Ever since gambling was invented, people began searching for ways to beat the system. Let’s face it, there are few methods of ensuring that you triumph over a chance-based game that can be considered orthodox. In other words, you can either find means to minimize your losses and continue playing more hands (or in this cases spins) in order to boost your odds of winning or you can cheat.

The difference between the two strategies is that the latter is illegal and most casinos would not hesitate to throw you out if you get caught. And they will wise up to you sooner or later. In the early days of casinos, a person could effectively cheat only using his wits and sleight of hand. The problem nowadays resides in the fact that the surveillance systems are everywhere and they cover 99.9% of the play area. Therefore, even for famous cheaters like Richard Marcus, the attempts would be short lived.

Photo credits: John Wardell (Netinho)

You probably guessed by now that my guide refers strictly at land based casinos. If you thought cheating at roulette here is difficult, then you should know that you have absolutely no chance to apply the following strategies in the online version of the roulette. Why? Simply because the software handles the rolling and the betting automatically, determining whether or not you won based on a predefined set of rules.

Since there is no human factor involved, there is nobody to trick! Sure, you could hack into their system if you are a computer genius for instance, but that no longer classifies as cheating. The best thing you can hope for is noticing the flaws and/or patterns of the application’s behavior, but that takes a keen eye and extensive experience. Without digressing further in this direction, let’s find out a bit on the classical methods utilized in cheating at roulette.

Richard Marcus’ trademark move, the Savannah trick   

Remember when I mentioned Richard Marcus earlier as being one of the most famous experts on cheating the casino at the game of roulette? Well, in doing so he practically invented certain moves, out of which the Savannah one remained the most popular. The Savannah move is both simple and brilliant, but believe me when I say that the video surveillance system makes it very difficult to apply. After all the guy supervising the monitors knows where to look.

This trick implies having two chips with completely distinct values. One of them is the highest value chip that the casino has, while the other is the lowest. In the Savannah move, you will need to position the high value chip underneath the low value one and utilize your sleight of hand to extract it in the eventuality that your spin was unsuccessful. Are you fast enough to avoid getting caught performing the Savannah move?

Top hatting has nothing to do with being a gentleman

For this one, you are going to need inside help, meaning that the dealer has to be in on it. While he benefits from less direct attention compared to the players (especially if he has worked for the casino for an extensive period) you will probably have a hard time convincing the dealer to aid you. So what is top hatting all about?

You basically have to continue making small bets so that you don’t waste your resources on unsuccessful spins. However, when you do win, the dealer places additional chips on your betting area, maximizing your profit. This is not as lucrative as the Savannah move because in order to avoid getting caught, dealers typically add only a few extra chips. Otherwise, the high gains are very likely to draw the attention, particularly when there is a noticeable pattern involved.

Sliding the chips   

Another roulette cheat that was basically killed by the introduction of the video surveillance systems, sliding the chips is all about distractions and quickness. The idea of the trick was to have another person draw the attention of the dealer when the roulette stops spinning, while the player relocates the position of the chips according to the result. However, you can imagine that nowadays you simply cannot avoid getting caught if you attempt this stunt unless you can find the dead angle of the camera, which is highly unlikely.

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Hello, I’m Chad and my favorite place to try my luck is at Casino Mate, but I also love blogging about the mysterious world of chance games!