A die slides, and so does the couple who slid it

By Rick Lax

Wednesday, Oct. 12, 2011 | 3:46 p.m.

They took the money and ran to Argentina. The money ($700,000) belonged to Steve Wynn, and they (Leonardo Fernandez and Veronica Dabul) won it at the craps table. Now, Wynn is saying they cheated. That they slid the dice.

Dice sliding is what it sounds like: You slide a die on the table as opposed to throwing it against the back wall. Ideally, a die will travel six or seven feet, crossing over the pass line but stopping short of the back wall. There’s more to it—you need somebody to distract the stickman and boxman—but it’s not that complex. Cheaters have been doing it for 80 years.

“I talked to some people at Wynn,” casino cheating expert Jason England says, “and I actually heard that these two weren’t that good. They weren’t experts. So it’s possible that the $700,000 figure wasn’t a direct result of the dice sliding. Maybe they just made some big bets, had some luck and then slid the dice a couple of times.”

But even if they were sliding dice, and even if the security cameras caught them doing it, it might be tough for Wynn to win his case. As England points out, any defense attorney worth his weight in $5 chips would make the argument, “The Wynn took their money on every losing roll.” Legally, that argument is irrelevant, but it could still have a strong psychological effect on the jury.

“Plus,” England adds, “these two are back in Argentina now. So good luck with that.”