Inside Asian Gaming

44 BY APPOINTMENT ONLY Avenida da Praia Grande, China Law Building GF, Macau Tel: 331521 spa fter twenty five years as a profes- sional casino cheat, Richard Marcus retired on New Year’s Eve in 1999. The casinos are still after him, but not with a view to claiming back their losses. Since his retirement, Mr Marcus has written four books on his exploits. He was inspired to tell his tale after watching the Steven Spielberg film “Catch Me If You Can,” based on the true story of legendary con artist and impersonator, Frank Abagnale, Jr (played by Leonardo DiCaprio). Like Frank Abagnale, Richard Marcus now consults for the very people who once It Takes a Cheat Armed with only “my hands, my brains and my balls,” Richard Marcus claims to have cheated casinos around the world out of US$20 million. Steve Karoul spoke to the man considered the world’s greatest casino cheat about his perfect record thwarting casino security sought to stop him. Unlike Mr Abagnale, however, Mr Marcus was never caught, and now that the statute of limitations on his mis- deeds has lapsed, he never will be. The following are excerpts from Steve Karoul’s interview with Richard Marcus about how he managed to cheat casinos from Las Vegas to Europe to Macau for so many years, and his current career educating casino staff on how to better protect their tables from people like himself: Steve Karoul: What did it take to become the world’s greatest casino cheat? Richard Marcus: Well, it was a combina- tion of three things: courage, brains and lack of greed. First and foremost, you have to overcome whatever fear you have of get- ting caught. Then you have to be intelligent enough to design and carry out creative casino cheating moves that work. Third, and certainly as important as the first two req- uisites, you have to know when to stop – in other words, don’t be greedy. The old say- ing about going to the well too many times applies to casino cheating as much as any- thing else. A