LV man arrested in Carribbean stud cheating probe

Tuesday, Oct. 13, 1998 | 11:33 a.m.

New Jersey police on Monday arrested a Las Vegas man and accused him of attempting to cheat at Caribbean stud poker with equipment "that makes James Bond look like a hacker."

Nevada authorities are monitoring the New Jersey investigation and were aware of the alleged scheme before the arrest, but said the suspect, Jorge Torres, 41, has no previous brushes with the law in Nevada.

Torres was released from Atlantic County jail on $25,000 cash bail late Monday after being arrested at about 2 a.m. that day. A New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement spokesman said Torres was apprehended as he approached a pickup truck filled with video equipment parked near the Bally's Park Place hotel-casino.

Torres was charged with possession of a cheating device, use of a cheating device and cheating at a casino game.

Keith Copher, chief of enforcement for the Nevada Gaming Control Board, said the fraud involves the use of video equipment to monitor the automatic shuffling machines that deal Caribbean stud, a table game also popular in several Las Vegas casinos.

Copher said authorities suspect a hidden camera was used to pick up images of cards as they ran through the shuffler and remote equipment was used to slow down the playback to identify cards before they were dealt. This information is then somehow relayed to players.

Copher said manufacturers of shufflers have been alerted to shield the shuffling mechanism to prevent card surveillance.

Keith Furlong of New Jersey's Division of Gaming Enforcement said state police confiscated a microcamera the suspect was carrying along with monitors, transmitting equipment and a satellite dish in the pickup truck.

Police suspect the suspect wasn't working alone, but no other arrests have been made.

"We were aware this arrest was made and aware of the details," said Mark Yoseloff, executive vice president of Las Vegas-based Shuffle Master Inc., the nation's largest manufacturer of card shuffling machines. "There's no question that they arrested someone that had a wealth of equipment."

Yoseloff said the shuffler performed as designed and there was no flaw in its operation.

"The solution we're looking at is rather low-tech and that is to block the view of the shuffler with a piece of black plastic," Yoseloff said.