Something just didn’t look right. Casino security expert and consultant Sal “The Hitman” Piacente and his wife were working at a property in Australia, and a dealer looked as if he was trying to pull off a false shuffle – literally trying to stack the deck in a certain way. The situation was fishy in the poker tournament, and Sal Piacente kept an eye on the action. 

Sal “The Hitman” Piacante

“After a few hands, we noticed the dealer was trying to pull off a scam where they would make it look like they were shuffling the cards, but in fact, they were keeping the order of the cards the same,” he says. “They must have been working with a partner.”

His wife Dee recorded the actions on her cell phone and went upstairs to inform the security team.

“They said, ‘Sal, you’ve been here three days, and you’ve already caught a false shuffle scam!'” he says. “They couldn’t spot it at first, but after viewing my wife’s footage, they realized what was happening. I don’t know what happened to that particular employee, but that’s the kind of thing I keep an eye out for.”

Piacante has been monitoring players for more than two decades, catching cheaters and helping casinos beef up their security. He recently spoke with Skillset about his life in gambling and his fascination with cheating and scams. Sal Piacente shared some valuable insights.

Getting the Game

Anyone who’s visited a casino – or seen the movie Casino – knows that these gambling houses run a tight ship when it comes to security. Card counters are eighty-sixed, and cheaters can face lengthy prison sentences. Yet cheating costs properties tens of millions of dollars each year.

Not many know the ins and outs of casino security like Sal Piacente – from both sides of the table. He began his casino career in Atlantic City, working as a blackjack dealer. He went on to work as a shift manager, game protection specialist, floor supervisor, surveillance, and was also a player. The Brooklyn native became fascinated with “card mechanics” and other cheating skills at an early age.

“My involvement with casinos started with my father when he showed me the three-card Monte scam, where the victim is tricked into betting money on finding the money card among three face-down cards,” he says. “That was my first introduction to basic scams.

“Then, when we went to Vegas when I was 13, I fell in love with the casinos and the Strip. This is back in the days of the real Strip with the Rat Pack. I fell in love with the industry, and I knew instantly it was going to be my life.”

Catching Cheaters

Looking to spot a cheater switching cards? How about someone attempting to put rigged dice into play at the craps table? Piacante is your guy when it comes to busting professional cheats. Sal Piacente possesses incredible skills for this.

As a game protection expert, he’s seen it all, and casinos line up to have him train their staff on what to watch for. What are some things to determine if someone is cheating?

“The first thing that makes me take a look at a person is if they’re consistently winning,” he says. “Obviously, people have to win. You want people to win because they’re going to come back, and they’re going to tell their friends, and you’re going to bring more people in. But in this business, as I explain to everyone in my seminars, people lie. Math does not lie and will never let you down. 

“If someone’s winning consistently and they’re playing foolishly and always guessing right, there’s something wrong. I then have to figure out what that is.”

Going High-Tech

In the old days, cheaters used sleight of hand, loaded dice, and even slugs to play slots. Modern technology has now reshaped casinos’ concerns. For example, two men were arrested in France earlier this year. They allegedly used tiny cameras in their cell phones to capture images of the cards while they were dealt at blackjack and poker tables. Security teams have also upped the ante on the tech side, says Sal Piacente.

“Technology definitely plays a major role in cheating, but that’s also common on the surveillance side,” Piacante says. “They’re using things like biometrics and facial recognition, but on the cheater’s side, the cameras are getting smaller while computers are getting faster.

Sal picante on Cellphones

“Some poker players are taking a seat at the table with what looks like a regular iPhone, and if you put your SIM card in there, guess what? It acts like a regular cell phone. You can take pictures, film videos, make phone calls, you can do whatever you want. However, with this phone, once you turn it on, you can put a secret code in and essentially put it into cheating mode. It will transmit via an earpiece which hand on the table will be the strongest before any cards have been dealt.”

Piacante says the devices are being sold on the black market and have been found in both high-stakes and low-stakes games.

“The cards are marked invisibly on the side with a barcode, so as soon as the cards are shuffled and cut, and the camera reads them, it knows who will win,” he adds. “It can also tell you the order of the cards, so it can work for blackjack as well. It will tell you the suit and value of the card.

“It all goes right to the earpiece via Bluetooth, and it’s very difficult for anybody else in the venue to notice. Even if phones are banned from the table, the cheater can put the fake phone in their pocket and transmit to it via a watch. Sal Piacente explains how challenging it is to detect these scams.”

Communication is Key

Not all cheating is high-tech. Players often work in teams, communicating subtly to score cash from a casino. What do players not realize about security, and what’s all going on behind the scenes?

“In casino and poker, cheaters very rarely act alone, and it’s almost always two people in collusion,” he says. “A common example of this would be where players can communicate with each other via a code describing what hand they have.

“When I worked surveillance and was an observer, we hardly paid attention to poker. The only thing the house cares about with poker is the rake. However, you never want the integrity of your room to be questioned.”

Sal Piacente and his wife are launching a YouTube series focusing on game protection, scams, and cheating. The pair also hopes to dispel casino myths, such as that card counting is illegal (it’s not, but casinos can remove players from the property).

As long as scammers look to “win” money from casinos illegally, Piacente will have a job. He brings plenty of first-hand experience.

“It’s tough to get qualified or knowledgeable help,” he says of the industry. “We teach dealers how to deal fast and promote them just as quickly. In the U.S., we have many supervisors who have never dealt with a game in their lives. And I’ll be honest if you’ve never dealt roulette and you’ve never dealt craps, good luck watching it.”

Sal Piacente was speaking to Skillset on behalf of OLBG Casino Sites.