.

"Dennis Nikrasch has been involved in this kind of thing for years," said Keith Copher, chief of enforcement for the Nevada Gaming Control Board. "He's very sophisticated and knows what he's doing."

Authorities said the latest ring has been operating since September 1996.

The four charged in the latest scam were Nikrasch, Eugene Bulgarino, 65, and Joan Bulgarino, 56, all of Las Vegas, and Ronnie McElveen, 59, of Modesto, Calif.

A federal complaint unsealed Tuesday charges each of the four with conspiracy, interstate travel in aid of racketeering and interstate transportation of stolen property.

The defendants are accused of carrying out one scheme on May 24, 1997, at the Rio hotel-casino to win a BMW automobile. A nominee winner - a person used by the defendants to win the vehicle - instead accepted $30,000 in its place.

According to the complaint, the defendants cheated a slot machine on Oct. 18 at the Luxor hotel-casino to win a Jaguar automobile. The winner then took the vehicle to Phoenix and sold it for $57,000.

A federal jury convicted Nikrasch and his wife, Susan, of conspiracy in April 1986. The jury also found Nikrasch guilty of interstate travel in aid of racketeering and fraud.

The couple and eight others had been indicted in July 1983 on charges they scammed some $10 million from Las Vegas casinos between 1976 and 1979.

According to the indictment in that case, the ring used keys, wires, magnets and other devices to rig slot machines to pay off bogus jackpots.

The group also collected several luxury automobiles in jackpot payoffs.

Dennis and Susan Nikrasch were fugitives after the 1983 indictment until they surrendered to authorities in January 1986.

McKibben sentenced Susan Nikrasch to one year in prison for her involvement in the ring.

Prosecutors claimed Dennis and Susan Nikrasch, who lived in Southern California at the time, lived luxurious lifestyles financed by their fraudulent winnings.