Participant in slot cheating pleads guilty

Kim Smith

Wednesday, Sept. 22, 1999 | 10:56 a.m.

One of seven Las Vegans indicted in July in connection with a national slot machine scam that netted more than $5 million pleaded guilty Tuesday.

Charles Denton Clark pleaded guilty to one count of interstate transportation of stolen property, a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He is the only one of the seven to enter a plea agreement thus far.

According to court records, Clark, 38, acted as a blocker, lookout and chauffeur for his co-defendants. A blocker is a person who blocks the view of surveillance, security and slot personnel while slot machine cheaters target machines.

Clark received 10 percent to 20 percent of the stolen proceeds, court records show.

According to the FBI, members of the Metro Police Repeat Offenders Program received information that a group of people with prior convictions for cheating slot machines was operating again. Metro, the state Gaming Control Board and the FBI launched a joint investigation into the group's activities.

In July six Las Vegans, including Clark, were arrested on federal charges of interstate travel in aid of racketeering, interstate transportation of stolen property and money laundering. The seventh was arrested Tuesday.

Arrested along with Clark were Ramon David Pereira, 52, Lisa Jane Luxom, 30, Richard Allen Ealey, 45, Tommy Glenn Carmichael, 49, and Raul Ricardo Lescano, 40.

Clark was arrested when he called police to report a prowler, and the officers discovered a warrant for his arrest.

Michael Joseph Balsamo, 40, was arrested Tuesday night in Phoenix.

According to a search warrant application, group members were scamming casinos in the United States and Canada continuously from 1974 until 1998.

The members, who seldom held jobs, used everything from string, wires, magnets and coat hangers to build devices to defraud slot machines. They also "tilted" slot machines by using battery-operated, optical and electrically charged devices, the warrant application states.

Members of the group were "in the early stages of developing a computer-generated device that can defeat various slot machines without apparent tampering, possibly by remote control," the court record says.The FBI noted "these devices would cause serious financial losses to casinos in Nevada and the United States and could jeopardize the entire casino industry in the United States."

Investigators put the case together using at least two confidential informants, wiretaps and surveillance, court records show.

Subsequent searches of 12 Las Vegas homes resulted in the seizure of schematic drawings of cheating devices and slot machines that were reportedly used by the defendants to practice on.

At least one of the homes is believed to be a lab where the suspects designed, manufactured and tested their cheating devices.