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INTRODUCTION

Masterminds tells real crime stories about amazing deceptions that brilliant criminals use to pull off seemingly impossible crimes. This new half-hour series. Dennis Nikrasch Over a 22-year period, Dennis Nikrasch cheated Las Vegas slot machines out of around $16 million. Using the tools and know-how he gained by working as a locksmith in Chicago, Nikrasch was able to open up a slot machine, place a computer chip inside that would help him win and close it up in less than a minute.

I’ve recently stumbled upon a Youtube video called, “Las Vegas: The Cat and Mouse Game-Cheating Vegas,” which I will link to here:

This video is brought to us by a documentary channel called, “TRACKS,” and has nearly 200,000 subscribers as of the time of this writing, so I decided to do a review so you can decide if the nearly 48 minutes is worth your time.

I should also mention that this documentary was very likely on TV, at some point. I believe this for two reasons:

According to the video description, TRACKS licensed the rights to this from an entity called CINEFLIX.
The length is about right for an hour long TV program with four three-minute sets of commercial breaks.

I almost never watch TV, though, but as you might expect, my Youtube recommendations frequently include gambling-related videos.

WHERE’S THE CHEATING?

The first thing I would want prospective viewers to know is that the title is pretty misleading, at least, if you’re somewhat gambling savvy. When I think of casino cheating, I think of past posting, marking cards, collusion, etc. etc.

The different segments covered in this include:

Counterfeit Casino Chips
Straight Armed Robbery
Dealer Collusion (Finally, Cheating!)
Slot Tampering

We’re going to go ahead and break each section of this down for this review, followed by my thoughts on each section. I’m going to give warning now that there ARE SPOILERS AHEAD, in fact, I’ll basically be saying what happens in each segment.

Erik Morikawa and Jeremy Lewis

The first section of the video deals with Erik Morikawa and Jeremy Lewis, two then construction workers who figured out a way to counterfeit casino chips.

Construction projects had dwindled in the Vegas area when Erik Morikawa drove past a casino billboard (featuring a high-denomination chip) and came up with the idea that chips ARE money to a casino and should be easier than money to counterfeit.

The original idea was just to straight up make counterfeit casino chips. Eventually, Morikawa, Lewis (and a handful of others) determined that it was hard to get the precise composite substance right that casino chips are made of. Casino chips are made of a unique combination of elements resulting in a particular weight, feel in the hands...and, of course, that light clacking sound that every table/poker player is so familiar with when dropped or clicked together.

The individuals working on the project became increasingly frustrated, particularly when they could match the weight but not get the chips to make the right sound. Honestly, it probably would have taken a chemist to reverse-engineer the precise composite of substances needed...not to mention the conditions needed to press them appropriately.

With exception to Morikawa and Lewis, all involved got frustrated and gave up on the venture. The remaining pair eventually hatched a plan to the extent that chips would be easier to modify than create from nothing. After all, it was creating the physical chip base that presented the biggest problem.

You can watch the video for yourself if you want more details, but eventually, the pair discovered that it was not difficult to get the inlay marking the casino and denomination out of the chips to be replaced with a new one. The new inlays were a simple matter of scanning them into a computer and printing them out on paper lined with plastic, then you basically just glue them in place. The question then became one of changing the physical chip itself.

Much like the inlays themselves, the colors were easy for a, “Close enough,” type match by trying different color combinations out and seeing what came out. They at least got them to the point that they would pass in low casino light as long as the chips weren’t examined ridiculously closely...and what casino employee has time to look at chips under a magnifying glass? You basically just needed the chips to be passable to the naked eyeball.

One problem was that some casinos had designs that would appear only under a black light. It turned out that these designs were relatively reproducible using only glow in the dark art supplies. Secondly, these designs seemed to be randomly positioned on the chips, (at least, for this casino) so that eliminated any need to have the location of the watermark be passable...it could basically be anywhere in the inlay.

The pair started off with three $100 chips that they were able to pass off at the cage easily enough. According to the documentary, they were able to convert some twenty chips per day from $1 denomination to $100...or whatever else they wanted.

They decided to go with, “Whatever else.”

Eventually, they reached the point where they were counterfeiting denominations as high as $1,000 chips. They ultimately decided that just coming in and cashing chips was going to look fishy, so they made the decision to, ‘Wash,’ the chips by cashing them in at table games and giving a little play. You might ask yourself: What’s the difference between going to the cage with unexplained chips and going to a table with unexplained high denomination chips?

At least, I asked myself that.

We now reach the point where, “Consider the source,” becomes important as the documentary only really talks to Morikawa and not Jeremy Lewis. Basically, Morikawa was living more-or-less in an under the radar way other than some lavish purchases outside of casinos. In the meantime, according to Morikawa, Lewis was partying it up in casino suites to the tune of several hundred dollars a light surrounding himself with ladies.

Eventually, Lewis would basically spill the beans on the operation to one of these ladies of questionable repute, whereas, Morikawa did not even disclose the source of this newfound money to his wife...not that she wanted to know.

This resourceful young woman would eventually blackmail the pair for money in exchange for not blabbing about their capers. As with most forms of blackmail, it started off reasonably small and got bigger. The problem with blackmail on an event like this is that it is information-based blackmail that does not involve a physical item...such as a videotape.

In other words, the dirt never disappears. You give the blackmailer money, but the blackmailer still has something on you.

The boyfriend of the blackmailer eventually found himself in some trouble, and apparently, this young lady was able to roll on the pair in order to help him out. It’s not really made clear what one situation had to do with the other.

Bail for the pair was initially set at five million bucks, but later reduced to $12,000. During his time in jail, Morikawa would become acquainted with some other criminal types who he agreed to teach how to do what he did in exchange for a cut.

Morikawa would be caught again later on down the line and would be sentenced to five years of probation and to make restitution of $36,000. This was quite a deal considering Morikawa places the total in counterfeit chips cashed at about a million dollars.

From this, RFID (Radio Frequency ID) chips would make their way into casino chips so that they can at least be tracked until they leave the casino. Counterfeit high-denomination chips would either not have such a chip at all, or will have one that doesn’t match up quite right.

TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS SEGMENT

The first thing that we have going on is greed. They may well still be cashing $100 counterfeit chips to this day if they had been reasonable, spread it around and were willing to somewhat limit their weekly/monthly take. People travel to Vegas with tens of thousands of dollars with some frequency, so for most casinos, no cage is going to bat an eye at a couple or three hundred dollar chips.
I think that the pair also, “Outsmarted themselves,” because washing the chips by playing game seems completely unnecessary...particularly so if they had just stuck to hundreds. In my opinion, this just adds time in the casino and results in more people physically deal

2021.03