The Griffin Book contains a list of names of people that are excluded from all gambling venues in Nevada, and over the years some of the biggest fraudsters, cheats and scam artists have found their names added to that book.
It is certainly a book which no casino fraudster wants to get themselves listed in, for it will bring about a very quick end to their visits to any gambling venue, and one person has just had their name added to that book, due to a well-executed scam which was finally uncovered.
That person is Mark Branco, and along with several over people he planned and pulled off a scam during August of 2012 and July 2014 which saw them cheat the Bellagio Casino Resort out of a huge $1.2million.
Branco and his team were finally uncovered when it became apparent that collective bets placed on the Craps table on the gaming floor at the Bellagio Casino by the team members had massive odds stacked against their success.
In fact, a thorough investigation discovered that the bets they placed had a ridiculous chance of success of 452 billion to 1, and those huge odds led to the discovery of their scam.
Having been charged and convicted of cheating, Branco received a jail term of between four to ten years. The modus operandi of their scam was that Branco, one of the Bellagio Dealers, would place phantom hop bets for team members, which is basically a verbal instruction to place a bet by a player which the dealer then places that bet for that player.
Obviously no verbal bet was requested by the team members, but Branco would place a bet onto the Craps table once the results were known, hence guaranteeing a winning pay-out for his team.
